Les Rendez-vous de l’Eco: “Water Resources: A Global Issue, the Challenge of the Century?”

As part of the “Rendez-vous de l’Éco” series, the School of Economics is organizing, in partnership with its student associations, a conference on the topic: Water Resources: A Global Challenge, a Challenge for the Century?

Today, more than ever, the issue of water is a universal and multifaceted topic. And its importance will only grow in the years and decades to come, particularly as a result of climate change, population growth, and inevitable urbanization—all of which have the potential to generate risks, disasters, economic and/or social difficulties, as well as tensions or conflicts across the globe. How, then, can we incorporate and address the fact that the existing responses and solutions to these multifaceted crises must be implemented locally and require, everywhere, a reevaluation of certain elements and foundations of how our human societies function?

Speaker:

• Eric SERVAT: Director of the UNESCO International Center on Water—ICIREWARD Montpellier (International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Water Systems Dynamics), Research Director at IRD, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Montpellier. He served as Director of the Montpellier Observatory of Universe Sciences (OSU) from 2015 to 2024. Eric Servat is a hydrologist by training. He has taken a keen interest in the relationship between global changes and water resources, first in Africa and later in the Mediterranean region as well. He has coordinated and led numerous international programs, notably through a partnership with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Program and its flagship “FRIEND-Water” program, which brings together more than 160 countries across all continents. He was recently appointed (July 2024) Chair of the French National Committee for UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Program.