Science for a water secure world in a changing environment - scientific side event

This event aims to discuss and shape the science contribution to UNESCO’s water strategy for 2022-2029, entitled “Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment” (IHP-IX), which was recently adopted by Member States. It will also feed into the scientific agenda of the United Nations Water Conference 2023. It will take place on 25 April 2022, just before the 25th session of the Intergovernmental Council of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP).

Water-related extreme events, such as floods and droughts, are increasing in frequency and intensity, and have reduced food and water security, hindering efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, according to the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (2022). The report also expressed high confidence that the projected changes in the water cycle, water quality, cryosphere changes, and increases in droughts and floods will negatively impact natural and human systems.

To address those challenges, UNESCO takes action within the framework of its Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme’s 9th phase (2022-2029): Science for a Water Secure World in a changing Environment. It seeks to ensure that “By 2029, the Member States have the knowledge, sound scientific and research capacity, new and improved technologies, and the management skills that allow them to secure water resources for human development and healthy of ecosystems within a sustainable development context.”

This special side event is organized by the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) prior to the 25th Ordinary Session of the IHP’s Intergovernmental Council. It will be structured around three panels, preceded by two opening keynotes.

Registration is free and open to all. Participation in this hybrid event can either be in-person at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, or online via Zoom.

Simultaneous interpretation will be available in English and French.

The discussion will contribute to the implementation of UNESCO's IHP-IX water strategy and the scientific agenda of the United Nations Water Conference 2023. It is also aligned with the UNESCO recommendation on Open Science and it will contribute to the dialogue regarding the application of this important instrument to improving knowledge, decision-making and water-related issues.

09:30-10:00 Welcome coffee

10:00-10:40 Opening session

Opening:        

• Ms Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO
• Mr Zhongbo Yu Chairperson, Professor, Hohai University, Chinese National Committee for IHP, IHP Council Chairperson

Keynotes: Scientific frontiers and 2030 Water Challenges

• Mr András Szöllősi-Nagy
  Professor, Department of Water and Environmental Policy, Faculty of Water Sciences, National University of Public Service-Budapest, Hungary
• Mr Taikan Oki
  Special Advisor to President, University of Tokyo, Japan

Moderator:      
Mr Abou Amani, Director of the Division of Water Sciences, Secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, UNESCO

10:40-12:00 Science Policy Panel

• Ms Akiça Bahari
  Advisor to the Chief of Government of Tunisia, Tunisia
• Mr András Szöllősi-Nagy
  Professor, Department of Water and Environmental Policy, Faculty of Water Sciences, National University of Public Service-Budapest, Hungary
• Mr Olcay Ünver
  Professor, Arizona State University, former Vice-Chair of UN-Water, USA
• Mr Tom Soo
  Director, International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), USA
• Representative of Mr. Johannes Cullmann
  Director, Cross-Cutting Coordination Water and Cryosphere, WMO (TBC)
• Mr Hans Carel Wesseling
  Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to UNESCO, Netherlands
• Mr Eric Tardieu
  Secretary General, International Water Resources Association (IWRA), France
• Mr Abderamane Issa Himet
  Water Quality and Quantity Expert, Lake Chad Basin Commission, Chad
• Ms Janine Muzau
  Policy Officer for International Water Policy and Cooperation German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMU), Germany (online)

Moderator: Ms Alice Aureli, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO
Rapporteur: Mr Simone Grego, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO

12:00-13:00 Water Education and Capacity Development Panel

• Ms Awa Niang Fall
  Professor, University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Senegal
• Mr Eddy Moors
  Rector, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Kingdom of the Netherlands (online)
• Berit Arheimer
  Head of Hydrological Research, President, International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), Sweden (TBC)
• Mr Will Logan
  Director, International Center for Integrated Water Resources management (ICIWaRM), USA
• Mr Eric Servat
  Director, International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Water Systems Dynamics (ICIReWarD), France
• Mr Neno Kukurić
  Co-coordinator UN-Water Task Force on World Water Day and Groundwater Summit, International Groundwater Resources Assessment Center (IGRAC), Netherlands (online)

