Objectives

The objective of TALANOA-WATER is to inform and catalyze the adoption of robust transformational adaptation strategies to water scarcity under climate change that contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic efficiency and environmental sustainability.

General activities

To achieve its objectives, TALANOA-WATER will develop a groundbreaking ecosystem of innovation that is structured across three pillars:

• Talanoa Water Dialogue: TALANOA-WATER will actively engage all relevant stakeholders leveraging on an innovative storytelling method, the Talanoa Dialogue, adopted within the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) for consensus-building on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. TALANOA-WATER will exploit the demonstrated ability of the Talanoa Dialogue in steering collective action to set sustainable water use limits that restore the balance between demand and supply in overallocated basins under climate change, through Basin Determined Contributions (BDCs); and to design and implement collectively agreed transformational adaptation strategies that align individual actions with BDCs while achieving equitable growth.
• Actionable socio-hydrology science: To underpin consensus-building and decision-making in the Talanoa Dialogue, TALANOA-WATER will employ, advance and demonstrate operability of the concepts originated in socio-hydrology science, which includes explicit consideration of ecological processes and human behavioral responses, and their integration through a deeper understanding and representation of the two-way feedbacks between human and water/ecological systems (Sivapalan et al., 2014). We will field a suite of integrated climate, hydro(geo)logic, agronomic and socio-economic models that is actionable, i.e. created alongside stakeholders and capable of effectively informing and enhancing performance of transformational adaptation strategies. We will thoroughly sample uncertainty through ensemble experiments (multi-scenario, multi-model, perturbed physics), so to identify transformational adaptation strategies that show a satisfactory performance under most conceivable futures and ensure decision-making is robust. Modeling efforts and decision making will build on a sound water accounting framework that validates and applies FAO’s WaPOR approach, using remote sensing techniques to produce reliable estimates of consumed water and return flows, and biomass production.
• Water laboratories: The Talanoa Dialogue and socio-hydrology concepts will be empirically applied in six pilot water laboratories across the Mediterranean: the lower Nile River Basin (RB) in Egypt, the Po RB in Italy, The Aude river basin in France, the Upper Litani Catchment in Lebanon, the Cega Catchment in Spain and the Jeffara Catchment in Tunisia. Each pilot water laboratory will engage all partners in the TALANOA-WATER Consortium based on their relevant expertise to exploit synergistic research potential; as well as all relevant stakeholders in the laboratory including public authorities (river basin authorities, ministries, municipalities), users’ associations (agricultural, hydropower, tourism), civil society organizations (e.g. NGOs)  and industry (e.g. insurance).

Expected results

TALANOA-WATER aims to achieve the following results:

• Design, implement and demonstrate the institutional and technical feasibility of a transition to sustainable and inclusive growth in diverse natural and cultural environments in 6 ‘pilot water laboratories’;
• Design, test and support the adoption of robust strategies for transformative adaptation to water scarcity caused by climate change, leveraging technological innovation (including unconventional water sources), nature-based solutions, risk management tools and behavioural incentives;
• Create multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnerships and new financial mechanisms to ensure sustainable investments and cost recovery in transformative adaptation strategies;
• Synthesis the results obtained in the pilot laboratories in the service of supranational (e.g. EU) and national strategies for water resources management, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, sustainable development and ecosystem protection in the Mediterranean area.