Breadcrumbs

Blog from August, 2020

The World Water Quality Alliance invites you to join two of its sessions at the 2020 WWWeek At Home.

“Water Quality and Climate Change – The Overlooked Variable”

Wednesday 26th of August 2020

10.00 – 10.45 (CEST Time Zone)

Multiple interlinkages between water quality and climate change are not yet fully understood. The World Water Quality Alliance examines the resilience of human-natural water systems from a nexus perspective. This event will provide the latest evidence and present a way forward for mainstreaming water quality into the climate change debate.

Impacts of the climate emergency on the water cycle are mostly being discussed through a quantity lense: water availability, floods and droughts, groundwater-surface water interactions, precipitation patterns etc. However, the impacts of a changing climate on ambient water quality at different scales are even less understood or left aside. This event aims to draw attention to this overlooked variable and the interlinkages between water quantity, quality and climate change for surface and groundwater and identify a way to fill knowledge gaps by disentangling the role of socio-economic drivers.

The session will present the latest scientific findings on the interrelations between climate and water quality and how feedback loops under different climate scenarios are expected to impact on ecosystem balance, biodiversity (invasive species, pest infestations etc.), water availability, food security, pollution mitigation efforts and others. The need is to develop innovative and operational information services for decision making, on long term trends and for projections. It is crucial that longer-term management action with regard to adaptation, infrastructure development and nature-based solutions is not being missed while urgent threats are given priority.

The event will be guided by a moderator and include presentations, a panel discussion with active engagement of the audience.

ConvenersCentre for Ecology & Hydrology, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UNEP, World Meteorological Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

To join us for the session please CLICK HERE!

World Water Quality Alliance – Social Engagement for Climate Action

Thursday 27th of August 2020

11.00 – 11.45 (CEST Time Zone)

The joint communication capacity of science and culture as was demonstrated by the Urban Water Atlas for Europe represents an example of an approach named RENAISSANCE which aims to construct a trans-sectoral, multi-stakeholder and supranational-municipal approach to the socio-political challenges presented by climate change. This session presents this approach and invites the audience to explore new methods to convert science into socio-political action. Complex scientific data must be translated into a language which can attract the attention and encourage the participation of the hitherto uniformed layman, politician and other social actors with whom the scientific community all-too-often find it difficult to establish a mutually beneficial dialogue.

In order to guarantee an effective coalition of political, industrial, entrepreneurial, scientific, technical, social and citizen stakeholders the TAP mechanism within which both artists and scientists act as socio-political catalysts providing an effective cultural and technological international exchange can be employed:

T – Many Technologies to address the issues which fall under the majority of the Sustainable Development Goals already exist.

A – International, regional and local Awareness is promoted by giving prominence to scientific imagery accompanied by the emotional capacity of culture through Art.

P – The collection of data will serve for nothing if it does not result in the identification of necessary supranational solutions and leads directly to regional and municipal Politicians creating Policies supported by the People and translated into economic reality by practitioners in the field.

The showcase will demonstrate how science and art has combined to ensure that existing scientific knowledge and investigation leads to true socio-political advances and inter-regional collaboration. 

Conveners: EURECAT, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, UNEP, Water Europe

To join us for the session please CLICK HERE!