Open Water Network: Impacts of Global Change on Water Quality

Project Description

The goal of this project is to support the implementation of the Scientific Research and Innovation (Priority Area 1) of the ninth phase of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP), 2022- 2029. The project specifically supports Outputs 1.8, 1.9 and 1.10 by supporting water quality monitoring using both hydrological models and remote sensing, advancing the use of emerging low cost internet of things technology (IoT) sensors and implementing citizen science activities to monitor water quality and contribute to decision making towards achieving sustainable development goal 6 (clean water and sanitation). 

The objectives of the UNESCO-IHP activities are :

Output 1.8: Developing and sharing knowledge and innovative solutions to improve water quality and reduce pollution
The aim of this output is to: 

• Conduct thematic assessments of water quality at multiple scales (basin, city, national, regional, and global) to identify key pollution pressures, both human drivers (point source and diffuse pollution) and climate drivers.

• Promote the adoption of innovative technologies, such as IoT water quality sensors, to improve water quality monitoring and recommend best practices for water quality management.

• Communicate findings through science-policy briefs, technical reports, and international conferences on the impacts of global change on water quality.

  To this end, we will coordinate activities jointly with ISIMIP-PROCLIAS to assess the impacts of climate extreme, including droughts and floods on water quality, supported by case studies across diverse hydrological systems.

Output 1.9: Developing and sharing new technologies using Earth Observation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT)
This output entails:

• Implementing pilot projects to evaluate the effectiveness of emerging technologies in different country and basin contexts.

• Applying satellite remote sensing, UAVs, and AI for freshwater quality monitoring.

• Contributing to the development and expansion of the UNESCO Global Water Quality Portal, in partnership with UNEP, the World Water Quality Alliance, and others.

• Harmonizing water quality monitoring methods and data collection practices across regions through collaboration with ISIMIP, PROCLIAS, EGU, and IAHS, with the aim of supporting an open-access, community-based platform.

  To this output, the project aims to synthesize and harmonize different water quality monitoring and data collection techniques applied across different regions through the ISIMIP/PROCLIAS/EGU/IAHS networks into a free community-based open-access UNESCO Global Water Quality portal.

Output 1.10: Conducting and sharing research on integrating citizen science in hydrology
The objectives of this are:

• Supporting the integration of citizen science methods into hydrological monitoring frameworks and encouraging community participation in water data collection to complement traditional scientific approaches.

• Sharing research on the role of citizen science in improving understanding of water resources and contributing to informed decision-making.

  The project aims to coordinate citizen science activities for collecting water quality data and widen the spatial coverage of water quality data. The project also aims to coordinate activities to standardize methods of water quality data collection and validation of data collected through pilot cases of citizen science across different local applications. Mapping stakeholders, communication and sharing of citizen science research on water quality through various social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube.