Climate change adaptation

The Climate Change activities under the umbrella of IWA seek to assist the water sector in meeting intensified challenges and uncertainties to build systems that are more robust, flexible and resilient than before.

The Climate Change programme focuses on the need to model, predict and assess current & future impacts, cost for society and the environment and further to support decision making under uncertainty. Its activities build on the knowledge of available and co-evolving best practice on a diversity of interventions.

Key aims of the programme:
   • Identify and raise awareness of climate change issues related to water sector
   • Facilitate exchange and communication of best practices
   • Build an Analytical Framework for climate change-proofing and find ways to communicate this
   • Stimulate global cooperation and capacity building
   • Advocate key positions of the IWA community at relevant policy fora

Climate change vulnerabilities

Climate change manifests itself in an intensification of the hydrological cycle, including more extreme floods and droughts and sea level rise. Different geographical areas will be affected differently in terms of water resources. For each specific region there will be an increasing competing use of water due to scarcity, and/or coping with too much water in terms of rising sea levels or flooding with implications for human life, health, infrastructure and other socio economic impacts.

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Solutions

Solutions need to be tailored for individual situations however there are consistent principles and enabling mechanisms that should be considered at the beginning of the process.  An understanding of these principles can allow sound decisions on solutions to be made. 

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