Theme A: Coping with Climate-related Extremes

The magnitude and frequency of climate-related water extremes have been on the rise in the recent past. In 2024, for example, there were record flooding events in India, Kenya, Tanzania, and UAE; record drought events in large parts of South America and Panama; record cyclones/hurricanes in the Philippines, Taiwan, China and USA; record heat waves in North America and Europe; and record cold spells in Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Such records are being broken with alarming frequency. For example, on 22 July, 2024, Earth experienced its warmest day ever as the daily global average temperature reached a new high, at 17.16 C. Incidentally, this broke the previous record of 17.09 C, set just one day earlier on July 21, 2024.

Climate-related water extremes become the norm rather than exception. Hence, contemporary scientific research must focus on how humankind should cope with these from multiple perspectives. This is indeed a multi-criteria problem with a deterministic and, what makes it really complicated, sometimes also with a chaos-driven randomly developing chain of effects at different levels in the social, economic and ecological spheres. How do we cope with these challenges and what are actually effective tools and measures in our responsive actions?

The sessions under this theme will seek to deliberate on and discuss the latest state-of-the-art scientific knowledge in this domain through three dedicated sessions.

Sessions

Session A1: Forecasting climate-related water extremes

Forewarned is forearmed. A robust forecasting mechanism can better help in arriving at adequate response mechanisms that minimize damage to life and property. This session will discuss the various models, techniques and tools to forecast climate-related extremes, with different lead times covering both short-term and long-term scenarios.

Session A2: Vulnerability and impact assessments

Water is the primary medium through which the impacts of climate-related extremes are manifested and these impacts have repercussions on almost every sector—water, agriculture, energy, mobility, among others. The purpose of this session is to discuss research that has led to an improved understanding of how these impacts have been ascertained for the various sectors. The session will also deliberate on avenues that have been adopted to address these impacts and vulnerabilities.

Session A3: Strengthening societal resilience

Humans are at the center of any climate change response mechanism. Hence, enhancing societal or community resilience to climate and water extremes is arguably the most vital element in the battle against climate change. This session will discuss societal resilience from multiple perspectives, community-based structures, governance models, individual coping strategies, among others.