Guidance on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change

Economic Commission for Europe - UNECE
Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary
Watercourses and International Lakes
November 2009

UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) published Guidance on Water and Adaptation to Climate Change. The main points of the Guidance are:

• Water resources are extremely vulnerable to the climate change.
• Many countries in UNECE region has been negatively affected by "severe impacts from extreme events and disasters".
• Transboundary nature of water resources in the region presents shared risks and challenges thus solutions in adaptation need to be coordinated between all states in a transboundary basin.

The Guidance provides step-by-step advice for development of adaptation strategies, which would support implemenation by countries of the Water Convention and its Protocol on Water and Health in the context of climate change.

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National water program research strategy 2009-2014

EPA
September 2009

The National Water Program Research Strategy (hereafter referred to as the Water Research Strategy) was developed to more completely define the Water Program’s research needs, organize them around EPA’s Strategic Goals and Sub-objectives (see Exhibit 1), and communicate them to potential research partners. The development, goals, and organization of this document are described in more detail in later sections.

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Política Ambiental para la Gestión Integral de Residuos o Desechos Peligrosos

Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial
Dirección de Desarrollo Sectorial Sostenible

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Enlace Relacionado: Nodo Web Colombia, Sustancias Químicas y Residuos Peligrosos

Natural Solutions: Protected areas helping people cope with climate change

Protected areas – natural solutions to climate change crisis

IUCN
WWF
December 2009

Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 December 2009 – Protected Areas offer a cost effective solution to the impacts of climate change, according to a new book from IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, the United Nations Development Programme, Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Bank and WWF. “This book, Natural Solutions: protected areas helping people cope with climate change, clearly articulates for the first time how protected areas contribute significantly to reducing the impacts of climate change and what’s needed for them to achieve even more,” says Lord Nicholas Stern, who wrote a foreword for the report.

Press release


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Sanitation in India: Progress, differences, correlates, and challenges

Sekhar Bonu and Hun Kim
South Asia
Occasional Paper Series 2
Asian Development Bank
2009

Poor sanitation is responsible for the spread of a number of communicable diseases, resulting in lost productivity, reduced quality of life, and improvishment. Sanitation is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve public health. Using nationally representative data sets, the report presents analyses of progress, differentials, correlates, and challenges of sanitation in India, and discusses the policy implications of the findings. While significant progress has been achieved in the last decade, the scale of unmet need for sanitation in India is huge. Greater attention on the disadvantaged- households from the poorest quintile and scheduled tribes - and the states that have consistently underperformed could help accelerate further progress.

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Summary and policy implications Vision 2030 : the resilience of water supply and sanitation in the face of climate change

World Health Organization
December 2009

This document summarizes the evidence for the impact of climate change on water and sanitation technologies in the near to medium term. It aims to help policy-makers, planners, operators and communities in making practical decisions based on clear criteria, to improve the resilience of their water and sanitation services. It is part of a larger set of materials, including a full technical report and a set of background reports and guidance notes.

WHO and DFID have collaborated to carry out this study which has brought together our joint knowledge and expertise in water, sanitation, health and development. Ensuring optimal resilience of water and sanitation services in a globally changing climate context will be crucial to maintaining the momentum of making progress in health and development.

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La economía del cambio climático en América Latina y el Caribe: Síntesis 2009

Luis Miguel Galindo y Carlos de Miguel
CEPAL
Noviembre 2009

Informe CEPAL ante Cumbre de Copenhague:
Cambio climático costaría 137% del PIB actual de América Latina y el Caribe para 2100

Sin acciones internacionales de mitigación, la región podría sufrir pérdidas importantes en el sector agrícola y en la biodiversidad, fuertes presiones sobre la infraestructura y aumento en la intensidad de eventos extremos.

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The global corporate water footprint: Risks, opportunities and management options

McKinsey & Company
November 2009

This paper explores global water challenges that are of particular relevance to large corporate users, presents analytical approaches that can help companies make better decisions about water, and outlines  recommendations for the years ahead

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Assessing the economic viability of alternative water resources in water-scarce regions: Combining Economic Valuation, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Discounting

Ekin Birol
Phoebe Koundouri
Yiannis Kountouris
IFPRI Discussion paper 00908
October 2009

This paper demonstrates a comprehensive methodology for assessing the viability of an environmental management plan that has long-run economic and ecological impacts. The case study under consideration is the implementation of a water resource management plan in a water-scarce region of the world, namely Cyprus. Specifically, this plan proposes to replenish a depleting aquifer with treated wastewater. The proposed methodology first identifies the key stakeholder groups (farmers and the general public) who are hypothesized to derive economic values (benefits) from implementation of this plan, and then uses stated-preference methods to capture the total economic value of these benefits. Benefits are aggregated over the relevant populations of these stakeholder groups and weighed against the total costs of implementing the plan in a long-run cost-benefit analysis (CBA). An econometrically estimated time-declining trajectory of discount rates is used for the CBA in order to assess the long-run sustainability of the plan. The results reveal that the net benefit trajectory estimated with the time-declining discount rate takes one and a half to three times as long to come to a plateau compared to the constant discount rates of 3.5 and 6 percent, emphasizing the importance of using declining discount rates and capturing the entirety of the benefits generated by such plans. This methodology is particularly recommended for providing much needed information to support the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, which advocates the use of CBA with consideration of the notion of sustainability for achieving the “good water status” for all European waters.

