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Water Services
Key Topics
- Integrated and Adaptive Water Resources Management (IWRM, I/AWRM)
- Water supply and sanitation (urban and rural)
Services
- Policy and sector analyses
- Assessments and studies
- Project concept development
- Impact monitoring
- Policy advice
Consultancy and research support collaborative action for
Integrated and Adaptive Water Resources Management (I/AWRM)
Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is the commonly accepted ‘Leitmotif’ for sustainable water resources management. It bases water resources assessment, management and planning on the integration of all concerned actors from politics, science, the private sector and society.
As well as water it integrates all related natural resources, such as land, vegetation, animals and the atmosphere in its perspective. In addition, it merges interests from different sectors, such as water, agriculture, industry, energy, and private households. It acknowledges that water management and planning should not be confined to the administrative borders of local communities or countries, but should be based on catchment boundaries.
The Adaptive Management (AM) approach adds important principles to the IWRM perspective: it acknowledges uncertainty in water and natural resources management. There is a lot we do not yet know about the human-ecosystem and forthcoming changes e.g. through climate change.
This requires knowledge generation as basis for profound management decisions. And it asks for flexible management mechanisms, to allow adaptation of the course of action, if unforeseen changes happen to the human-ecosystem.