Scientific update
Scientific achievements
The principal vehicle of the Water Program (WAT) is the initiative on Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS): World Water Scenarios.
This new initiative aims to enable science-based policy formulation and informed decision making in the face of increasing uncertainty and growing water challenges around the world.
In the domain of agriculture, water problems like absent or unreliable water supply, poor sanitation or irrigation services, unmitigated floods and droughts, or degraded water environments, are also addressed by WAT through special projects using advanced modeling tools and methodologies.
Water Futures and Solutions Initiative
The Water (WAT) Program carried out fast-track analysis for the IIASA Futures Initiative, the Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS), completing a first set of multi-model quantified scenarios of water demand in 2014 that focused on the domestic, industrial, and energy sectors. More
Sustaining and improving rural livelihoods in India
The collaborative project, Sustaining and Improving Rural Livelihoods through Adaptive Approaches to Land, Soil Nutrient and Water Management, covers three geographically distinct but thematically related research projects in India, with the focus in 2014 on Gujarati. Exchange visits of IIASA and Indian institutions are building the basis of the integrated project cluster on sustaining and improving rural livelihoods. More
Resource use evaluation of land footprint indicators
The Water (WAT) Program implemented a hybrid accounting approach for tracking land and other resources along global supply chains, extending the IIASA model LANDFLOW. More
Land use efficiency and security in China
The Water (WAT) Program carried out methodological development and socioeconomic analysis for the “Integrated Analysis and Modelling of Land Use Efficiency and Security under Rapid Agricultural Transformation in China” in Chongqing, Southwest China; the work was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC). More
Threats to freshwater resources and human water security
In 2014 the Water (WAT) Program worked on a project to improve the current understanding of the geography of water-related ecosystem services, while accounting for both biophysical and economic controls on services; it will also assess how new management strategies can enhance the resilience of the global water system over a 100-year time frame. More
Global agro-ecological zones and FAO-GAEZ data portal
Following up on a widely acknowledged and highly successful release of the global agro-ecological zones (GAEZ v3) data portal by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and IIASA in 2012, the Water (WAT) Program in 2014 continued to collaborate with FAO to update data and extend model components in preparation of data portal GAEZ v4 scheduled for release in 2015. More
Renewable energy and sustainability of biofuels
The Water (WAT) Program worked on a project on Progress in Renewable Energy and Biofuels Sustainability (PREBS14) which provides the analytical basis for monitoring, assessing, and evaluating the evolution of 27 European Union member states in implementing the RES Directive, based on a detailed analysis of the progress reports submitted by each of the EU member states. More
Flood resilience management
In 2014 the Water (WAT) program collaborated with the Risk, Policy and Vulnerability (RPV) Program, and the Zurich Flood Resilience Program on a project to enhance community flood resilience. More
Transboundary Water Resources: Environmental Governance, USA-Mexico
The Water (WAT) Program helped develop comparative approaches to the environmental governance of transboundary water resources along Rio Grande/Río Bravo Basin and the Colorado River Basin, which forms the national border between the United States and Mexico. More