Facing Water Stress an opportunity for the research community to exchange and integrate knowledge Giuseppe Giuliano giuliano@irsa.rm.cnr.it European Water Scenarios: from the Mediterranean Sea to Central Asia Brussels, 30th June – 1st July 2003

Terminology Water Scarcity unbalance between availability of (renewable) water resources and water demand for different uses, involving also quality aspects pressure on water resources quantity and quality, resulting in the inability to meet human and environmental needs and generating conflicts and negative impacts situation of adequate (quantity), secure (quality), reliable (time, location) access to water resources achieved through the adoption of measures tailored to sustainability Water Scarcity Water Stress Water Security

Problem Definition Water Security Water Stress Water Scarcity Stress may occur without physical scarcity two faces of the same problem

Causes & Driving Forces persistent climatic conditions (aridity) meteorological and hydrological patterns (drought) climate change human activities (water and land exploitation) trends in socio-economic development historical cultural background and behaviour of society unsustainable policies institutional assets Nature produced Man induced

Impacts Depletion of resources (over-exploitation) Conflicts on resource allocation among different uses Environmental alterations and ecosystem damage (wetlands and rivers dry out, salt intrusion) Desertification Pollution and health problems Increased environmental vulnerability and sensitivity to hydrological events (floods and droughts) and climate change Hindrance in economic development Decline of service level / increased social costs

Quantification Scarcity relative term depending on the demand placed on the existing resource: partly a social construct. It can be relatively captured in figures Shortage absolute degree of unbalance where levels of available water do not meet minimum requirements Stress multidimensional concept difficult to be captured in single indices

Indicator-based Assessment Quantity absolute availability withdrawal to availability (WTA) exploitation index (WEI) current basin use factor ……… Quality fertilisers / pesticides consumption / industrial pollutants (ESI) quality determinants (O2, P, SS, EC) (ESI) ecological quality status (WFD) ………

Realizations of Water Stress Southern Europe Chronic water scarcity driven by climate High agricultural demand (main cause) Water quality degradation and damage to ecosystems High sensitivity and vulnerability to climate variability/change Inadequate water supply (infrastructures) Western Europe Temporary shortage due to climate variability (drought) Cut-back of water-related services and crop production Salt water intrusion

Realizations of Water Stress Eastern–Central Europe Increase of pressures resulting from economic growth recovery Severe pollution (hot spots) due to inadequate wastewater treatment Deficiencies in the institutional response Inadequate water supply (infrastructures)

Managing Responses Supply-side strategies (traditional) aimed at increasing availability and ensuring supply engineering / technology shaped (may) produce negative effects on aquatic ecosystems and water quality economic system perceived as a boundary condition / constraint separated from social context financial investments intense

Managing Responses (cont.) aimed at water conservation distributed technology shaped supported by economic instruments (charges / pricing) (may) produce positive effects on the protection of aquatic ecosystems (may) negatively affect low income society accompanied by information and training programs Demand-side strategies (more recent)

Managing Responses (cont.) Sustainable use strategies (present) aimed at long term protection of available resources, prevention of further deterioration, ensuring ecological quality require a balance between demand and availability using management measures at river basin level require appropriate educational programmes and promotion of social awareness based on synergy with the expansion of environmental measures in sectorial policies (e.g. CAP)

Main Trends The water sector is undergoing major transformation processes towards sustainable management from local to transboundary scale Today’s situation is challenged by uncertainties in significant aspects and factors and in driving forces The participation of research community is the key for designing innovative solutions The traditional approach to management from local to regional level needs to be replaced by an embedded multi-scale perspective The complexity of environmental problems requires new approaches to solution, e.g. adaptive and flexible management regimes based on social processes and participatory strategies The cooperation and partnership among various parties of civil society ensures improved efficiency and effectiveness of water management (EUWI)

A Management Framework for Water Stress The strategy will rely substantially on tailored governance The approach looks for an integrated, adaptive combination of technology, new institutional arrangements, social and environmental sustainability, economic performances The technology sector should overcome the engineering approach of resource intensive solutions and look for integrated smart mix of measures adequate to the human / environmental system The solutions should be achieved sharing knowledge, experience and participation of different parties and stakeholders in a multi-scale perspective of management

Research Challenges towards Stress Sustainability Evaluate critical factors and bottlenecks which affected the traditional interventions Link between the physical water scarcity assessment modelling and the relevant socio-economic, institutional schemes that affect water use and management Design and implement participatory institutional mechanism to involve all sectors of society in decision making Augment efficiency and effectiveness of water management Design decision making and management models able to overcome the isolation of technology measures from the background factors Experiment technological systems tailored to stressed areas

Contributions to Innovation Move beyond the current practice of emergency response to crisis by means of complementary evaluation of long-term changes (potential future hot-spots of water scarcity) Bring together various parties in addressing water scarcity: new approaches for collaborative decision making Experience forms of increasing water productivity by means of coordinated interventions / measures throughout the product chain or use cascade Develop innovative implementation of mitigation technologies (improvement and / or adaptation of proved / promising tech.; new tailored, cost effective tech.) Develop innovation on public goods aspects of the water sector, commodity trading Adopt innovative approaches to capacity building, education and awareness raising

Thank you for your attention! Giuseppe Giuliano giuliano@irsa.rm.cnr.it Water Research Institute National Research Council of Italy