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The United Nations University (UNU) is the academic arm of the United Nations (UN). It bridges the academic world and the UN system. Its goal is to develop sustainable solutions for current and future problems of humankind in all aspects of life. Through a problem-oriented and interdisciplinary approach it aims at applied research and education on a global scale. UNU was founded in 1973 and is an autonomous organ of the UN General Assembly. The University comprises headquarters Tokyo, Japan, and more than a dozen Institutes and Programmes worldwide.

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Working Paper No. 4/2008 out now!

“Groundwater and Human Security Case Studies (GWAHS-CS)”

The new working paper by Fabrice Renaud, Jose Luis Martin-Bodes and Brigitte Schuster contains the results from the Kick-Off Workshop in January 2008 in Bonn. GWAHS-CS is the first practical activity under the “Quo Vadis Aquifers?” umbrella programme and is a collaboration between, among others, UNESCO-IHP, UNU-EHS and UNU-INWEH. Working Paper No. 4 includes the results of three brainstorming sessions which took place after the presentation of four case studies.

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UNESCO-IHP and UNU decided in 2006 to develop jointly a programme addressing the links between groundwater degradation and human society, which is called “Quo Vadis Aquifers (QVA)?”. GWAHS-CS is the first practical activity under this programme with the aim to investigate how improved groundwater management can increase human security. Research objectives are: to adapt existing vulnerability assessment frameworks and concepts to the issues of water scarcity and water quality degradation, to determine methods for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability and groundwater degradation as both a hazard to communities, to develop a set of socio-environmental indicators of vulnerability due to natural hazards and water availability and quality, and to characterize the vulnerability of selected communities facing various types of hazards and their access to safe groundwater resources. The working paper deals with four case studies: Vietnam (2), Egypt and Iran.