Moderator:      Mr Abou Amani, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO
Rapporteur:     Ms Sarantuyaa Zandaryaa and Mr Jorge Ellis, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO

13:00-14:30 Lunch break

14:30-15:45 Scientific Research and Innovation Panel

• Mr Taikan Oki
  Special Advisor to President, University of Tokyo, Japan
• Mr Christophe Cudennec
  Secretary General, International Association of Scientific Hydrology (IAHS), France
• Ms Ann Van Griensven
  Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium
• Mr Maciej Zalewski
  Director, European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology (ERCE), Poland
• Ms Nilay Dogulu
  Early Career Scientist Representative for IAHS, Turkey (online)
• Ms Magali Garcia Cardenas
  Researcher at the Institute for Agricultural and Natural Resources Research, Bolivia (online)
• Mr Mark Smith
  Director General, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka (online)

Moderator: Mr Anil Mishra, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO
Rapporteur : Mr Koen Verbist, IHP Secretariat, UNESCO

15:45-16:00 Closing remarks

• Mr Abou Amani
  

  Director of the Division of Water Sciences
  Secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, UNESCO

16:00 Closing Coffee

Ms Shamila Nair-Bedouelle
Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO

• More information

Mr Zhongbo Yu
Chairperson, Professor, Hohai University
Chinese National Committee for IHP, IHP Council Chairperson

Dr. Yu received his PhD from Ohio State University in 1996. He is a Distinguished Professor of High-Level Talents Program of China and Chair Professor of Cheung Kong Scholars Program at Hohai University in China, where he was also Dean of the College of Hydrology and Water Resources and currently is the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering.

Dr. Yu has extensive research and teaching experience in climate change, hydrology, and water resources. He has completed over 50 research projects including grants funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), National Key R&D Program of China, National Science Funds for Creative Research Groups of China, the program of Dual Innovative Talents Plan and Innovative Research Team in Jiangsu Province, National Natural Science Foundation of China, and National Science Foundation of America. He has published more than 300 SCI papers, over 30 patents, and 5 monographs. His book chapter-Hydrology: modeling and prediction-was included in the Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Science and his hydrology model system (HMS) was collected in large watershed models.

Dr. Yu has received a number of awards for excellence in research and teaching. He was awarded with the National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology 2015, with the First Prize of Dayu Water Science and Technology 2013 and 2016, with the John Hem Award of United States National Groundwater Association 2015, and many more. He is a fellow of Geological Society of America. He is the president of UNESCO IHP, vice chair of Chinese National Committee of IAHS, chair of IAHR groundwater committee, editors of Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology and many more.

Mr Abou Amani

Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), UNESCO

Mr Amani became Director of the Division of Water Sciences and Secretary of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP)on 1 March 2021 after serving as Director ad interim since June 2020. He joined UNESCO in 2006 as Natural Sciences Programme Specialist and served in UNESCO Field Offices in Accra and Nairobi before becoming chief of Section within the Division of Water Sciences in 2016, and then Chief Executive Officer of the Natural Sciences Sector in 2019. Before joining UNESCO, he worked at AGRHYMET in Niamey for more than eight years as Regional Hydrologist, Head of Water Unit and Scientific Coordinator. He worked for three years for the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) as researcher and visiting scientist. He has been member and contributor of various committees, initiatives, panels for among others: the World Water Council (WWC),IPCC and the World Water Development Report (WWDR. He has many years of experience in research and teaching and he is the author of more than 50 scientific papers. He holds a PhD in civil engineering from Polytechnic Montreal in Canada(July 1995) and he is a civil engineer who graduated from the Ecole de Polytechnique de Thiès, in Senegal (June 1990). He also holds the title of “Maître de recherche” which is equivalent to senior researcher or Associate Professor delivered by CAMES (African Higher Education Council).

Mr András Szöllősi-Nagy
Professor, Department of Water and Environmental Policy
Faculty of Water Sciences, Hungary

Dr. Szöllösi-Nagy is a Professor at the National University of Public Service (NUPS) in Hungary. He served in UNESCO for more than 25 years, first as the Secretary of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP) then as Deputy Assistant Director General for Sciences in Paris and later as Rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands. Dr. Szöllösi-Nagy is a recipient of several major international awards, and he also served as Governor of the World Water Council and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Council of IHP. Currently he is Chair of the International Sustainable Water Futures Programme, Brisbane, Australia.

