The Science and Technology process focuses on a number of areas where science and technology development provides a major opportunity to innovate water resources management. A number of areas have been carefully selected and are described below.

Main focus 1: Efficient water management

Today’s water management continues to be highly inefficient in many respects, seriously hampering the sustainable management of water resources, delivery of services and the protection of human health and the environment. In the years to come, major efforts will need to be made to improve water efficiency as a means to secure water resources, adapt to climate change, or operate water services systems at lower costs.
Sub Focus: Urban water efficiency, Agricultural water efficiency, Industrial water efficiency, Energy efficiency in water and waste water systems

Main focus 2: Resource recovery from water and waste-water systems

Increasingly, water and waste-water systems are recognized as potential sources of recovering water, energy, nutrients and other materials. At the same time, the re-use of waste water in agricultural, industrial and urban applications is gaining momentum. The development of re-use and recycling within the water and waste-water sectors provides major opportunities for improving environmental performance, creating climate benefits and reducing costs.
Sub Focus: Water re-use and recycling technologies, Energy recovery and production from water and waste water cycles, Nutrients recovery from waste water

Main focus 3: Water and Natural disasters

As the devastating impact of recent natural disasters such as the flood occurred in Thailand in 2011, indicates, mankind is vulnerable to extreme weather events in developing and even in developed countries. Clearly, such extreme events have always been part of our life and may be caused by climate change. This makes water related problems, especially, such as floods and droughts, more difficult to analyze and predict. Climate change is predicted to have a range of serious consequences, some of which will have impact over the longer term, like droughts, while some have immediate and obvious impacts, such as intense rain and flooding. Floods and droughts are major natural disasters involving loss of life and the destruction of property. So, we may need advanced technologies and measures in order to cope with natural disasters.
Sub Focus: Climate change : impact assessment and adaptation, Drought analysis and management, Urban floods and damage reduction studies, RS and GIS applications for natural hazards

Main focus 4: Smart technology for Water

Water management is increasingly influenced by developments in Smart Technology(ST). Better use of this ST in measuring, monitoring and distributing water can lead to a significant contribution in overcoming water management challenges in the 21st century. Bridging the ‘divide’ between the water and ST sectors will be important in the development and (wide-scale) application of new smart technologies in the water sector.
Sub Focus: Urban and Irrigation water management and ST, Integrated and intelligent river basin water management and ST, Design and implementation of smart water grid, Water resources management and Big Data

Main focus 5: Understanding and managing ecosystem services for water

Ecosystems provide valuable services underpinning water security and the sustainable management of water resources. In recent years, major advances have been made in understanding the role of ecosystems in, for example, reducing floods, recharging aquifers, or protecting and improving water quality.
Sub Focus: The science and technology of natural and green infrastructure management, The economic valuation of ecosystem services for water, The payment for ecosystem services for water quality and delivery

• Hung Soo Kim(Professor, Department of Civil Engineering Inha University)