Workshops

Session Details

Description

Water is at the heart of basic human security—food, energy, cultural, aesthetics. How water is managed will have repercussions on almost every aspect of human security, which is why achieving adequate water security is among the top priorities of government policies across the globe.

While formulating policies to enhance water security are important, even more crucial is monitoring the changes brought about by implementing these policies. This comes from the notion that the need of the hour in today’s time is to operationalize water security. However, as the adage goes, “we cannot manage what we cannot measure”.

This workshop will introduce the participants to a tool called WATSAT (Water Security Assessment Tool) that is meant to address this very need - How to measure water security? WATSAT has been developed by the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), the National Institute of Urban Affairs (India), Thuyloi University (Vietnam), Tribhuvan University (Nepal), and Central University of Rajasthan (India).

WATSAT is a web-based tool written in the C#.net programming language with the welcome page interface written in JavaScript and HTML. WATSAT comprises a three-layered structure—dimensions, indicators and variables—that ultimately results in the Water Security Index (WSI). It comprises five dimensions and twelve indicators and provides users with a long list of potential variables to choose from to reflect the indicators. The tool has been developed to make it as user-friendly as possible, keeping in mind that its actual design purpose is to facilitate city authorities and decision-makers to make an objective evaluation of the water security situation and foster practical solutions to improve water security in the city.

Guidance Notes

• Please bring a laptop with you for the hands-on exercise and download the exercise data sheet .
• Please refer to the following journal articles for the scientific background on the water security assessment framework.
  • How to measure urban water security? An introduction to the Water Security Assessment Tool (WATSAT). doi: https://doi.org/10.30852/sb.2023.2166
  • Measuring water security: A vital step for climate change adaptation. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109400
  • Urban water security: A comparative assessment and policy analysis of five cities in diverse developing countries of Asia. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2022.100713
  • A disaggregated assessment of national water security: An application to the river basins in Thailand. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115974
• Please feel free to explore the web-based version of the WATSAT tool at http://www.watsat.org/ prior to the training workshop.
• Exercise data for the hands-on session are provided here for your reference.

Session Details

Description

Adopting a circular economy approach to wastewater management is globally recognised as a potential solution for reducing stress on freshwater resources and improving natural water quality. This involves strengthening wastewater treatment infrastructure, maximizing the reuse of treated wastewater especially for non-potable purposes, and minimizing the quantum of untreated wastewater. This session will bring in experiences from India and other countries on planning for mainstreaming treated domestic wastewater reuse, especially in urban areas. The desired outcomes from this session include tangible learnings from global experiences to enable a shift towards circularity in wastewater management, in alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets 6.3 and 6.6 and SDG 13 on climate action.

The session will be organized in collaboration between the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). Representatives from CEEW and NIUA will present a context-setting presentation, followed by a panel discussion involving up to five experts from national and international organizations, including policy think tanks, academics, and action research institutions. CEEW and NIUA will moderate the session. The target audience will include professionals working in the climate change adaptation and water sustainability sphere. This will include but not be restricted to policy-makers, academicians, researchers, water managers, public policy experts, funders/investors in this space, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and students enrolled in water resources, sustainable development, and climate change studies.

This session will bring in experiences from India and other countries on planning for mainstreaming treated domestic wastewater reuse, including drivers, barriers and enablers for the same. Based on the diverse expertise of the panel, the session aims to generate valuable insights on the following aspects, amongst others:

• Governance models for strengthening wastewater management and reuse
• Sustainable financing options for implementing treated wastewater reuse projects
• Technological advancements for optimizing treatment and energy efficiency
• Use of data and information for effective monitoring and evaluation
• Institutional capacity-building and behavioral change experiments leading to public acceptance of treated wastewater

The desired outcomes from this session include tangible learnings from global experiences to enable a shift towards circularity in wastewater management, in alignment with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets 6.3 and 6.6 and SDG 13 on climate action.

Session Details

Description

While engineering solutions for water management are still much required to address the water woes, it is now well established that careful management, use, protection and restoration of urban ecosystems can provide multifunctional services to address water-related and other societal challenges. Nature-based Solutions (NBS) is a conceptual framework that seeks to use properties of nature to co-produce ecosystem services to build climate change resilience and improve quality of life by mitigating the relationship between health inequality and socio-economic adversity.

The workshop will use a three-stage approach for the delivery. Correspondingly, there are three main sections of the workshop. These are:

1. Understanding NbS
   The purpose of this session is for participants to have a common understanding about the various facets of NbS—context, need, benefits, application, scope, and limitations. It will highlight and discuss practical examples from different geoclimatic and socioeconomic settings.
2. Implementing NbS
   This session will focus on introducing participants to a practical tool for NbS decision-making called “Decode NbS”. The tool will help the participants understand the practical application of  different types of NbS interventions in relevant context covering aspects related to land suitability, cost, time to realize benefits, scope, operations and maintenance, co-benefits, and  limitations.
3. Mainstreaming NbS
   This session will involve participants in a moderated discussion on city-wide application of NbS vis-à-vis policy measures, institutional mechanism, and community participation.

Session Details

Description

Peri-urban agricultural production systems are vital components of sustainable urban development affecting water resources and urban climate. They offer unique opportunities to bridge the gap between rural and urban food systems, enhance food and water security, and promote sustainable land use including the adaptation of urban areas to climate change. However, realizing these benefits requires careful planning, innovative policies, and a commitment to balancing the diverse needs and challenges of peri-urban areas. The workshop strives to identify these benefits and challenges as well as ways to realize positive developments in an interactive process with the participants along the following topics:

1. Land Use and Urbanization Pressure
2. Resource Constraints and Environmental Degradation
3. Socioeconomic and Institutional Challenges
4. Integration of Urban and Agricultural Systems

Session Details

Description

Evidence-based climate change adaptation and water management require reliable, accessible, and decision-relevant data that decision-makers can turn into action. However, a mismatch between available data, data quality, and decision-makers specific information needs can result in inadequate responses to climate extremes or missed opportunities for adaptation.
Throughout this workshop, participants will explore the relationship between scientific data, information that supports action, and decision-making within water management and climate adaptation. A series of short impulse talks will highlight developments in data collection, remote sensing, in-situ monitoring, and citizen science. In a second part, participants will identify the information needs and challenges for climate change adaptation in various contexts—from urban to rural and arid to temperate zones—through group discussions based on real case studies. For this, t he participants will split up in three tables, discussing the topic of the session based on concrete case studies of different “water systems” with different characteristics and challenges (humid/arid/temperate; urban / rural; data rich/poor etc). At the end of the session t he table discussions and the findings are exchanged and summarized.

Impulse talks

TBA