Climate change is altering weather and water patterns around the world, causing increased floods in some areas and shortages and droughts in others. These floods and droughts have become increasingly common, more severe, and at the same time, less predictable than they used to be.
Land, water and urban area managers need to prepare for water-related risks by integrating scientifically sound information on the frequency, magnitude and unpredictability of flood and drought events into their planning processes. The project responds to this need, contributing to an improved capacity of managers operating in transboundary river basins to recognise and address the implications of changing climatic scenarios and land-use on water resource management.
The project is developing a computer software-based decision support system (DSS) which has tools to incorporate information about floods and droughts and likely climatic scenarios into planning across scales (IWRM, WSP, TDA/SAP). The outcome will enable stakeholders to compile information, from models, indicators and existing planning ap- proaches, so as to develop future planning scenarios that are robust, resilient and pragmatic.
Continued stakeholder consultations help gather available data, identify gaps in informed decision-making, and propose types of information that would be useful to guide both short-term (operational) and long- term (strategic) planning. These inputs are being used to develop tools and the methodologies that will be tested in three pilot basins. (Volta, Lake Victoria and Chao Phraya)
Learn more: iwa-network.org/blog2/in-an-uncertain-world-planning-for-floods-and-droughts-is-critical