Innovative Solutions for Global Water Issues

Linking the local and the global by connecting research, policy and practice

The guiding principle of this programme is to connect global analyses with local solutions: the 12 GRoW joint projects improved global information and forecasts for water resources and demand, while exploiting new knowledge to develop solutions for local water problems with stakeholders. The transfer project “GroWnet”, led by adelphi, identifies and takes advantage of synergies between these 12 joint projects and helps them transfer their research results and solutions into policy and practice.

Water is a valuable production factor

Tools developed by researchers in the GRoW WELLE project enable companies to better determine their water footprint. The project found that, in many companies, over 95 percent of the total water consumption in the manufacture of products comes from the supply of energy and materials. If the value of water as a production factor is made visible at all points in the supply chain, companies can take measures to reduce water scarcity at local hot spots in their value chains.

Efficient water management in agriculture

The world’s largest consumer of globally available water resources is agriculture. “We are developing tools to monitor and determine the efficiency of agricultural water use worldwide. This way, we can identify global hotspots in water management in agriculture that have an impact on food production, ecosystems and energy generation,” says Wolfram Mauser, coordinator of the GRoW project VIWA, Chair of Geography and Geographical Remote Sensing, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Clean energy without water stress

Water is also an important factor in the energy transition: considerable amounts of water are required to extract raw minerals – often in regions that are already suffering from water stress. Case studies and global modelling in the GRoW project WANDEL show that strategies for the energy transition not only have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also have to take water requirements into account. This way, clean energy does not come at the expense of scarce water resources in arid regions of the world.

The researchers call on global leaders in business and policy to tackle the international water crisis in three key areas: leveraging digitalisation, addressing teleconnections, improving governance. The potential of digitisation should be exploited to improve water management and the long-range effects of water use, such as the water footprint of global supply chains, must be considered. Water must play an integral role in all decisions related to natural resources. Decisions should be made within good governance structures, be based on scientific evidence, and be made transparent.