History

The Sustainable Water Future Programme (Water Future) is building on a decade of coordinated international research from the Global Water System Project (GWSP).

Background Information

The GWSP was a joint project of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP), scientifically sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and its four Global Environmental Change (GEC) programmes:

International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme (IHDP)
DIVERSITAS
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP)
World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).

Since 2004, GWSP spearheaded a broad research agenda and initiated new ways of thinking about water as a complex global system, emphasizing the links between natural and human components.

GWSP led the way to provide well-researched, integrative solutions, involving the biological and physical sciences together with economists and social sciences, to reduce the vulnerability of the Earth system and to give guidance to societies through assessments and future projections of the state of the global water system.

Research carried out by GWSP and its partners has uncovered several important results that inform a better global understanding of freshwater today.

Water Future has evolved from GWSP, based on the recommendations outlined in the Bonn Water Declaration, with a clear objective of promoting the adoption of science-based evidence into the formulation, implementation and monitoring of goals for sustainable development.

Key Objectives

Water Future aims to bring a global focus on water in sustainable development through four key objectives.

History

Building on a decade of coordinated international research from the Global Water System Project.

Literature

Explore informative literature from water science research.

GWSP Evolution Timeline

This timeline illustrates the evolution of GWSP within organizations and programmes.

1980

WCRP

1980

Scientists, led by Swedish meterologist, Bert Bolin formed the international World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) to study the predictability of climate and the potential effects from humanity on climate. They received joint sponsorship of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

1987

IGBP

1987

A team of researchers, led by Bert Bolin, James McCarthy, Paul Crutzen, H. Oeschger amongst others, successfully argued for an international research programme to coordinate international research on a global and regional scale. This involved invesitation of the interaction between Earth’s biological, chemical and physical processes and their interactions with human systems. This programme, sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), was known as the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) . The programme had eight projects investigating different aspects of the Earth system, until its closure in 2015.

1991

DIVERSITAS

1991

Established in 1991 by three international organisations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) and the International Union of Biological Science (IUBS). The DIVERSITAS addressed the complex scientific questions posed by the loss in biodiversity and ecosystem services and to offer science-based solutions to this crisis.

1996

IHDP

1996

The International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) was initially founded in 1990 by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) to work toward a better understanding of human interaction with and within their natural environment. The programme facilitated dialogue between science and policy to ensure that research results fed into policy-planning and law-making processes, and offered education and training to what were future leaders in the field.

2001

Amsterdam Declaration

2001

WCRP, IGBP, and IHDP led the Global Change Open Science Conference with more than 1400 participants, from over 100 countries. This conference led to the historic Amsterdam Declaration on Earth System Science of 2001.

This signed declaration called for strengthening cooperation amongst global environmental research programmes, greater integration and collaboration across disciplines and boundaries.

2001

ESSP

2001

Four international global environmental change research programmes: DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP, and WCRP joined together to form the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). The ESSP brings together researchers globally and from various disciplines to undertake integrated studies of the Earth System.

2004

GWSP

2004

The Global Water Systems Project (GWSP) was formed as a core project of ESSP from the four Global Environmental Change Programmes (DIVERSITAS, IGBP , IHDP, and WCRP) to understand the complex global water systems with its interactions between natural and human components and their feedback.

2013

Future Earth

2013

Future Earth is built on many decades of international research on global environmental change carried out by projects sponsored by DIVERSITAS, IGBP and IHDP. Future Earth aims to advance Global Sustainability Science, build capacity in this rapidly expanding area of research and provide an international research agenda to guide natural and social scientists working around the world.

2013

Bonn Water Declaration

2013

Water Future was formed a result of the GWSP conference, Water in the Anthropocene, held in Bonn in 2013. The conference elaborated on the current state of interdisciplinary water research, setting the stage for the next stage in the evolution of the global water research agenda, namely, to more formally connect research to improved decision making. As an output of the Bonn Conference, the water research and practioner community made a set of core recommendations in The Bonn Declaration on Global Water Security, which addressed the institutions and individuals focused on science, governance, management and decision-making relevant to water resources. The declaration called for joint global action to develop a broad community consensus for a multi-perspective and multi-scale knowledge-to-action water agenda based on these recommendations.

2015

Water Future

2015

The Water Future Programme was launched in Brisbane during the International River Symposium.