UNESCO Water Chairs in Asia and the Pacific
UNESCO Water-related Chairs (click here for more information) are joint undertakings between UNESCO and interested parties. It is the response to a pressing need to reverse the process of decline of interest in the domain on water resources research in higher education institutions in developing countries,especially the least developed countries. Water Chairs aim to: strengthen inter-university cooperation through the creation of an innovative modality for regional and international academic cooperation; facilitate the transfer, exchange and sharing of knowledge between institutions worldwide thus bridging the knowledge gap; encourage academic solidarity; assist the establishment of centres of excellence in developing countries; and stem the brain drain phenomenon.
In Asia and the Pacific, they serves as a prime means of building the capacities of higher education and research institutions through the exchange of knowledge and sharing, in a spirit of regional and international solidarity. They cover training, research and exchange of academics and offer a platform for information sharing in Water Sciences in Asia and the Pacific.
- UNESCO Chair in Hydroinformatics for Ecohydrology, established in 2011 at the Capital Normal University, China.
- UNESCO Chair in Community Education for Mountain Conservation and Watershed Management, established in 2010 at the University of Punjab, Pakistan.
- UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance, established in 2010 at the Australian National University, Australia.
- UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Groundwater Management, established in 2007 at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan and the Institute of Geo-ecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Water Management, established in 2005, at Hohai University, China.
- UNESCO Chair on Knowledge Systems for Integrated Water Resources Management, established in 2014 at the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan
