On 5 and 6 December 2019, the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 will hold to its first annual conference in Berlin. Adelphi’s water team will present the ‘water footprint’ concept as a strategy for the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The GRoW project WELLE offers a webinar on December 3rd and 10th to introduce its recently developed web-based tool for calculating a company’s water footprint – the Organizational Water Footprint tool (OWF).
The multi-scale hydrological substance emission model MoRE (Modelling of Regionalized Emissions) was further developed and optimized by GRoW researchers and will now be used by the associated MuDaK-WRM project partner Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) in the Paranapanema River in Southern Brazil.
As part of the GRoW-project TRUST, researchers are training an Artificial Intelligence (AI), with the help of which aerial photos can be used to make statements about soil properties.
The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) recently analysed the critical role of water to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under review at the 2019 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). Three regional policy papers for Africa, the Arab region and Latin America and the Caribbean present findings and policy recommendations to support the inclusion of water in planning across sectors. Additionally, a Policy Brief summarizes findings and policy recommendations from these regional analyses. GRoW talked to Natalia Uribe Pando, Programme Specialist in Policy, Advocacy and Valorisation with UNESCO WWAP about the great potential of SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and how research can help to foster synergies and avoid trade-offs.
We are happy to announce the GRoW final conference, which will take place in Berlin in June 2020:
Save the Date: 23.- 24. June 2020
Location: ESMT Berlin, Schlossplatz 1, 10178 Berlin, Germany
Virtual Water Values (ViWA) monitors global water use efficiency and develops instruments to efficiently use water resources in agriculture. The project uses an agro-hydrological simulation model and extends a general-equilibrium economic model of agricultural trade with virtual water data. Thus current water use efficiency, crop yields and virtual water flows of traded agricultural goods are simulated. The project further identifies global hot- and coldspots of water use, which serve for an analysis of trade-offs between commercial water use and ecosystem service protection.
The WELLE project develops methodical and practical solutions for the determination of the water footprint of companies. Among these solutions is the recently developed web-based tool for calculating a company’s water footprint – the Organizational Water Footprint tool (OWF). A free online tool facilitates identification of organizational water consumption along supply chains in accordance with the novel OWF approach.
MedWater develops management tools for efficient and sustainable water use of scarce groundwater resources for vulnerable karst aquifers within the Mediterranean region and the Middle East. MedWater recently applied their tools in the Western Aquifer in Israel, aiming at developing a model-based decision support system for Israeli water authorities. The tool successfully supports the assessment of the aquifer’s response to changes in precipitation or water consumption and the determination of appropriate management strategies. The results will be transferred to similar aquifers in Southern Europe.
The Joint Programming Initiative „Water Challenges for a Changing World“ (Water JPI) issued the 2017 Joint Call on „Water resource management in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals“. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) engages in this Initiative by co-funding five transnational projects. The projects include partners from six European countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Cyprus), as well as Brazil and South Africa.
