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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON WATER SCIENCES AND RESEARCHThe IWA Specialist Groundwater Conference in Belgrade, 2011Ongoing north-south cooperationJCI has taken part in a number of UNESCO’s ongoing activities.These include the Training and planning workshop to develop aroadmap for integrated disaster management in Namibia, in May2012 - an activity that will continue in late 2013. In May 2012 JCItook part in the international workshop on implementing modularcurricula for tertiary technical and vocational education in IWRM,in Kaduna, Nigeria. In March 2013 the institute participated at thenational capacity building workshop on hydro-disaster risk managementand preparation of a national action plan, in Cotonou, Benin;and in May 2013 at the training and planning workshop to developa roadmap for IWRM and flood risk control in South Sudan.Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with the RegionalCentre on Integrated River Basin Management in Kaduna, Nigeria;the UNESCO Chair in Hydroinformatics at Capital NormalUniversity in Beijing, China; and the International EngineeringInstitute of Water and Environment in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.2013 conferencesThe ‘UNESCO Symposium-cum-Experts Meeting’ was held inBelgrade on 9-11 July 2013, covering the following four topics:• analytical methods for the detection of emerging pollutants andtheir transformation products• toxicity of emerging pollutants and their water-related properties(degradability, solubility, sorption)• emissions and treatment of emerging pollutants• occurrence and fate of emerging pollutants in surface water andgroundwater, and mathematical modelling.The contributions by leading experts in the matter, includingkey recommendations and conclusions, will be soon publishedby UNESCO.From 17-18 October 2013, the centre is organizing the InternationalConference on Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources whichwill cover the following topics:Image: JCINetworkingOne of JCI and the UNESCO centre’s development goals isenhanced networking with international and national institutions.JCI maintains close ties with many organizations which alsostrongly supported the establishment of the UNESCO centre.At the international level, JCI has close ties with the following:• World Water Assessment Programme• Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford• UNESCO IHE• International Sediment Initiative• International Flood Initiative• World Meteorological Organization (WMO)• United Nations University• International Association of Hydrological Sciences• International Strategy for Disaster Reduction• International Groundwater Assessment Centre• European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology• IHP-HELP Centre• International Centre for Water Hazardand Risk Management• WMO World Climate Program - Water• Water Technology Center, Karlsruhe• International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River• International Association of the Waterworks in the DanubeCatchment Area• Sava Commission• Slovak National Committee for the UNESCO-IHP• Bulgarian National Committee for the UNESCO-IHP• Water Institute of the Republic of Slovenia• University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Architecture and CivilEngineering, Bosnia and Herzegovina• Hydrometeorological Institute of Montenegro• University of Skopje, Macedonia, Institute of Biology andFaculties of Civil Engineering, Forestry, Natural Sciencesand Mathematics, and Agricultural Sciences and Food.At the national level, ties include the:• University of Belgrade Faculties of Mining and Geologyand Civil Engineering• Sinisa Stankovic Institute of Biological Research• University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences• University of Nis, Faculty of Civil Engineeringand Architecture.• climate change and global changes: factors thatcause them, observed changes and predictions• the impact of global changes on water resources– observed changes and different predictionmethodologies (the importance of data quality,cooperation and monitoring; the impact of differentfactors on river discharges and trends suchas climate change in meteorological data, varioushuman activities and influences on water resources,land use changes, and so on)• water scarcity (water use and agriculture underglobal changes; adaptation measures for watermanagement; frameworks and policies)• water resources management under global changeconditions (regional and transboundary riverbasin management; floods; the role of ecosystemservices and so on).JCI and its UNESCO Category II Centre will continuealong the path of ongoing capacity development andenhancement, and regional collaboration.[ 321 ]