Mr Taikan Oki
Special Advisor to President
University of Tokyo, Japan

Prof. Oki demonstrated the connections between the global hydrologic cycle, renewable freshwater resources, climate change, the global economy, and sustainability in his 2006 paper in Science. He was one of the coordinating lead authors for Chapter 3 “Freshwater Resources” of the IPCC WGII AR5, and the Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University, Japan, and an Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations for 2016-2021. He is a full member of the Club of Rome since 2021, the first Japanese AGU Fellow in its Hydrology Section, and the winner of 2021 International Hydrology Prize (Dooge medal).

Ms Akiça Bahari
Advisor to the Chief of Government of Tunisia, Tunisia

Akiça Bahri is Advisor to the Chief of Government. She served as Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries. She has worked in water resources management and water reuse in various capacities such as Professor at INAT, Coordinator of the AWF, Director for Africa at IWMI; and as Director of Research at INRGREF. She holds a Ph.D. from Lund University, Sweden. She has authored several papers and has received international honors.

Mr Olcay Ünver
Professor, Arizona State University,
former Vice-Chair of UN-Water, USA

Olcay Ünver is  currently Professor of Practice at Environmental and Resource Management Program at Arizona State University, member of Water Policy Group and  Industry Fellow at Australian Rivers Institute. He serves as a senior advisor to Food and  Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UNESCO.

In his public service career spanning over three decades, Dr. Ünver led FAO’s water programs and activities, UN-Water’s World Water Assessment Programme and UNESCO’s Program Office on Global Water Assessment. He served as Vice-Chair of UN-Water from 2018 to 2020.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr. Ünver was a distinguished professor of water resources at Kent State University, Ohio and President of the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey, where he transformed a large infrastructure project into a sustainable socioeconomic development program. In 1999, Time Magazine listed him among the 19 “European Visionaries” and New York Times featured him for his efforts towards sustainable, human-centered development. He holds awards and recognitions that include World Water Council Medal of Service and International Water Resources Association’s (IWRA) Milennium Award.

Dr. Ünver served on boards and committees involving water and land resources, sustainable development, sustainable food and agriculture systems, water cooperation and policy. He was Secretary General and Vice President of IWRA, and Governor and Treasurer of World Water Council. He is a NATO Science Fellow, TÜBİTAK Honor Fellow and IWRA Fellow.

Mr Tom Soo, Director
International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), USA

Mr Soo has previously been Executive Director of IWRA as well as the World Water Council.  He has a background in consulting to international institutions, public authorities, academia, and private industry. Tom’s current focus areas include institutional arrangements, science policy interface; hydraulics for sustainable development; climate change adaption, carbon neutral pathways, digital water futures, nature-based-solutions, innovation, education and capacity building. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership, the Executive Board of IWRA and chairs the International Advisory Committee of the UNSW Global Water Institute.

Mr Eric Tardieu
Secretary General, International Water Resources Association (IWRA), France (online)

Eric Tardieu is the Permanent Technical Secretary of the International Network of Basin Organizations (INBO), and director general of the International Office for Water (OiEau) since 2017.

He’s an Environmental Engineering, graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, prestigious post-graduate multidisciplinary engineering French school, with a PhD in membrane filtration applied to urban wastewater treatment. He served for French Ministries of Agriculture and Environment as a water policy officer, applying and managing national and European regulations. He then held successive responsible positions in the public sector for national (Ministry of Industry), regional (Normandy region) and local authorities (Toulouse), implementing policy regulations, designing multi-stakeholders strategies and plans of measures. He has been engaged not only in the field of water resources management and environmental protection, but also public policies for innovation, research and public private partnerships or European and international co-operations.

Mr Abderamane Issa Himet
Water Quality and Quantity Expert
Lake Chad Basin Commission, Chad

Born in 1975 in N'Djamena - Chad, Prof. Abderamane Hamit is currently an expert in water quantity and quality at the Lake Chad Basin Commission. He is particularly interested in understanding the functioning of aquifers and their relations with the various rivers and lakes of the Lake Chad Basin. His mission is to develop and manage appropriate monitoring systems to ensure better monitoring of the water resource, such as the Lake Chad Basin Water Quality Monitoring Portal developed jointly by the LCBC and UNESCO.

