Referenten: Prof. Jerald Schnoor, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Iowa
Ort: Forum Chriebach C20

Water is a vital renewable resource for society which is increasingly stressed by multiple demands of drinking water, agriculture, industry, recreation, and ecosystems. The drivers making water more “unsustainable” include population growth, climate and land use change, and our energy choices (power sources, biofuels, oil sands, and shale gas).  In this talk, we discuss the drivers affecting water sustainability and their potential solutions: Adapting to a changing water world, reusing water directly and indirectly, developing resilient water infrastructure, and taking a more holistic management approach to the entire water cycle. Mitigation and adaptation to climate change are grand challenges of the 21st century which must be addressed to make real progress on water sustainability.