18 March 2018 - 23 March 2018
Brasilia, Brazil

IIASA at the 8th World Water Forum

IIASA Director General and CEO Professor Dr. Pavel Kabat will lead a delegation of researchers to participate in the 8th World Water Forum, the world’s largest water related event, organized by the World Water Council.

© Mateus Felix | Shutterstock

© Mateus Felix | Shutterstock

Held every three years, the event’s mission is to promote awareness, build political commitment and trigger action on critical water issues at all levels. This year the event will be held in Brasilia, Brazil, the first time that it has been held in the southern hemisphere.

Over 35,000 people from multi-stakeholder backgrounds are expected to attend for six days of intense debates and informative workshops. This year’s World Water Forum has the theme “sharing water”.

IIASA’s Water Program was involved in the development of the 8th World Water Forum Thematic Process, specifically as co-convener of the cross cutting theme “sharing”. IIASA researchers will be involved in a number of sessions and events during the forum in Brasilia.

IIASA Participation


Launch of World Water Development Report 2018

Monday, 19 March 2018 - 15:00 to 17:00

The World Water Development Report 2018, entitled "Nature-based solutions for Water" will be released on World Water Day 2018 (22nd March) at the World Water Forum, in Brasilia, Brazil. It is a comprehensive review that gives an overall picture of the state, use and management of the world’s freshwater resources and aims to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. The theme for this year’s report focuses on Nature Based Solutions. It aims to show the importance of fully considering nature-base solutions (in parallel with alternative approaches) in water management policy and practice. IIASA’s Water Program contributed to the publication.


Water Futures and Solutions Regional Initiatives Event

Tuesday 20 March 2018 - 12:00 to 14:00

Event keynote will be given by IIASA Director General Professor Pavel Kabat.

The Water Futures and Solutions Initiative (WFaS) is a ground-breaking study into sustainable solutions to meet local, national, and global water challenges. WFAS promotes interaction among stakeholders and researchers to find solutions that maximize synergies and minimize trade-offs between different sectors, users and countries along watersheds, focusing on transboundary basins; sharing knowledge, experiences, and data; and develop the work to help shape policy, investments, and improve practices based on prospective analyses techniques based on water futures casting. After undertaking regional studies in Asia and in Africa, WFaS is exploring establishing nodes in Latin American.

This event is convened by IIASA and the Inter-American Water Resources Network (IWRN). It will present and reflect upon work done to date in establishing scenarios and will examine the need for further work to explore water security and identify solutions at a regional scale. A multi-stakeholder conversation with water experts and water users such as land-managers, industry and energy will give views on the issues in the region and explore future scenarios and points of entry for solution options to facilitate good water management in the region.


Side Event - Addressing Water-Energy-Food Nexus Hotspots in Transboundary Basins

Wednesday 21 March 2018 – 11:00 - 13:00

This side event will focus on addressing current and future risks to meet water, land and energy demands and maintain critical ecosystems functions in transboundary basins. IIASA will present work undertaken as part of the Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy, and Land (ISWEL)  project (funded by GEF) on identification of nexus hot-spots. This event is hosted by the World Bank, in cooperation with GEF, IIASA and UNEP.


Launch of Groundwater Overview – Making the Invisible Visible

Thursday 22 March 2018 -  Planalto Auditorium, 09:00 to 10:30

At this event UN Water will launch its publication “Groundwater Overview – Making the Invisible Visible. Globally, invisible groundwater resources are under increasing pressure due to human activities and climate change. Our response to this pressure is often not adequate, often due to limited awareness of the importance of groundwater resources.  The Groundwater Overview aims to inform about groundwater-related activities, to enhance knowledge exchange and collaboration, and to raise awareness about our most important hidden resource: groundwater.  

A key component of this report was an audit of ongoing work on groundwater. IIASA’s Water Program was consulted and provided input to the overview.


Special Session - the Water Challenges of the 21st Century with the help of Near Real-Time Comprehensive Assessments

Thursday 22 March - 09:00 - 10:30

This special session will discuss the usefulness of the state-of-the-art comprehensive assessment toolbox, including novel observation and modelling tools, developed by the global water science community of Future Earth, UNESCO, IIASA, NASA, BOM - Australia, ANA and other organizations that detect, and evaluate existing, imminent, and emerging water resources challenges, forecast emerging water stress and identify risks for involuntary population displacement, and hotspots from adverse economic impacts in a real-time framework. Director of IIASA’s Water Program Simon Langan, will give a presentation in this session on the development and evolution of WFaS as an input to the Sustainable Water Futures Program.

Bilateral Meetings

In addition to his participation in the World Water Forum, Kabat will attend a number of high-level meetings with collaborators and members of the Brazil-IIASA community and Brazilian stake-holders and organizations that play key roles in the growing collaborations between IIASA and Brazil. This includes meetings with Abilio Alfonso Baeta Neves, President, Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary-General, Mario Neto Borges, President, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and representatives from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alarms (Cemaden).

IIASA and Brazil

IIASA collaborates with over 20 research partners in Brazil to use systems analysis to better understand the global challenges facing the country and wider Latin American region. Research collaborations between Brazil and IIASA have intensified since Brazil became a member of IIASA in 2011.

New research projects are using the tools of systems analysis to find the smartest ways for Brazil to achieve sustainable agriculture and land management strategies that reduce deforestation. Other projects have focused on energy: Ranging from long-term energy planning, to learning from Brazil’s leadership in the use of ethanol fuel, to advancing understanding of the complex global energy system and its multiple connections with Brazil’s economy, environment, and society.

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Last edited: 16 March 2018

CONTACT DETAILS

Simon Langan

Senior Guest Research Scholar Water Security Research Group - Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: (+43 2236) 807 0 Fax:(+43 2236) 71 313