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

2. 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

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

4. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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)
………

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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)

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. Thank you for your attention!
Giuseppe Giuliano
Water Research Institute National Research Council of Italy