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Tackling climate change on the ground: Corporate case studies on land use and climate change

World Business Council for Sustainable Development
December 2009

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development(WBCSD) recognizes the critical linkages that exist between land use and climate change (including agricultural and forestry activities). Indeed, changes in the Earth’s climate system affect how our land is managed, and how our businesses operate. Over the years, the WBCSD has been the leading business voice at climate negotiations. The organization has traditionally focused on energy rather than land use and climate change, therefore this report is a first step in providing some content to these important discussions.

This document is an attempt to demonstrate how business is tackling these linkages through a series of best practice case studies from a broad range of its member companies. It is an information piece for policy-makers, business and civil society who might see value in leveraging these efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change – indeed a number of these cases could potentially be replicated elsewhere. The publication is an online living document that will hopefully include more cases in the future. Business can help to overcome the challenge of managing land while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapting to the effects of climate change by developing innovative technologies and approaches and creating measurement and planning tools. But business is only part of the solution. It must collaborate with governments, the scientific community, civil society and others to also develop land-use practices that address climate change. This version of the report consists of the following case studies, categorized under three broad headings: Technology and innovation; Practices and approaches and Tools and measurement.

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Water related migration, changing land use and human settlements

Topic 1.2 of the 5th World Water Forum, “Bridging Divides for Water”
17-18 March 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
UNWATER

Conveners:
United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Southeastern Anatolia Project, Regional Development Administration (GAP)
UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC)

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Waste Not, Want Not: Economic and Legal Challenges of Regulation-Induced Changes in Waste Technology and Management

Resources for the Future
June 2009

Beginning in the early 1990s, stricter government regulation to protect public health and the environment led to radical changes in waste technology and management in the United States. More stringent regulation induced wholly new technologies, including the lining of landfills, the control of their gas emissions, and changes in the economic scale and geographic location of operation. Economic integration of waste management transformed “the local dump” into a nationwide and modernized industry. These changes led to unprecedented intervention by local government in attempts to control price, quantity, and location-specific attributes of the $40 billion waste market. Regulatory-induced changes in markets have long been a topic of academic and policy interest, but unique in this case was the emergence of legal challenges—under the dormant commerce clause—concerning public governance and the private sector. This paper reviews the regulation-induced changes in the market, its subnational governmental interventions, and protection of interstate commerce when new technology restructures a local service into a national business.

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Sergipe Water Project

World Bank
December 2009

The proposed project development objective is to promote the efficient and sustainable use of water in the Sergipe River Basin, by strengthening sector governance, enhancing land management practices and improving water quality. This objective will be measured through the following indicators tied to: (i) the establishment of integrated procedures and tools for environmental licensing and water rights; (ii) the improvement in efficiency and water productivity in targeted irrigation perimeters; and (iii) the reduction of pollution discharged into the Sergipe river basin.

Sector: Sewerage (50%);Water supply (25%);Irrigation and drainage (20%);Solid waste management (5%)
Theme: Water resource management (40%);Access to urban services and housing (40%);Pollution management and environmental health (20%)

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Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities: A review of experiences in developing countries

Philippe Marin
Trends and policy options No 8
PPIAF
2009

This book analyzes the access, service quality, operational efficiency, and tariff levels of more than 65 large water PPP projects (representing more than 100 million people) over 15 years in different regions. Its goal is to contribute to a better understanding of how to tackle the many challenges of providing water and sanitation services to urban populations in the developing world.The book is directed at policy makers in governments as well as donors and other stakeholders.

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Organization of water management in France

International Office for Water
2009

Content:

• French water policy and its overall organization
• Large developments and water control
• Municipal drinking water supply and sanitation utilities
• French experience at the service of international action

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IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level

UNESCO
March 2009

Contents:
Brochure Presentation
Part 1 Principles
Part 2-1 Guidelines for IWRM Coordination
Part 2-2 Guidelines for Flood Management
Part 2-3 Invitation to IWRM for Irrigation Practitioners

INBO Newsletter #17

International Network of Basin Organizations
December 2008/January 2009

p.20 Latin America

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A Handbook for Integrated Water Resources Management in Basins

Global Water Partnership
2009

This handbook is written primarily for basin managers and government officials who need to take decisions related to water management. Together, they have to put in place management systems that will mitigate the impacts of natural hazards, supply water for productive purposes (agriculture, industry, energy, transport, tourism, fishing, etc.), supply water for social purposes (health and domestic services) and protect the environment. They must, therefore, manage conflicts on water resource issues between many different users. The handbook is also aimed at non-governmental actors who are involved in basin activities. It provides guidance for integrated water resources management that can be applied in basins regardless of the context (developed or developing countries, humid or arid conditions) or the current state of water governance.

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Climate Change and Water

IPCC Technical Paper VI
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
June 2008

Contents:
1. Introduction to climate change and water
2. Observed and projected changes in climate as they relate to water
3. Linking climate change and water resources: impacts and responses
4. Climate change and water resources in systems and sectors
5. Analysing regional aspects of climate change and water resources
6. Climate change mitigation measures and water
7. Implications for policy and sustainable development
8. Gaps in knowledge and suggestions for further work

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Aquí versión en español

Water Knowledge Center - Project Terms of Reference (TORs) on Water Supply and Sanitation

Asian Development Bank

ADB’s Project Terms of Reference serve as guides for undertaking key activities in developing water supply and sanitation projects.

Project Terms of Reference:

• Diagnostic City Water Assessments
• Mainstreaming Small Scale Private Water Piped Network Providers
• Planning Urban Sanitation and Wastewater Management Improvements
• Implementing Zonal Management Approach to Urban Water Supplies

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