2 November 2011
Dundee centre to join global research network
The University of Dundee's UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science has joined a consortium of international institutions working to promote water diplomacy.
The Dundee centre was the only UK institution invited to join the new Research Coordination Network in Water Diplomacy, an evolving team of professionals, practitioners and academics undertaking top-level research and field-based experience in hydro-politics as part of an effort to prevent water conflicts around the world.
The Network will address complex water problems where natural, societal and political elements cross multiple boundaries. It will seek to create water knowledge by exploring and demonstrating the effectiveness of cooperative approaches to decision-making in water conflicts.
The Network has been funded the US’s National Science Foundation for five years, and will be led by Professor Shafiqul Islam of Tufts University, and Professor Lawrence Susskind from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and will create a global network of water professionals
Professor Patricia Wouters, Director of the Dundee Centre, said that, as the project develops, their contribution will be to help identify both emerging research needs and knowledge gaps.
She said, 'This is a first-class honour for Dundee - to be included in the core group of this initiative, working with leading research and higher education institutions from around the world on addressing global water issues places us at the heart of the action in this field.
'We are thrilled that with the success of this proposal with the US National Science Foundation and look forward to working with our international partners to build a strong water diplomacy network that will promote regional peace and security and advance the fundamental freedoms of all through the peaceful management of shared water resources. Through the Dundee Water Law Water Leaders programme and our research in water law, policy and science, we hope to make our contribution in this critical area.'
Water diplomacy is as an increasingly vital way of preventing conflict over access to transboundary water resources. The likelihood of disputes will be exacerbated in coming years by climate change, and other environmental and political factors.
Dundee's expertise in this area is world-leading. Professor Wouters last month travelled to Rwanda to address a major conference aimed at kick-starting stalled treaty negotiations over access to the Nile basin resources.
Earlier this year, representatives of the Dundee Centre were invited to address a Global Water Security conference of the International Action Council. The IAC agreed a list of recommendations on addressing the global water crisis as 'one of the greatest challenges facing world leaders in the 21st century'.
Included in those recommendations are inputs from Dundee on water leadership, the UN Watercourses convention, water law, water rights and the duty to cooperate, demonstrating the impact the Centre has at the very highest levels.
Notes to editors:
The UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science operates under the auspices of UNESCO and forms part of Postgraduate School of Management and Policy at the University of Dundee.
The Centre is the world's only UNESCO Centre combining water law, policy and science; its multidisciplinary approach ensures that it is able to draw upon the full range of academic and practical expertise needed to affect real benefits for real rivers.
As part of UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme, the Centre is establishing a global network of basins to improve the links between hydrology and the needs of society.
The Centre is committed to local capacity building and an empowerment agenda; it is focussing its teaching resources on developing the next generation of global water leaders through its Water Law Water Leaders flexible educational programmes.
It was recently announced that Professor Wouters has been appointed Professor of International Water law at Xiamen law School in China. She will undertake this role in addition to her post at Dundee, and will help to educate the next generation of water leaders in the country under the Chinese Government's 'One-Thousand Talents' scheme.
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