1. Panel Discussions
1.1 - Art-Science-Society Co-Creation of Water Imaginaries
Hybrid | English & French
Conveners: Natalie Ceperley & Maoya Bassiouni
This session explores the co-creation of water imaginaries, a critical space where scientists, artists, and the public engage with hydrological dynamics and the lived realities of environmental change, reimagining their complexities and uncertainties together.
We invite art-science collaborations that co-create embodied experiences of water knowledge and shape avenues for sustainable futures. This may include and is not limited to visual and multimedia art, installations, performances, storytelling, and poetry.
The session will include a shared imaginal practice and short talks followed by a panel Q&A with the speakers. Together we aim to generate curiosity and creativity and transfer lessons learnt toward inspiring co-creations beyond science that deepen hydrological research and its societal impact through art and collective imagination.
1.2 The Nagoya Protocol: How Do We Stay Accountable as Researchers?
Hybrid | English & French
Conveners: Natalie Ceperley
The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing provides an international framework for ensuring that researchers engage equitably with the genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge of provider countries and communities. Yet translating legal obligations into everyday research practice remains a significant challenge across disciplines and geographies. This session examines how researchers, institutions, and communities are navigating accountability in diverse regional and cultural contexts. A series of short talks will present concrete examples from field-based ecological research to large-scale biodiversity programmes, illustrating both progress and persistent gaps in implementation. These will be followed by a panel discussion exploring shared questions: What does meaningful accountability look like in practice? How do power imbalances shape benefit-sharing negotiations? And what institutional structures best support compliance and trust? The session aims to foster honest, cross-regional dialogue and identify actionable strategies for more equitable research partnerships
2 - Scientific Sessions
2.1 - Co-creation of water knowledge in practice: experiences and limitations
Hybrid | English & French
Conveners: Giulio Castelli
Co-creation can be defined as "a collaborative process that is more focused on an iterative interaction leading to new knowledge – e.g. a new understanding of a problem – where collaboration is essential from the strategic or initial phases of the process". In water sciences, several attempts to implement co-creation have been developed, but there is scarce information about their effectiveness and the main issues and barriers that can arise in co-creation processes. This session welcomes the submission of papers and abstracts on real-life case studies, highlighting barriers and enablers of co-crearion and participation. A reflexive approach is encouraged, as well as the submission of "failed" and "imperfect" approaches.
2.2 - Between Policy and Practice: Gender Mainstreaming in Water and Irrigation Governance
Hybrid | English & French
Conveners: Lisa Bossenbroek, Hind Ftouhi, Zakaria Kadiri, Hajar Choukrani
Despite decades of international commitments, policy frameworks, and institutional efforts, gender mainstreaming in the water and irrigation sectors continues to fall short of its transformative potential. Across diverse contexts in the Global South, formal inclusion of gender in water strategies, legal frameworks, and donor-supported programs has largely produced participation without power: advancing numerical representation while leaving intact the deeper structures of masculine institutional cultures, unequal labor relations, and gendered exclusions from decision-making that shape who benefits from water governance and who bears its costs.
This session brings together researchers and practitioners to examine this persistent gap between gender mainstreaming as policy intent and gender equality as lived reality in water governance. Drawing on different experiences, contributors will explore how gendered water and farming realities are being reshaped under conditions of water resources depletion, agrarian transformation, and climate stress — and what these experiences reveal about the limits of current mainstreaming approaches. The discussion will be organized around three core questions: Why does the gap between formal gender commitments and everyday water realities persist across such different institutional contexts? What forms of women's knowledge, labor, and agency remain invisible in dominant governance frameworks and monitoring systems? And what would it mean to move beyond compliance-driven mainstreaming toward approaches that genuinely address power, legitimacy, and institutional culture in the water sector?
2.3 - Water mobilities in arid and semi-arid regions
Hybrid | French
Conveners: Hind Ftouhi, Lisa Bossenbroek, Zakaria Kadiri, Hajar Choukrani
In arid and semi-arid regions, water is a critical yet increasingly uncertain resource that shapes both ecological systems and human dynamics. Under the combined pressures of climate change, shifting allocation regimes, and market integration, rural populations are continuously adapting, often through diverse forms of mobility and livelihood transformation.
This session explores the interconnections between changing water flows and mobilities, understood in a broad sense: seasonal and permanent migration, daily commuting for water access, livelihood diversification, and the circulation of knowledge, practices, and remittances. It considers how the uneven distribution and governance of water resources reconfigure patterns of settlement, agricultural practices, and social organization.
By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives, the session welcomes contributions that engage with how different actors : farmers, institutions, and policymakers, navigate complex socio-hydrological systems shaped by ecological constraints, infrastructural developments, and governance arrangements. It also considers the role of public policies, hydraulic infrastructures, and market dynamics in shaping differentiated forms of mobility, immobility, and adaptation.
By combining empirical case studies, methodological approaches, and conceptual reflections, this session aims to advance a more integrated understanding of water systems, where hydrological processes are examined alongside flows of people, capital, and knowledge.
