Tools to Improve Cooperation and Dialogue in River Basins: Water Footprint Assessment @ World Water Week 2013

Tools to Improve Cooperation and Dialogue in River Basins
World Water Week 2013, September 1-6, 2013, Stockholm, Sweden
Tuesday, 3 Sept, 14:00-17:30
Room B7

Convenor(s):
Water Footprint Network
Co-convenor(s):
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit; Stockholm International Water Institute and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

more and most up to date information at:
http://programme.worldwaterweek.org/event/tools-to-improve-2937

DESCRIPTION

Considering the growing multiple water demands, ensuring sustainable, efficient and equitable water use is more than ever a challenge. New tools and methods are therefore required to inspire, inform and broaden cooperation in river basins - across sectors and between countries.

Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) provides a common language which builds a shared understanding for informed decision making and strategic action at local, regional and global scales. Presentations include WFA at the national, river basin and catchment scales, in regulatory, policy and private sector engagement settings. These clearly demonstrate that WFA opens up new insight and contributes to successful collective action.

An approach on how to identify, quantify and communicate the range of benefits of transboundary water cooperation is being developed under the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), answering to the growing demand for quantitative information on cooperation benefits. Indeed, transboundary water cooperation often adopts a narrow vision of water management that does not take into consideration the full range of potential benefits. How can this work draw on existing methodologies and experiences?


PROGRAMME

Water Footprint Assessment: A Common Language for Dialogue and Cooperation

14:00 Introduction. Dr. Ashok Chapagain, WFN, The Netherlands

14:05 Water Footprint Outcomes and Policy Options: A California Case Study. Dr. Peter H. Gleick, Pacific Institute, USA, or Mr. Julian Fulton, University of California, USA

14:25 Water Prism: A Decision Support Tool for Sustainable Supplies at the Basin Level. Mr. Paul Freedman, LimnoTech, USA, or Ms. Wendy Larson, LimnoTech, USA

14:35 Water Footprint Assessment Tool: Delving into River Basins. Ms. Ruth Mathews, WFN, The Netherlands

14:45 Usefulness of WFA in Revisiting Water Allocation in a River Basin: A Case Study from the UK. Dr. Giuseppe Frapporti, Environment Agency, UK ,or Dr. Guoping Zhang, WFN, The Netherlands

15:05 The Water Footprint Assessment Application in Porce River Basin in Colombia: A Multisectoral Approach to Improve Cooperation at the Basin Level. Mr. Diego Arévalo, Centro de Ciencia y Tecnología de Antioquia, Colombia

15:20 Discussion



15:30 Coffee Break



Identify, Quantify and Communicate the Benefits of Transboundary Water Cooperation

16:00 Introduction to the Session. Mr. John Joyce, SIWI

16:05 Scoping the Work - Presentation of the Work on Benefits under the Water Convention. Ms. Chantal Demilecamps, UNECE

16:10 Why do We Need This Work? What Economists Can Offer? Mr. Niels Vlaanderen, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, The Netherlands

16:20 Qualitative and Quantitative Data on Cooperation's Benefits: Why Is It Useful for Donors? Mr. Christian Severin, The Global Environment Facility, USA

16:30 Lessons from the Field - Finish-Russian Cooperation: Why to Cooperate as an Upstream Country? Mr. Seppo Rekolainen, The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, Finland

16:40 River Basin Organisation Perspective: The Benefits from and to the River - Establishing successful Cooperation in Central Asia: The case of the Isfara River. Mr. Volker Frobarth, GIZ, Kyrgyzstan

16:50 Towards a Guidance Note on Identifying, Quantifying and Communicating the Benefits of Cooperation. Mr. Roberto Martin Hurtado, Consultant to UNECE

17:00 Discussion

17:25 Conclusions. Mr. Nicholas Bonvoisin, UNECE