Water4All’s 2022 Joint Transnational Call sought to deliver knowledge, models, approaches, tools and methodologies to better understand hydrological processes at different scales and to respond more efficiently to emerging water issues related to extreme events.
The Call also addressed innovative governance models, and enhanced participation of stakeholders, communities and society at large in water management issues related to extreme events.
The increase in the number of hydrological extreme events in the last few decades has motivated the research community to investigate their spatial variability and underlying processes. Evidence suggests that to properly support water management and tackle future and emerging challenges, it is necessary to make progress in understanding the spatiotemporal complex systems that drive hydrological events.
Today the series of portray of the 27 excellent R&D projects selected for funding continues. An introduction to the three following projects: MEGAWAT, MEWS and MORE4WATER.
MEGAWAT project
Coordinator: Francesca PELLICCIOTTI
MEGAWAT project is focused on “megadroughts in the water towers of Europe (from process understanding to strategies for management and adaptation”
The general objectives of this project are:
- Address fundamental gaps in our knowledge of the hydroclimatic causes of extreme droughts, to provide a new understanding of meteorological droughts and their impact on land-surface interactions and the water cycle of Europe’s water towers, focusing on cascading and compound effects.
- Develop and demonstrate new adaptation strategies to cope with the extreme length, extent and intensity of future megadroughts.
Link to the Water4All project webpage
MEWS project
Coordinator: Don PIERSON
MEWS project is focused on “managing events and extremes in water supplies”
The general objective of this project is
- to develop a freely available open source 3D reservoir modelling system that can simulate the longitudinal and lateral transport of nutrients and DOC that enter reservoirs and which can promote algal blooms and impact water quality
- Model simulations will increase knowledge of the complex regulation of the extreme events on drinking water quality, and how this may change in a future climate.
Link to the Water4All project webpage
MORE4WATER project
Coordinator: Silvia MENICONI
MORE4WATER project is focused on “combined monitoring and forecast for a sustainable management of water resources and timely adaptation to drought”
The general objectives of this project are:
- To tune “user-friendly” models for simulating and forecasting the water elevation in aquifers and lakes based on the combined use of global atmospheric datasets (reanalysis) and ground measurements executed by smart and distributed sensors.
- To define innovative criteria for managing both WNs and ISs to ensure increasing available water in the long term.
- The model for the monitoring and timely adaptation to drought may strongly enhance the implementation of the existing legal frameworks for the management and equitable sharing of transboundary water resources, including aquifers.
- Proactive dissemination, communication, inter-sectoral collaboration, and exploitation of the project
