2023 marks the midpoint of the Water Action Decade (2018-2028) aimed at mobilizing and supporting efforts to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Recognizing that progress towards achieving the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is not on track, the UN 2023 Water Conference aims at producing a Water Action Agenda, calling on pledges to action from governments, water professionals and all stakeholders to accelerate work on the SDGs. IAHR, as a partner of the UN-Water platform, is contributing to the effort to reach specific targets of the SDGs through the work of its technical committees on different relevant aspects of hydro-environment engineering and research. The nature of this work reflects the significant changes in water engineering over the last sixty years or so, from the time that the design of water infrastructure was based on strictly technical and economic criteria to today’s very different philosophy of planning and design. In contrast to past approaches, today’s engineering is (and must be) much more holistic and inclusive. It considers potential environmental impacts, has embraced the principles of sustainable development, and explores and implements nature-based solutions. In addition, engineers are making progress towards accounting for social, gender equity, environmental justice issues, increasing the engagement of engineers with all stakeholders, including other sectors such as health, education or via the Water-Food-Energy nexus, and improving the ways they can work more effectively with policy makers and financing organisations. This issue of Hydrolink includes articles from the leadership of four IAHR Technical Committees that discuss the contributions of their work to the SDGs.

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Year: 2023

IAHR Document Library

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