ABOUT US
Pressure over water resources is increasing rapidly as a consequence of the climate change and growing population. As a result, water shortage is expected in the next future. In addition, the frequency, intensity and length of extreme climatic events will increase alternating drought periods with extreme precipitation that may cause flooding. In this context, it is needed to develop and incorporate robust and advanced approaches and tools into water governance models to allow defining better practices and designing efficient and sustainable water management strategies. WATER4MED aims at (i) developing robust numerical tools by coupling hydrological and hydrogeological models for estimating realistically the evolution of water resources under the impact of climate change and growing demand, (ii) proposing new approaches for establishing the resilience capacity of water systems against meteorological events, (iii) applying advanced methods to assess the vulnerability and quality of water bodies, paying special attention to contaminants of emerging concern, (iv) assessing the suitability of flood-MAR to minimise floods and increase stored freshwater, and (v), incorporating data and approaches resulting from WATER4MED into integrative tools for water resources management. WATER4MED will be developed in 4 demonstration sites (Spain, Tunisia, Portugal and Morocco) and the replicability of the developed approaches will be assessed in two additional Mediterranean countries (Lebanon and Jordan), from which Lebanon is not represented in the consortium. Finally, it is worth to mention that WATER4MED will allow reducing future water-related conflicts by providing tools and data to improve governance models such as (i) information about water availability, (ii) methods based on monitoring and modelling to know the evolution of water resources under climate change, (iii) techniques for increasing stored water and minimising floods, and (iv) preserve the quality and quantity of water resources.
