Definition

UN definition of Global Water Security: “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” 

Scope

The IAHR Technical Committee on Global Water Security is to focus on all aspects of the flow of water and the transport of sediments and, in particular, the integrated transport processes of polluting species dissolved or in suspension within a water body and/or adsorbed on the sediments. This would include processes in: catchments, rivers, urban systems, groundwater systems, estuaries, coastal basins and seas.

Key topics

• Hydro-environmental assessment and predictions (focusing on hydrodynamics as a vector for environmental parameters);

• Hydro-epidemiological processes and their modelling (Faecal Indicator Organism (FIO processes, including: decay, kinetics, irradiance etc.);

• Hydro-biological processes and their modelling (including: nutrients and other key water quality indicators - including ecological parameters, heavy metals, arsenic, anti-biotics, endocrine disruptors, emerging pollutants etc.);

• Sediment-related contamination processes and hydro-morphology: key processes and their modelling (as a vector for FIOs and water quality indicators)

• Groundwater transport processes, surface-subsurface interactions and their modelling (including: nutrients and water quality indicators);

• Coastal reservoirs (for water supply, e.g. Qingcaosha, China);

• Salinity intrusion (in groundwater, estuarine basins and the impact on constituent kinetics);

• Stormwater contamination and its Impact (including treatment at source and potential reuse of water)
  

• Climate change effects on key elements of water security (as it affects the hydraulics, hydrology of catchments and sea level rise);

• Agricultural science and engineering relevant to water security (particularly with regard to improved hydrodynamics and data management etc. aiming to provide‘more crop per drop’).

Annual report

• 2023 Annual report of Committee on Global Water Security 
  

Upcoming events

Past events

• 1st IAHR and 4th CAE International Conference on Global Water Security and Sustainable Development | 30 October – 2 November 2023. Nanjing, China. Website

• Modelling and Management of Global Water Security: Delivering Flood Risk Resilience and Adaptation | 13 December 2022. 
  

• IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Challenges of Global Water Security: Using Hydroinformatics to obtain solutions | 16 March 2022 | Summary
  

• Water Security Webinar-Global Water Security post Covid-19: Actions for SDG Agenda 2030 | 10 November 2021
  

• IAHR Global Water Security Webinar – The Business of Global Water Security: Linking Knowledge to Practice | 10 September 2020

• IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Science of Global Water Security: Linking Knowledge to Solutions | 15 December 2020

• IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Fundamental Issues of Global Water Security: Linking Water Security to Nature | 22 March 2021

• IAHR Global Water Security Webinar - The Challenges of Global Water Security: Linking Policy to Water Solutions | 9 June 2021 | Slides
  

Publications

Papers and articles

• Global Water Security Issue. IAHR Hydrolink, Issue 1/2012.

• Kay, D. and Falconer, R. A. 2008. Hydro-epidemiology: the emergence of a research agenda. Environmental Fluid Mechanics. 8(5-6), 451-459.

• Marion, A., Nikora, V., Pujijalon, S. et al. 2014. Aquatic interfaces: A hydrodynamic and ecological perspective. Journal of Hydraulic Research. 52(6), 744–758.

• Werner, A. D., Bakker, M., Post, V. E., Vandenbohede, A., Lu, C., Ataie-Ashtiani, B., Simmons, C. T., Barry, D. A. 2013. Seawater intrusion process, investigation and management: Recent advances and future challenges. Advances in Water Resources. 51, 3-26.

Technical papers 

• Cameron S.M., Nikora V., Stewart M.T. 2017. Very-large-scale motions in rough-bed open-channel flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 814, 416-429.

• Cameron S.M., Nikora V., Witz M. 2020, Entrainment of sediment particles by very-large-scale motions. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 888, A7.

• Huang G., Falconer R. A. and Lin B. 2018. Evaluation of E.coli losses in a tidal river network using a refined 1-D numerical model. Environmental Modelling and Software. 108, October, 91-101.

• Huang G., Falconer R. A. and Lin B. 2017. Integrated hydro-bacterial modelling for predicting bathing water quality. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 188, 145-155.

• Li S., Zhang R., Hu J., Shi W., Kuang Y., Guo X., Sun W. 2019. Occurrence and removal of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes in  natural and constructed riverine wetlands in Beijing, China. Science of the Total Environment. 664, 546–553.
  

• Lu C., Shi W., Xin P., Wu J., and Werner A.D. 2017, Replenishing an unconfined coastal aquifer to control seawater intrusion: injection or infiltration?, Water Resources Research. 53, 4775–4786.

• Nikora V. 2010, Hydrodynamics of aquatic ecosystems: an interface between ecology, biomechanics and environmental fluid mechanics. River Research and Applications. 26, 367-384.

• Sun J., Liu L., Lin J., Lin B., Zhao H. 2019, Vertical water renewal in a large estuary and implications for water quality. Science of Total Environment. 710, 135593.

Project examples

• Introduction to Global Water Security

Example research projects

• Hydro-epidemiological Processes and Modelling- Study undertaken by Cardiff, Sheffield and Aberystwyth universities, UK

• Hydro-biological processes and their modelling - Study undertaken by Peking University, China