Ms Janine Muzau
Policy Officer for International Water Policy and Cooperation, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMU), Germany (online)

Janine has over ten years of experience in water policy and implementation on all levels of governance, addressing a wide range of issues such as sustainable access to drinking water, sanitation and wastewater management, integrated water resources management and the water-climate-ecosystems nexus. She worked in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Germany.

Ms Awa Niang Fall
Professor, University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Senegal

Awa NIANG is Associated Professor on Continental Hydrology at UCAD. She participates on various projects and programs dealing with IWRM, remote sensing, coastal studies. She contributes to the design, implementation and management of the Doctorate School on Water Quality and Uses that leads NEPAD’s West African network of Centers of Excellence on Water Sciences and Technologies. She is leading the doctoral formations on Continental Hydrology, IWRM and Coastal Governance. Since September 2020, she involves as Director of Internal Quality Assurance Unit of the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.

Mr Eddy Moors, Rector
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands (online)

Prof. Dr. Eddy Moors is Rector of IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education. He is also professor “Water and Climate” at VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Moors started his career at the World Meteorological Organization in Africa and the Caribbean. Before coming to Delft, he worked at Wageningen University and Research.

Moors is among others president of the Global Network of Water Museums, member of the board of trustees of the Just Digit Foundation and member of the SENSE research school. He is associate editor of “Environmental Science and Policy” as well as member of the editorial board of “Climate Services”.

Mr Will Logan
Director, International Center for Integrated Water Resources management (ICIWaRM), USA

Will Logan directs the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) in Virginia, USA.

Previously, Will was Science Attaché for the U.S. Mission to UNESCO, Senior Staff Officer at the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, and Assistant Professor at George Washington University. He authored the 2020 report “Managed Aquifer Recharge and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers”.

Will has an M.A. from the University of Texas (geology) and a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo (hydrogeology). He serves on the governing boards of UNESCO “category 2” water centers in Chile and Germany.

Mr Eric Servat
Director, International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Water Systems Dynamics (ICIReWarD), France

Eric Servat is a hydrologist by training. He has been very interested in the relationship between global changes and water resources, first in Africa and then in the Mediterranean region.

He has extensive experience in high-level management and leadership in the field of research and has been involved in many national and international structures.

He was the Director of the HydroSciences Montpellier Laboratory between 2001 and 2014. After having created the Montpellier Institute of Water and Environment (IM2E) in 2015, he is currently the Director of the recently created UNESCO International Centre on Water (ICIREWARD) in Montpellier. He was Vice President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences between 2015 and 2019, and President of the French Committee for Hydrological Sciences from 2013 to 2020. He also coordinates the Key Water Initiative of the University of Montpellier. He has coordinated several international programs, including a partnership with UNESCO's Intergovernmental Hydrological Program and its FRIEND-Water project.

Concerned with strengthening and developing links between the academic and socio-economic spheres, he has been Vice President of the Water Competitiveness Cluster (Aqua-Valley) since 2012.

Mr Neno Kukurić
Co-coordinator UN-Water Task Force on World Water Day and Groundwater Summit, International Groundwater Resources Assessment Center (IGRAC), Netherlands (online)

Dr Neno Kukurić is a hydrogeologist with > 30 years of experience gained worldwide, working as a field hydrogeologist, consultant, scientific researcher and project manager. His professional interest is international water cooperation and application of informed management, encompassing technical, socio-economical, institutional and political aspects of water-related issues. From 2011 until 2022, he served as a director of IGRAC. In 2022, Neno Kukurić is co-coordinating the UN-Water Task Force on World Water Day and Groundwater Summit

Mr Christophe Cudennec
Secretary General, International Association of Scientific Hydrology (IAHS), France

