UNESCO Chair Special Session: “Water Security and Climate Adaptation of Arid and Semi-Arid Regions”

Call for the submission of Abstracts for the UNESCO special chair session at the waterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA symposium that will be held in Livingstone, Zambia on the 31st October - 2nd November 2018 

Nnenesi Kgabi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia

Arid and semi-arid regions account for approximately 30% of the world total area; and approximately 24% of the total population in Africa inhabit the arid land. Moreover, most African countries are challenged by increasingly stressed water resources and the need to provide reliable access to water of sufficient quantity and quality in the face of increased urbanisation, a changing and unpredictable climate, and economic instability. Thus, the importance of water security for climate adaptation and sustainable development cannot be overemphasised.

Despite the fundamental importance of water security to the Arid and semi-arid regions, efforts to bring the increasing water scarcity and climate adaptation challenges into a collaborative academic, economic, environmental, political and social platform remain unrewarded. The limited discussions usually result in fragmented policies and plans that are not executed. Thus, to create a collaborative platform, the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Water Research for Climate Adaptation in Arid Environments calls for abstracts related to the following subthemes:

- Relationship between water security and climate adaptation

- Sustaining groundwater resources in climate adaptation strategies

- Threats to water security and climate adaptation in arid and semi-arid environments

- Dimensions of water security (Reliable access, Quality, Quantity, Risk of water-related disasters)

- Measuring water insecurity

- Improving Water Security of Cities in arid and semi-arid environments

The Abstract submission can be done at the following link:

https://easychair.org/conferences/submission_show_all.cgi?a=18636569