The Division of Water Sciences of UNESCO in partnership with ARCEAU-IdF, SIAAP and the Metropolis of Greater Paris calls paper for the second international conference “Water, Megacities and Global Change”, also known as EauMega 2020. The conference will run from 1 to 4 December 2020 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris France.

Summary

The EauMega 2020 conference responds to the need to consider the challenges of megacities from a water perspective, and vice-versa, as their interdependence is strong and their management deeply linked. For example, urban discharges to aquatic environments are one of the major causes of ocean pollution by plastics. Cities are increasingly vulnerable to extreme water events, such as hurricanes, floods, storms and storm surges or tidal waves. To tackle these increasingly recurrent incidents, the recent report by the OECD and UN-Habitat, “Global State of National Urban Policy”, shows the importance of urban policies for adapting to climate change and promoting sustainable development.

Objectives of UNESCO EauMega Conference 2020

• Produce a scientific and technical “state of the art” of water management in mega-cities.
• Contribute to the rapprochement and dialogue between science and politics.
• Officially launch the ‘ Alliance of Megacities on Water and Climate (MAWAC).

Call for Paper

The Water, Megacities and Global Change conference will illustrate how the research community and the operational world benefit through collaboration. In addition to experts and scientists, it will include civil society representatives and elected officials to highlight the importance of sound policy-making.

The conference also gives a voice to youth to share their perspective on all topics covered by the conference, and artists will be invited to illustrate the symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of water management issues in megacities and their impact on global change.

Themes of UNESCO EauMega Conference 2020

The conference will address two main thematic areas: challenges, and solutions. The conference will have two first and second thematic axis

First Axis 

The first thematic axis will analyze and address the determinant issues to maintain and strengthen the often precarious balance of these mega-urban systems, especially in the context of the accelerating global change:

• Risk reduction.
• The continuity of services, addressing disruption, intermittent access, and crisis situations.
• Understanding the necessary technical and social conditions to ensure resilient resources and systems.
• Taking into account land issues such as densification, gentrification, urban sprawl and transition areas between the heart of megacities and external territories.
• Maintaining “the ethics of nature”.
• Governance arrangements in megacities.
• Holistic water management.
• The Sustainable Development Goals as a tool for measuring the adaptation of water services to global change.

Second Axis

The second axis will address the types of solutions (means, methods, tools) that can be implemented to support water management in megacities:

• Planning tools to anticipate urbanization or regulate informal settlements; Water-Energy-Waste Nexus.
• Innovative governance initiatives (technical, institutional or social).
• Technical and technological devices, which extend over a continuum from “classic” civil engineering works (large, relatively irreversible developments…) to new management technologies with the smart city label or nature-based solutions that can address challenges at the megacities scale.
• The “new water cultures”.
• Strengthening sustainable solidarity, through mechanisms of cooperation, partnership, governance, and development.
• Financing at the appropriate scale: for urban areas and water basins.

Important Dates 

• Short abstracts submission by 29 February 2020.
• Full papers submission for evaluation and review by 31 July 2020.
• Finalized papers submission date by 30 September 2020.

Important Links

• See the detailed call for papers
  English | Français (pdf)
• Submit a paper(link is external)

Submit a paper