UN definition of Global Water Security: “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”
The IAHR Technical Committee on Global Water Security is to focus on all aspects of the flow of water and the transport of sediments and, in particular, the integrated transport processes of polluting species dissolved or in suspension within a water body and/or adsorbed on the sediments. This would include processes in: catchments, rivers, urban systems, groundwater systems, estuaries, coastal basins and seas.
Hydro-environmental assessment and predictions (focusing on hydrodynamics as a vector for environmental parameters);
Hydro-epidemiological processes and their modelling (Faecal Indicator Organism (FIO processes, including: decay, kinetics, irradiance etc.);
Hydro-biological processes and their modelling (including: nutrients and other key water quality indicators - including ecological parameters, heavy metals, arsenic, anti-biotics, endocrine disruptors, emerging pollutants etc.);
Sediment-related contamination processes and hydro-morphology: key processes and their modelling (as a vector for FIOs and water quality indicators)
Groundwater transport processes, surface-subsurface interactions and their modelling (including: nutrients and water quality indicators);
Coastal reservoirs (for water supply, e.g. Qingcaosha, China);
Salinity intrusion (in groundwater, estuarine basins and the impact on constituent kinetics);
Stormwater contamination and its Impact (including treatment at source and potential reuse of water)
Climate change effects on key elements of water security (as it affects the hydraulics, hydrology of catchments and sea level rise);
Agricultural science and engineering relevant to water security (particularly with regard to improved hydrodynamics and data management etc. aiming to provide‘more crop per drop’).
1st IAHR and 4th CAE International Conference on Global Water Security and Sustainable Development | 30 October – 2 November 2023. Nanjing, China. Website
Modelling and Management of Global Water Security: Delivering Flood Risk Resilience and Adaptation | 13 December 2022.
IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Challenges of Global Water Security: Using Hydroinformatics to obtain solutions | 16 March 2022 | Summary
Water Security Webinar-Global Water Security post Covid-19: Actions for SDG Agenda 2030 | 10 November 2021
IAHR Global Water Security Webinar – The Business of Global Water Security: Linking Knowledge to Practice | 10 September 2020
IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Science of Global Water Security: Linking Knowledge to Solutions | 15 December 2020
IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Fundamental Issues of Global Water Security: Linking Water Security to Nature | 22 March 2021
IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Challenges of Global Water Security: Linking Policy to Water Solutions | 9 June 2021 | Slides
Global Water Security Issue. IAHR Hydrolink, Issue 1/2012.
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