Christophe Cudennec has 25 years of experience in hydrology and management of related resources, demands, territories, risks and interfaces across a variety of hydroclimate and geographic settings. He is currently a Professor at the French national Institut Agro in Rennes. He had extensive international experience including 1.5 years in Iceland, 3.5 years in Tunisia, and research/capacity development projects in many regions throughout the world. Since 2011, he is the Secretary General of the IAHS – the International Association of Hydrological Sciences – facilitating worldwide scientific cooperation, knowledge exchange and outreach, and interacting with various global and UN programs and policy processes

Mr Maciej Zalewski
Director, European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology (ERCE), Poland

Professor Maciej Zalewski is the Director of the European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology u/a UNESCO Polish Academy of Sciences, founder Chairman of UNESCO Chair of Ecohydrology and Applied Ecology at the University of Lodz (1991-2020) and chief editor of “Ecohydrology&Hydrobiology” journal. His areas of expertise are: 1) Use of Ecosystem Processes in River and Lake Basins for Reduction of various forms of human impact and enhancement of water ecosystems services, biodiversity and resilience (Euthorphication, Toxic Algal Blooms, Sedimentation) and; 2) Restoration of Water and Ecosystem Resources in Urbanized Spaces for Economic Development, Human Health and Quality of Life Improvement.

He has been one of the leading experts in UNESCO in ecohydrology since 1989. In the years 1996-2006, and from 2010, he is the leader of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UNESCO in the programme “Ecohydrology” (International Hydrological Programme, IHP). He has been also an expert for the European Commission and has coordinated national and international research projects. Recently, professor Zalewski has been elected as the Vice-Chairmen of the European Partnership “Water Security for the Planet (Water4All)” in the framework of Horizon Europe.

Professor Zalewski is the author of a novel concept of Ecohydrology which is the basis for the methodology of “Nature-Based Solutions”, that is recently being developed by the United Nations. He is an author of over 170 publications in journals and books. In 2020, he has been recognised in the 2% of most cited scientists in the world, according to the joined database of Stanford University, SciTech Strategies and Elsevier.

Ms Nilay Dogulu
Early Career Scientist Representative for IAHS, Turkey

Nilay Dogulu is a keen enthusiast for science-informed operational hydrology, with a MSc in Flood Risk Management and BSc in Civil Engineering. Her experience in hydrological research and flood risk consultancy contributed to her diverse background in disaster risk management for multiple hazards (floods, droughts, tsunamis) across national & international levels, and shaped her vision on transdisciplinary work to support knowledge-based adaptation & resilient impact in a world of unknowns. Her research interests deal mainly with the applications of data-driven modelling techniques in hydrology. In her PhD research, Nilay explored the use of clustering methods for understanding catchment similarity and improving runoff predictions in ungauged basins.

She currently works as a consultant for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and has acted as the Early Career Scientist Representative for the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Hydrological Sciences Division (2017-19) and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) (2018-2022). In her spare time, Nilay likes to volunteer for the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS) and the Early Warning System Young Professionals Network. Since 2020, Nilay serves in the Editorial Board of the Journal Flood Risk Management, where she is also acting as the guest editor for the special issue “Operational Flood Forecasting and Early Warning Systems”.

Ms Magali Garcia Cardenas
Researcher at the Institute for Agricultural and Natural Resources Research, Bolivia (online)

Magali Garcia is a Bolivian Agronomist Engineer, with a strong interest in bio-climatology, climate change, and ecosystem management. She holds a MSc from the University of Wageningen in The Netherlands, and a MSc and Ph.D. in Climate and Water Sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven of Belgium. She coordinates projects on watershed strategies to reduce land degradation in the Andes, training programs on Land and Water resources responding to climate pressures, and climate change impacts projects in Bolivia and elsewhere in the Andes focused on small Andean communities and ecosystems dealing with climate services linked to local knowledge.

She is a tenured researcher at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in Bolivia and also part of the Independent Science for Development Council advisor of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. She is a long-standing scientist, especially on eco-systemic climate change impacts on land, and water management as she deals with the scientific complexities and circularity of elements of sustainable ecological systems while working with stakeholders from outside the academia. She has experience in drafting policy-related documents and worked with several international organizations. Based on her experiences, she produced a large list of scientific and colloquial documents both in English and Spanish.