2.4 - Hydrosocial Territories: Integrating Flows, Power, and People
Hybrid | French & English
Conveners: Adeyemi Olusola
Water is never just water. Every river diverted, aquifer tapped, or floodplain developed reflects decisions about who matters, who decides, and who bears the cost. This session introduces the concept of hydrosocial territories, the idea that water systems and human societies are inseparable, co-produced through history, politics, and power rather than through nature alone. Bringing together perspectives from geography, political ecology, anthropology, and planning, we explore how communities negotiate, contest, and reimagine their relationships with water. Case studies span urban water insecurity, Indigenous water rights, agrarian conflicts, and climate-driven displacement, revealing patterns that resonate far beyond any single watershed. Whether your work touches on governance, equity, land use, or social movements, this session offers a framework for understanding how control over water shapes and is shaped by the societies that depend on it.
2.5 - Water as Boundaries: Rethinking Borders and Shared Systems
Hybrid | French & English
Conveners: Adeyemi Olusola
Rivers have long been drawn on maps as clean dividing lines, between nations, jurisdictions, and peoples. But water moves. It floods, shifts course, dries up, and ignores the boundaries we impose on it. This session interrogates the tension between water as a political boundary and water as a shared, dynamic system that connects the very communities it supposedly divides. Drawing on international law, political geography, environmental history, and conflict studies, we examine how borders drawn along waterways shape access, sovereignty, and cooperation, from transboundary river basins and contested aquifers to coastal zones and flood-prone borderlands. We ask: what happens when the logic of division meets the reality of interdependence? For scholars and practitioners working on migration, security, resource governance, or environmental justice, this session reframes water not as a line on a map, but as an arena where political and ecological systems collide, negotiate, and sometimes break down.
2.6 - Co-creation strategies for mountains and the cryosphere
Hybrid | French & English
Conveners: Natalie Ceperley
Mountains and cryosphere systems are among the most rapidly changing environments on Earth, yet their dynamics remain poorly understood beyond specialist communities. This session brings together scientific perspectives on mountain and cryosphere research, with an emphasis on how co-creation strategies can bridge disciplinary and societal boundaries. Through 20-minute scientific presentations, speakers will address themes including glacial retreat, snow cover variability, permafrost dynamics, and high-altitude water resources, situating technical findings within broader social-ecological contexts and indigenous knowledge. Presentations will examine not only what science tells us about these environments, but how researchers are working with local communities, Indigenous knowledge holders, policymakers, and practitioners to co-produce knowledge that is both scientifically rigorous and socially relevant. The session invites reflection on methodological innovation, equitable partnerships, and the communication of uncertainty in high-stakes mountain environments. Particular interest in presentations exploring mountain-specific of indigenous technologies and rituals (funerals for glaciers, glacier marriage, ice stupas) and approaches to mountain specific disasters (GLOFs etc.).
2.7 - Decolonising water: from theory to practices for sustainability
Hybrid | English-only
Conveners: Kwok Chun, Thanti Octavianti, Lori Bradford
Water management has long been dominated by Western-centric engineering and market-driven paradigms, often sidelining Indigenous and local knowledge. These colonial legacies continue to shape water governance today. Examples range from how colonial settlers in Canada seized control of water resources at the expense of Indigenous practices, to how colonial-era boundaries and Western educational frameworks continue to influence water knowledge, governance, and conflict across West Asia.
To achieve just and sustainable water management, there is an urgent need to move beyond theory and actively decolonise water practices. However, several questions remain:
- What do we mean by decolonisation in this context?
- Do water scholars and practitioners share a common understanding of the term?
- What are the successes, struggles, emerging challenges, and unknowns within this space?
This session invites submissions that explore theoretical understandings of water decolonisation, case studies, and actionable pathways for decolonising water systems.
2.8 - AI in Science Communication - What Does it Mean for Hydrologists?
Hybrid | English & French
Convener: Christina Orieschnig
Over the past years, artificial intelligence (AI) has holistically impacted human communication across all domains, including hydrology. While some argue that AI acts as an equaliser - allowing hydrologists who do not have English as a first language to engage with the international community, facilitating fieldwork, and making avenues such as visual storytelling accessible to those without artistic skills - others have highlighted negative impacts, such as the fradulent of AI to generate results and texts with minimal human input, a general erosion of trust, and abuse by students resulting in a lack of skillbuilding. This session will focus on the role of AI in science communication and how hydrologists can ethically leverage this technology. Practical examples, novel applications, and critical approaches are welcome and we encourage lively debate.
2.9 - Science Communication and Art - How to Leverage Creative Approaches in Hydrology?
Hybrid | English & French
Convener: Christina Orieschnig
Creative approaches offer a prime way for hydrologists to communicate their results with a broader target audience, engage local communities, and gain new insights and perspectives. Yet the integration of artistic elements in science communication - including in hydrology - also poses challenges, from funding acquisition to the publication of results from studies that leverage interdisciplinary approaches.
