Water Futures and Solutions

On 4-5 February 2013 the Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS): World Water Scenarios Initiative was launched at IIASA. Jointly organized by IIASA and its partners in cooperation with the Austrian Government, the meeting was attended by around 80 participants from government and non-government organizations, the business sector, and academia.

The WFaS platform will be used to formulate needs and priority areas for global water governance. An agreement was reached on a shared vision to develop a stakeholder-driven set of global water scenarios that are consistent with recent global efforts on energy and climate change and explore robust solutions for managing water under different future development pathways. 

Since the launch meetings have been held of the scientific Project Team, the Initiative’s Interim Governing Board, and the Scenario Focus Group (stakeholder group) to  refine the Initiative’s priorities, direction, and methods. 

Additional meetings have been held with partners to develop case studies. Side-events and presentations on WFaS have been delivered at the major global water forums throughout 2013, and a wide range of associated reports and journal articles have been produced: 

• World Water Day,  21 March, Washington DC
• 7th World Water Forum Kick-off Meeting, May, Seoul, South Korea
• Global Water System Project (GWSP) Conference, May, Bonn, Germany
• Austrian Development Agency Annual Meeting, August, Vienna, Austria
• World Water Week, September, Stockholm, Sweden
• Budapest Water Summit, October, Budapest, Hungary

WFaS also assimilates ongoing work in other WAT projects that provide detailed analysis of important issues across the climate, water, food, energy, and ecosystems nexus.  

Last edited: 22 May 2014