Policy Support and Assessment
The Water Systems Analysis Group has supported several assessment activities through an ongoing interaction with UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP). It was able to mount an electronic distribution of global discharge data, design of its Sixth Phase agenda on global water resource challenges, and provide technical and science analysis support for the 24 UN-agency World Water Assessment Program, which IHP hosts.
WSAG has also been active in the Millennium Assessment, providing geospatial analysis and through the Director's role as Convening Lead Author on Chapter 7 (Freshwater) of the Conditions and Trends Working Group volume.
The Director is an invited representative on the Science and Engineering Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and serves as a co-Editor of the IAHS Hydrological Sciences Journal. Members of WSAG have also been engaged through the World Bank in an assessment of the functional hydrological value of preserving moist tropical forest biodiversity.
Work by Vörösmarty et al. on large river impoundment has documented for the first time a 700% increase in the standing stock of river water and a probable 30% interception of global sediment flux. Using tools already developed to foster regional to global-scale synthesis studies, we are establishing a global geography of emerging water problems and their social implications.