This session offers a platform for sharing experiences, projects, and best-practices for overcoming scepticisim and barriers when it comes to the integration of art and hydrology in science communication. Art forms can include a variety of mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture, dance, music, theatre, comics, animation, film, oral storytelling, and literature. We encourage submissions from hydrologists, artists, and practiciioners working in transdisciplinary projeicts. Early career scientist (ECS) submissions are particularly welcome.
2.10 - Water-related SDG implementation: case studies, challenges, and success stories
Hybrid | English-only
Convener: Mojtaba Shafiei
This session focuses on experiences, lessons learned, and practical pathways for implementing water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across local, regional, and global scales. The session aims to highlight real-world applications, governance challenges, monitoring approaches, and successful practices that support integrated and equitable water management.
Topics of interest include:
• Implementation of SDG 6 and related water-focused targets
• Synergies and trade-offs between water-related SDGs
• Case studies on integrated water resources management (IWRM)
• Water governance and institutional coordination for SDGs
• Monitoring frameworks, indicators, and assessment tools
• Challenges in translating SDG goals into local action
2.11 - Water Weaponization: Power, Control, and Prevention
Hybrid | French & English
Convener: Adeyemi Olusola
Water sustains life, and, in the wrong hands, it can threaten it. This session examines how water has been deliberately wielded as a tool of power, coercion, and harm across every scale of human organization: from households where access is withheld as a means of domestic control, to municipalities that shut off supplies to marginalized communities, to states that dam, divert, or poison water to assert dominance over populations and rivals. Drawing on human rights law, political science, conflict studies, gender-based violence research, and environmental justice, we trace the through-lines connecting these seemingly disparate acts, revealing weaponization not as an aberration, but as a recurring logic of control. Crucially, this session does not stop at diagnosis. We examine emerging frameworks for prevention, accountability, and resistance, asking what it takes to transform water from a weapon back into a right.
2.12 - Science-policy-practice nexus in hydrology and water management
Hybrid | English-only
Convener: Mojtaba Shafiei
This session explores how hydrological science can more effectively connect with policy and practice to support sustainable, inclusive, and actionable water management. It focuses on interactions, knowledge exchange, co-production processes, and roles that link researchers, decision-makers, practitioners, and communities across scales. Particular attention is given to transdisciplinary approaches, adaptive governance, participatory processes, and the role of Open Science principles, including accessibility, transparency, reproducibility, data sharing, and collaborative knowledge generation, in strengthening hydrological science–policy–practice interfaces.
Topics of interest include:
• Case studies linking hydrological research to implementation and policy outcomes
• Global and local water agendas and initiatives shaping collaboration, coordination, and implementation across scales
• Open Science in hydrology and water management
• Open data, reproducibility, transparency, and FAIR principles
• Collaborative platforms and knowledge-sharing frameworks
• Digital tools and AI-supported approaches for science-informed governance
2.13 - Co-creating water resilience for agriculture
Hybrid | French & English
Convener: Bich Tran
The agricultural sector remains a primary water user and polluter, while facing increasing pressures from climate change, shifting socio-economic trends, and inter-sectoral competition over water resources. These challenges threaten food production and rural livelihoods. Although a diverse array of scientific and technological solutions has been continuously being developed, their implementation faces challenges from high implementation costs, limited access and technical expertise, etc.
Co-creation is increasingly recognized as an effective approach in bridging the gap between high-level policy, scientific and technological innovations, and on-farm practicalities. Effective co-creation within the agricultural sector involves multiple levels of governance, from small-holder farmers to national ministries, and encompasses diverse disciplinary perspectives.
This session explores the effective strategies and potential of co-creation for enhancing water resilience in agriculture. We invite contributions featuring empirical examples and project-based insights derived from co-creative practices in agricultural water management. We particularly welcome submissions that offer critical perspectives on potential roadblocks, pitfalls, and systemic blind spots.
3 - Training Sessions
3.1 - Trans-disciplinary approaches for water science: an introduction
Convener: Giulio Castelli
Hybrid | English & French
The training session will deal with the basics of transdisciplinarity in water sciences, highlighting theoretical foundations, methods, and case studies. Everyone, even with no background, is welcome. We will explore the concept of transdisciplinarity as the inclusion of non-academic knowledge systems and stakeholders, but more advanced and nuanced frameworks will be also explored. A section will be dedicated to Indigenous Knowledge.
3.2 - Cocreation as a means to use-inspired hydrological science
Convener: Ben Howard & Christina Orieschnig
Hybrid | English & French
Hydrology is increasingly reflecting on its role and impact amid concerns over stagnating discovery and underrealized societal benefit. This workshop explores how tensions between fundamental understanding and practical application can limit both scientific progress and societal relevance. Instead, we focus on the potential of use-inspired hydrological research, where scientific inquiry and societal needs overlap. We will discuss how co-creation approaches can support this space by integrating scientific and diverse knowledge systems, while maintaining the plurality of aims and methods that underpin hydrological research.
