International Conference on
Water in the Humid Tropics organized by UNU and IWMI.
Agenda (PDF)
Efficient water management is a key issue for the whole world, but specifically for the tropics, where population, industrial and economic growth will increase stress on fresh water resources. Effective policies based on realistic assessments should be implemented at the local scale considering the resource availability, water needs and environmental interactions. Over exploitation of surface and ground water resources is a common phenomena brought about by the growing demands for freshwater due to increasing population and per capita consumption. Together with other large scale human intervention such as urbanization and deforestation, these practices tend to change the basin water cycle whose equilibrium is critical to the other material and life cycles associate with the water circulation. These challenges are intensified by the high variability of both inter-annual and intra-annual rainfall in the Humid Tropics. Ecohydrology, a new approach in environmental sciences that promotes the integration of hydrology and ecology for the sustainable management of water resources can provide new insights and directions in managing and preserving basin water cycle for sustainable development. This concept has been developed with close interactions between IHP (international hydrologic programme) and MAB and will be developed and expanded in the seventh phase of IHP. The 50th anniversary International Conference on Humid Tropical Ecosystems provide an excellent opportunity to discuss unique water management challenges arising from specific characteristics of climate and geology of Humid Tropics. A pre-conference on water is therefore proposed to synthesize current knowledge and challenges that can provide a feed back to the development of the next 50 years of Humid Tropical Ecosystem Program. The pre-conference workshop will focus on environmental changes, its impact on hydrology and water resources and lessons from best practices including traditional knowledge.
For more details>>>International Conference on
Water in the Humid Tropics (PDF 376 Kb)
