Our reports and papers are mostly published in conjunction with a partner organisation or major event. Through evidence analysis they inform the reader of important achievements or outcomes, supporting knowledge on water from a diverse and generally more global perspective.
Integrated Water Resource Management: A New Way Forward
Expectations for water resources management have been transformed over the last century. The engineer’s hydraulic mission has been replaced by the mission of Integrated Water Resources Management. IWRM sets out to reconcile multiple, competing uses for water, with legitimacy attained through public participation, and with coordination and technical competence assured through specialised basin entities or agencies where they exist. Yet, still problems in water resource management accumulate faster than they are resolved.
Putting Nature in the Nexus
Nature is the unseen dimension of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. With its functions integral to the three securities and their inter-dependence, nature is part of the infrastructure needed to manage the nexus and its resilience. Without healthy ecosystems in well-functioning watersheds, the infrastructure built for irrigation, hydropower or municipal water supply does not function sustainably, and is unlikely to achieve the economic returns necessary to justify investments.
Food Security: Making the Ecosystem Connections
Food security policy-makers in developing countries have much to gain from integrating ecosystem management and good ecosystem governance into their policy measures, and collaborating with other sectoral policy-making initiatives to ensure they consistently support food security. Effective policies also address the social aspects of the ecosystem connections to food security by strengthening, for example, land tenure, access rights to natural resources, local organizations, and gender equality.
Securing Water for Ecosystems and Human Well-being: The Importance of Environmental Flows
This report represents a joint effort between a number of organisations and individuals working at the forefront of research, training, and implementation of environmental flows. The collective goal is to illuminate the role of environmental flows in simultaneously improving human well-being and sustaining vital ecosystems. The reader will come to understand environmental flows as essential to meetingwater management challenges faced today and into the future, including adaptation to climate change.
Water For Nature, Nature For Water
Where does the water we use come from? From a tap, yes, or from a well or a river. But, behind these sources is nature, which cycles, stores, cleans and releases the freshwater we use. e water that keeps us sources is nature, which cycles, stores, cleans and releases the freshwater we use. e water that keeps us healthy and fed, and that powers industry and the economy, come to us via nature. healthy and fed, and that powers industry and the economy, come to us via nature. The IUCN 'Water for Nature, Nature for Water' framing paper was submitted to guide the consultation process on water management of the UN led Post 2015 'The World We Want' initiative.
Water in Drylands
This study presents some lessons from a selection of IUCN interventions in dryland areas that have adapted to a greater or lesser extent to the conditions of drylands, notably focusing on water management to deal with scarcity and variability. The study is intended as a means of capturing lessons learned from these interventions on the challenges and opportunities for improving water development in drylands. It is primarily a learning document compiled by the IUCN Secretariat, with technical advice from the Drylands Ecosystems Thematic Group of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management.
Practical Guidelines for Establishing a Community Environment Conservation Fund
The 'Practical guidelines for establishing a Community Environment Conservation Fund as a tool to catalyse social and ecological resilience' has been developed based on practical lessons learnt from the Building Drought Resilience through Land and Water Management (BDR) project. BDR is a 3 years (2012-2014) project being implemented around the lower Tana River in Kenya and around the upper Aswa River in Uganda. The project is implementing IUCN’s Resilience Framework to climate variability and change, and is funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation.
Environment as Infrastructure
Impacts of climate change, in combination with other drivers of global change, are compromising our ability to address global economic, security and social priorities. As water is at the centre of climate change impacts, this demands a focus on resilience to impacts on water. The environment has a critical role in building resilience to climate change and reducing vulnerabilities in communities and economies. Well-functioning watersheds and intact floodplains and coasts provide water storage, flood control and coastal defence. They are ‘natural infrastructure’ for adaptation.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Water and Wetlands
Wetlands are essential in providing water-related ecosystem services, such as clean water for drinking, water for agriculture, cooling water for the energy sector and regulating water quantity. In conjunction with their role in erosion control and sediment transport, wetlands also contribute to land formation and therefore resilience to storms. Moreover, they provide a wide range of services that are dependent on water, such as agricultural production, fisheries and tourism.
Water Management and Stewardship
Companies are increasingly encountering disruption to their operations due to problems of water supply, as well as floods. In this context, they are called upon to improve their management of water including adotion of standards of 'water stewardship' for responsible water management respecting shared use of water between water users in catchments and river basins, beyond just individual use. The evidence gathered by this study suggests, however, that there has been little evolution, to-date, from busines-as-usual.
Green Infrastructure - Guide for Water Management
Green Infrastructure (GI) is becoming increasingly recognized as an important opportunity for addressing the complex challenges of water management.The GI approach refers to the natural or semi-natural systems that provide services for water resources management with equivalent or similar benefits to conventional (built) "grey" water infrastructure. The illustrative case studies in this guide provide examples of GI options that address water management challenges, while delivering a number of significant co-benefits.