The delivery of current global agendas such as 2030 Agenda, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and Paris Agreement on Climate Change relies highly on reaching water security. UNESCO International Hydrological Programme has placed water security at the heart of its eighth phase (2014-2021) defining it as “the capacity of a population to safeguard access to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality for sustaining human and ecosystem health on a watershed basis, and to ensure efficient protection of life and property against water related hazards floods, landslides, land subsidence and droughts”.
However, in Asia and the Pacific region, implementing and monitoring related SDGs will require new technologies, global and regional cooperation along with comprehensive education and targeted capacity building. Hydroinformatics can provide customized tools for both education and capacity building and better understanding, knowledge, decision making, effective policy frameworks for building resilient and sustainable society.
This session will discuss the progress on hydroinformatics in the region, how it can contribute to build a water secure region, especially but not limited to the IHP regional network. Also with predicted increase in frequency and intensity of hydrological extremes, two major UN family initiatives, the International Flood Initiative and the International Drought Initiative will discuss their roles for achieving a water secure region and world.