Louwes Lecture - 'Accountability and International Law: Reflections from Water Projects' - Professor Edith Brown Weiss
Thursday 23 February 2012 at 4:30 pm Christ Church, Blue Boar Lecture Theatre
Professor Edith Brown Weiss, Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International Law, and Co-Director of the Joint Degree in Law and Government, at Georgetown University Law Centre, has kindly agreed to come from Washington, D.C. to give the Louwes Lecture. Building on her work as former Chair of the World Bank Inspectional Panel, her lecture will be entitled 'Accountability and International Law: Reflections from Water Projects'. The lecture will be held on 23 February 2012 at 4:30 pm at Christ Church in the Blue Boar lecture theatre. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception at 6 pm at Christ Church in the Freind Room. If you plan to attend, please email louweslecture@gmail.com to register.
Oxford Water Security Network Seminar Series
25 January - 7 March 2012, Wednesdays every other week at 5pm in the Lecture Theatre, Lincoln College, EPA Science Centre, Museum Road, OX1 3PX.
The Oxford Water Security Network is hosting a seminar series during Hilary Term 2012. This seminar series will demonstrate the breadth and diversity of water research across Oxford in the lead up to the international conference on Water Security, Risk and Society in April 2012. The seminar series is structured around sessions with two 20-minute presentations from water researchers in different disciplines. Each presentation will provide a broad review of the topic area, coinciding with the release of short briefing paper on the topic. The presentations will be followed by a moderated panel discussion to stimulate discussion across the disciplines and engage audience members from academia, government and industry.
Please RSVP to Karis McLaughlin
Water Security, Risk and Society
16 - 18 April 2012, St Hugh's College, University of Oxford
This international conference on water security seeks to advance scientific inquiry and inform policy choices by developing an evidence base about the status of and pathways to water security in terms of multiple risks, scales, and actors. The conference will address water security challenges in developed and developing countries and regions, seeking to identify and elucidate global interdependencies between different socio-economic and cultural contexts.
Achieving and sustaining water security is a major 21st Century challenge for human society. The quest for water security has been a struggle throughout history; success in managing water for human settlement and food production, as well as for energy and transport, has defined many of the world's great civilizations. Past changes in the water environment have caused the collapse of civilizations and large-scale human movement. Relatively rapid 21st Century changes in populations, economies, political systems and climate will have substantial impacts on water resources. Predicted water futures indicate escalating water demand and deteriorating water ecosystems, resulting in increasing costs of and competition for water, coupled with significantly increased risks of serious flood and drought shocks. Unmanaged, these water futures will lead to widespread water insecurity, resulting in very high costs in terms of human suffering, sustained poverty, constrained growth, migration, and social unrest. Effective management of these water futures to achieve and sustain water security requires a blend of inter-sectoral interventions, inter-disciplinary skills, and public and private actions, at community, local, municipal, national, and global levels. Government, business and civil society leaders are increasingly recognizing the imperative of water security, and seek inter-disciplinary research and skills to ensure effective water management and development in a changing world.
The Oxford Water Futures Programme (OWFP) undertakes fundamental and applied research aimed at providing underpinning science and policy advice to achieve water security at all scales, and provides postgraduate and executive training to build a cadre of water professionals with the inter-disciplinary skills needed to address water futures.
Within the School of Geography and the Environment, the OWFP is currently engaged in three dimensions of water security:
- The changing water environment
- climate change, catchment hydrology, geo-hydrology, ecosystem dynamics and geomorphology. read more... - Water and society
- governance, law, policy, regulation, politics, human development and economics. read more... - Educational innovation
- MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management. read more...
The OWFP also acts as the focal point for academics with interests in water in the Social Sciences Division, and for links with other University Divisions.