Mr Mark Smith
Director General, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka (online)

Dr. Mark Smith was appointed Director General of IWMI in August 2020. Dr. Smith, formerly IWMI’s Deputy Director General – Research for Development, brings more than 25 years of research and program management experience in water resources, agriculture, climate and sustainability.

He was formerly Director of the Global Water Programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has led innovative, multi-regional programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America addressing river basin management, transboundary cooperation, climate change adaptation and nature-based solutions.

He has a Doctorate in ecology and resource management from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s in climatology from the University of Guelph.

Dr. Mark Smith was appointed Director General of IWMI in August 2020. Dr. Smith, formerly IWMI’s Deputy Director General – Research for Development, brings more than 25 years of research and program management experience in water resources, agriculture, climate and sustainability.

He was formerly Director of the Global Water Programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has led innovative, multi-regional programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America addressing river basin management, transboundary cooperation, climate change adaptation and nature-based solutions.

He has a Doctorate in ecology and resource management from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s in climatology from the University of Guelph.

Ms Ann Van Griensven
Vrije Universiteit, Belgium

Ann van Griensven, bio-engineer, obtained her PhD at the Free University of Brussels titled “developments towards integrated water quality modelling at river basin scale”. For her PhD research, she started her activities in developing and applying the ecohydrological modelling software: Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Afterwards, she worked at the University of California, Riverside, and at the Ghent University. Ann van Griensven is currently Associate Professor of hydrology and water quality in the chair group of hydrology and water resources at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and professor in the department of hydrology and hydraulic engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

She has 15 years of research experience in the field of water quality and hydrological modelling, uncertainty analysis of models and optimisation algorithms, leading to up to 40 publications in international journals with peer review, H-index=14 (SCOPUS). She is elected member of the international Environmental Modelling Software Society. She is member of the editorial board of the highly ranked Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software and Hydrological and Earth Systems Science Journal. She is part of the developers team of the open source “Soil and Water Assessment Tool” as well as board member of the SWAT foundation. She is also a member of the governing board of the OpenMI (Open Modelling Interface) Association.

She has been the organiser of international conferences , workshops and short courses. She was involved and taken leading roles in several EU research projects eg CHESS (FP5), Harmoni-CA (FP6; WP2 lead), WETwin(FP7; WP6 lead), AFROMAISON(FP7; WP5 lead), EnviroGrids(FP7), AQUAREHAB(FP7; WP6 lead), MyWater(FP7) and in various Capacity Building and research projects in developing countries.

As highlighted in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is threatening water security and our ability to meet the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to provide the scientific basis to address these challenges, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) is convening a scientific side event during the 25th Session of the IHP Council on 25 April 2022 to identify and discuss ways to support Member States in achieving the SDGs and other related 2030 targets.

The side event will provide scientific contribution to the implementation of the  (IHP-IX, 2022-2029) “Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment”. The outcome of the scientific side event will also feed into the scientific research agenda for the United Nations Water Conference 2023. This conference will focus on the Mid-Term Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”. It is imperative that the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme and its scientific partners prepare a science research agenda for the Water Conference 2023, which will guide global efforts towards sustainability.

The side event will build further on the achievements of the recent 9th World Water Forum (March 2022) and the Dakar Declaration, that urges the need for a ‘Blue Deal’ for water security and sanitation for peace and development, through enhanced international cooperation towards solving the water resources challenges under a changing climate.

The event is hybrid, taking place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and online. All participants must register.

The planning, definition of priorities, and supervision of the execution of Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme of UNESCO (UNESCO-IHP) are ensured by the Intergovernmental Council. Composed of 36 UNESCO Member States representatives, elected by the General Conference of UNESCO, the Intergovernmental Council normally meets in a plenary session once every two years. Extraordinary sessions are convened under the conditions specified in the Statutes and Rules of Procedure.

The 25th Session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council will take place 26-29 April 2022 and will chiefly discuss the Operational Implementation Plan of the Programme’s actions in the ninth IHP working phase, IHP-IX 2022-2029.

Koen Verbist
Programme Specialist
Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation (HCA) Section,
Water Sciences Division, UNESCO
Email: k.verbist@unesco.org