EEWRC’s Water Department pursues integrated natural resource management research, combining biophysical sciences with economic and environmental sciences, in cooperation with a diverse range of stakeholders, ranging from farmers to policy makers.

 

The research is organised in three groups along their main research directions:

• hydrology and ecosystems
• economic and environmental analysis
• hydro-diplomacy

The groups both pursue their own scientific research and cooperate to investigate practical problems and solutions with stakeholder involvement.

 

The vision of the Water Department is to become a scientific leader in transdisciplinary natural resource management research for the semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean and Middle East region. The Department has four strategic objectives, in line with its three research groups:

• The application and development of novel monitoring techniques and numerical models to improve our understanding of hydrologic and ecosystems’ processes and to assess the quantity and quality of water resources under global change;
• The experimental investigation and development of sustainable water and land management innovations for climate adaptation and combatting desertification;
• The environmental and economic assessment of sustainable water and land management innovations for climate adaptation and combatting desertification, considering the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus;
• The optimization of transboundary surface water and groundwater resources management with cooperation of all riparian countries, through the Hydrodiplomacy Partnership and the transboundary implementation of the WEFE Nexus.

The Department’s research is centered on terrestrial water resources, but soils, agro-ecosystems and their management are an integral part of the research. The analysis of hydrologic and ecosystems processes and the investigation of options for adapting to the potential impacts of changing climatic and socioeconomic conditions requires detailed data and observations. The Department has established the CyI hydro-ecological observatories, in cooperation with land users in Cyprus. The similarity of the second and third objectives shows the linkages between the experimental field work and the economic and environmental assessments. The Department has established strong competencies in transdisciplinary research and cooperates with a large variety of stakeholders in Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean and Middle East region, including researchers, national and local government officials, professional unions, small and medium enterprises, water and land managers, and farmers.