Background of the Conference:

The increased awareness of the potential impact of global change on the hydrological cycle is reflected in many recent international research initiatives. Without attempting to be complete the following networks and projects are mentioned:

• HELP: An initiative of UNESCO’s IHP, HELP is a network of river basins that seeks to bring together water scientists, managers, and policy makers. The main emphasis lies on ensuring that scientific results can be used to solve real and acute problems.
• GLOWA: A German programme, funded by BMBF, in which research groups investigate the impact of global change on large watersheds in Europe and Africa (Elbe, Danube, Drâa, Jordan, Ouémé, and Volta). The main innovation in this programme is the strongly integrated character of the research.
• Global Water System Project - former Joint Water Project: A cooperative programme of the major global change programmes, IGBP, WCRP, IHDP, and DIVERSITAS, seeks to address the increasingly global scope of water problems in an interdisciplinary way.
• Challenge Programme on Food and Water: A major research programme, organized by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), consists of a large number of research projects in nine large watersheds in the developing world.
• Dialogue on Water and Climate: A network that aims to improve the capacity in water resources management to cope with the impacts of increasing variability of the world's climate.

In different ways, all these activities try to avert qualitative and quantitative depletion of humanity’s vulnerable water resources in the near future. The conference seeked to bring together water scientists and managers with complimentary backgrounds to exchange views, ideas, and experiences. Special emphasis is put on information flows between the developed and developing world.The main objective of the conference was to analyse the challenges that are encountered in the integrated assessment and management of water resources in large river basins.

Objective and themes of the conference:

The main objective of the conference was to analyze the challenges that are encountered in the integrated assessment and management of water resources in large river basins in the context of global change. By bringing together scientists and managers from North and South, it was expected that international research efforts concerning water related issues will be translated into more practical methods and coherent approaches. At the conference, the following themes were addressed:

- Water resource data: How can large datasets, originating from different scientific disciplines, be managed and translated into useful information? How can we deal with data gaps, especially in the often data-poor South ?

- Stakeholders: Although it is generally bon mot to include stakeholders in proposals for watershed research and analysis,there are many practical and methodological problems associated with stakeholder involvement. How are stakeholders consulted ? How can communication be improved and how does this differ between countries in the North and South ?

- Scaling: How can we deal with the increased number and complexity of water relevant processes wqithin the boundaries of river basins? What are they challenges in integrating bio-physical and socio-economical factors?

- Integration: Social and political processesdominate the distribution and relative availability of water at the level of river basins, yet the absolute water availability depends of such physical factors as climate, soils, and vegetation. How can we integrate social and physical factors that affect the distribution and availability of water in river basins ?

- Water science and policy interactions: How does science influence policy at regional, national and global level? How to ensure that relevant scientific information reaches decision makers in appropriate form ?

- Summary of International Water Programs: How do the different global water initiatives contribute to the integrated assessment and management of water resources in river basins ?

Outputs of the Conference:

All presentations, abstracts of the Conference are available at http://131.220.78.1/gwsp/conference/index.html