Water Pavilion: Virtual Meeting Details (waterforclimate.net)
Due to their geographical location, size and topographic characteristics, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have been particularly affected by climate change. According to the recently released IPCC 6th Assessment Report, drying trends will persist in several SIDS regions, the increasing trend in temperature in the 21st century will further accrue heat stress, fewer but more intense tropical cyclones are projected, and sea level will continue to rise affecting groundwater resources. Among the impacts of climate change observed in SIDS, hydro-climatic hazards and more frequent coastal floods are the most devastating and a big threat to water security.
The Division of Water Sciences of UNESCO, aligned with its commitment to strengthen the efforts of SIDS to achieve their sustainable development, is carrying out a multidisciplinary study aimed at establishing a framework for assessing vulnerabilities to hydro-climatic hazards. This framework seeks to support SIDS in increasing their response capacity and to enhance their preparedness facing hydro-climatic hazards through a water resilience approach. Hence, it considers the hydrological, climatic, social and economic perspectives. The framework has been developed in three phases: assessment of hydro-climatic hazards, vulnerability, and policy gaps; the application of a water resilience approach to cope with the identified hydro-climatic hazards and the development of case studies including iterative feedbacks to improve the methodology.