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Both the population growth and the increase of per capita water consumption lead to overexploitation of the finite fresh water resources that may have undesirable consequences like land subsidence, water-quality deterioration, etc., as the components of the natural water cycle are disturbed without consideration to their interactions and the fragile balance among them that has been achieved though long periods of interactions.Therefore, as adopted by WSSD action plan item 23, understanding basin water cycle is of utmost importance for the sustainable water resources development and integrated water management. Understanding water cycle means clarifying its present state as well as being able to predict its future state affected by the human interventions such as land use change and urbanization.

The program consists of three phases: (1) Setting up of distributed hydrological models in selected watersheds Incorporating reservoir operations and other water management options, (2) Coupling to short and long term climatic forecasts to develop appropriate policy scenarios, and (3) Dissemination over Internet targeting practitioners and policy makers. Implementation has started in 4 Asian countries with educational and governmental partner institutions, building on past work and existing networks and supported by different partnerships as below.

Partners

26 June 2007

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