Research
Photo: Banks of the Nile River in Egypt (via聽)
Research activities under the UNESCO Chair on Hydropolitics aim to reflect on political challenges related to water resources. Anchored in social sciences (political science, geography), the Chair adopts an interdisciplinary approach, broadening the perspective to other disciplines as needed. The Chair鈥檚 research combines different theoretical and methodological approaches when analysing institutional frameworks, policy processes, or conflict resolution mechanisms at multiple levels. The research programme targets a great diversity of case studies.
Our research is organised in two ways. On the one hand, the Chair members develop different research proposals and projects based on international collaboration.聽
Ongoing Projects
- Designing Multi-Knowledge Protocols to Transform Transboundary Policies for Hydroclimatic Extremes 颅鈥� DemoTape (2023-2026). EU Water4All call.聽
- Recognition of Legal Personhood of Watercourses as a Tool for Transboundary Governance (2022-2025). In partnership with the Agence nationale de la recherche, the Agence de l鈥檈au RMC, the Compagnie nationale du Rh么ne, and the Index Project.
- Transboundary Water Governance in Central America: Achievements and Challenges 鈥� The Case of the Sixaola basin (2022-2023). Swiss Leading house for Latin American region.聽
- 聽(2020-2024). Funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in collaboration with the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), the聽Consorcio para el desarrollo sostenible de la Ecoregi贸n Andina聽(CONDESAN), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and Zo茂 Environment Network. This collaborative programme aims to boost the resilience and adaptation of mountain communities in the face of climate change by focusing on four key areas: data, information and monitoring; regional science-policy exchange; knowledge generation and sharing; and policy mainstreaming.聽
- 聽(2021-Ongoing). The initiative, jointly launched by the Geneva Water Hub and聽, aims to contribute meaningfully to the current debate on dam鈥檚dam鈥檚 management and offer resources to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. The first step of this initiative is to elaborate on an assessment of the legal tools applicable to dam planning, development, and monitoring. It will include a compendium of references grouping and analysing the main frameworks and principles addressing the challenges of dams.聽
- Monitoring for International Hydropolitical Tensions聽[Ongoing proposal]. In collaboration with Oregon State 玉美人传媒 (OSU), Tufts 玉美人传媒, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This project aims to combine different approaches, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies to monitor hydropolitical interactions and to identify critical variables that may play a role in the evolution of conflict and cooperation. In particular, the project explores the use of actors鈥� discourses and practices as a source of information to detect triggers of conflict and cooperation over transboundary waters.聽The objective is to provide a new systematic, case study and discourse-based approach that complements ongoing global studies using large-N datasets to identify global trends in transboundary water governance and聽that聽offers practical guidelines for聽the design and implementation of聽water diplomacy initiatives.
Past Projects
- 聽(2013-2018). In partnership with WWF International and the Luc Hoffmann Institute. The LIVES project tested various ways of identifying 鈥渓inked indicators鈥� for joint governance, planning, and food, energy, and water resource management deployed by institutions responsible for river basin management. The project questions how we combine 鈥渉ard鈥� science with social science to provide practical and聽useful knowledge. It aims for improved coherency in river basin planning so that risks are better identified and managed to benefit biodiversity and human well-being.聽
- 聽(2017-2020). Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Europe鈥檚 urban water supply and sanitation infrastructure is ageing and entering a phase of accelerated degradation. This deterioration directly impacts government authorities by threatening the quality of the public water supply and putting pressure on local budgetary balances. As such, recent reforms of urban water systems have been confronted by a complexity of governance processes. Therefore, the InfraGouv project aimed to identify the governance conditions favourable to the optimal functioning of European urban water infrastructure.聽
- 聽(2018-2019). Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL), the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), and the 玉美人传媒 of Lausanne. The research consortium studied the impacts of the present and future EU energy policy on the Swiss energy strategy and, more specifically, on related relevant Swiss policy instruments and governance structures.聽
- 聽(2019-2021). The project aimed to map water resources鈥� uses, the financial logic behind water policies, and their relationships. It will also show how the rules in force frame the practice of policy, its financing, and its coherence and socio-environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, as part of the Geneva Water Hub鈥檚 education and research activities, the Chair sets up its own research network integrated into the existing UNESCO chairs. Such research network has materialised in:
- The coordination of the聽, a consortium of technical and policy聽expertise聽in water conflict prevention and resolution. The Partnership鈥檚 activities, coordinated by the Chair, focus on water issues from different perspectives and at multiple levels. The Partnership aims to achieve coordinated applied research, provide a platform for exchanging opportunities and information, and strengthen capacity building and training in water diplomacy.