Format for Reports by UNESCO’s Water-related Centers on activities related to the IHP in the period June 2010 – May 2012 1. Basic information on the centre Water Center for Arid and Semi-arid Zones in Name of the Centre Latin-America and the Caribbean - CAZALAC Name of Director Guido Soto Name and title of contact person (for Guido Soto cooperation) E-mail [email protected] Address Benavente 980, La Serena, Chile Website www.cazalac.org city/town _La Serena___ country Chile_ Location of centre _________ Geographic orientation * global X regional Year of establishment groundwater urban water Xarid / semi-arid zones humid tropics Xdroughts and floods sediment transport and management water and environment Xecohydrology Focal Areas ♦ water law and policy transboundary river basins/ aquifers XIWRM Xglobal and climate change Themes mathematical modeling social and cultural dimensions of water water education other: (please specify) ___________________ Xvocational training postgraduate education continuing education Xresearch Scope of Activities ♦ Xinstitutional capacity-building advising/ consulting software development other: (please specify) ___________________ Support bodies 1 General Water Board, Chile Hosting organization 2 University of La Serena, Chile 3 Extrabudgetary fund UNESCO/Flanders; JRC-EU; Research Sources of financial support funds of Chilean Gv Existing networks and cooperation 4 UNCCD; X director and governing board other: (please specify) _________________ Link to election of board members to the IHP Governance Intergovernmental Council (IGC) and hosting country IHP National Committee ______________________ * check on appropriate box ♦ check all that apply ♦ 1 please specify bodies that cover the operational costs of the centre, and other essential costs such as salaries and utility bills, and that provide institutional support to ensure center’s sustainability 2 if different from support bodies 3 please specify sources of main budgetary and extrabudgetary funds to implement projects 4 please write international networks, consortiums or projects that the centre is part of, or any other close links that the center has with international organizations or programs, which are not already mentioned above Frequency of meetings: once every 1__year(s) Existence of UNESCO presence at meetings Institutional affiliation of director total number of staff (full-time, or equivalent) : _four________ number of staff who are water experts: __three_and around five part time water Number of staff and types of staff experts______ number of visiting scientists and postgraduate students: _four________ Annual turnover budget in USD 500,000 2. Activities undertaken in the framework of IHP in the period June 2008 – May 2010 2.1 Educational activities (i.e., those with accreditation) that directly contributed to the IHP-VII (Appendix-1) and WWAP Please include here those activities which led to the accreditation of degrees, or those held in formal school settings. 2.2 Research activities that directly contributed to the IHP-VII and activities by WWAP Please include research/applied projects outputs such as publications that directly contributed to the IHP-VII and WWAP objectives International Conference: Arid and Semi Arid Development Through Water Augmentation - ASADWA. (Valparaiso - Chile, December 2010). The main purpose of the conference was to provide an opportunity for the professionals and scientific investigators that work around the world to exchange experiences about topics related with the increase of water available in arid areas. In addition, the aim was to generate a useful result that allows stimulating the incorporation of new techniques and allows learning from mistakes and successes. The topics were: Harvesting of Rainwater, Capture of water from mist and dew, Refilling of Aquifers, Desalinization for rural development, Reuse of Water Resources and the Efficient Use of Water. Organizing Committee: UNESCO CAZALAC Centre; Catholic University of Valparaiso (PUCV); UNESCO Chair of Eremology of the University of Ghent; UNESCO's International Hydrological Program (PHI/LAC). International Scientific Committee: Dr. Donald Gabriels, President of the Committee. University of Ghent, Belgium; Dr. Soroosh Sorooshian Harvesting of Rainwater / Refilling of Aquifers. Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, University of California at Irvine, USA; Dr. Roberto Pizarro Tapia, Harvesting of Rainwater. University of Talca, Chile; Dr. Koen Verbist, Harvesting of Rainwater. University of Ghent, Belgium; Guido Soto, Harvesting Mist. CAZALAC, Chile; Dr. José Luis Arumí, Refilling Aquifers. University of Concepción, Chile; MSc. Carlos Gutierrez, Refilling Aquifers. Mexican Water Technology Institute (IMTA), Mexico; Dr. Mike Edmunds, Refilling Aquifers. Oxford University, England; Dr. Manuel Cerda, Efficient Water Usage. Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile; Dr. Dirk Raes, Efficient Water Usage. Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. http://www.cazalac.org/asadwa UNESCO/G-WADI-LAC Program. The meeting was held in December 2010, with the purpose of creating and establishing the G-WADI network in the Latin American and Caribbean region. CAZALAC took on the Technical Secretariat of the ALC Region Network, which from the beginning included the participation of the representatives of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru. Participating Institutions: CAZALAC, Chile - Project Coordinator; UNESCO-PHI-LAC; University of Ghent, Belgium - Scientific Counterpart Government of Flanders; and AGRIMED, Chile - Scientific Coordinator. During the meeting of the G-WADI-LAC program held in 2011, work continued with the conformation of the network and the preparation of an action plan for two-year period of 2011-2012. EUROCLIMA Project of the European Commission for Latin America: CAZALAC has developed a coordination activity in Latin America, of the Water Balance axis through the "Variability and frequency properties of water balance components in Latin America" project. This activity has been developed with the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC). Participating countries: Environmental Flow Project of the Huasco Basin, Chile: This project is carried out by CAZALAC, with the collaboration of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is financed by the Regional Government of Atacama, Chile. The project is the first Chilean experience about the evaluation of environmental flow for the management of arid and semi-arid areas. Main products: Hydrological modeling of the basin (WEAP), incorporating the environmental demand of water in the most important points; social and economic evaluation of the water by the different production activities; participative dialogs with the actors of the basin; institutional strengthening (training professionals); and broadcasting. From November 2011 up to August 2012, CAZALAC has started the activities of the "Sea water desalination through Inverse Osmosis and Photovoltaic Energy for the provision of drinking water in Isla Damas, Coquimbo Region" project. This initiative, is financed by Funds of the Regional Government of Coquimbo (Chile), the Belgian drinking water company, VMV (Vlammse Maatschappij voor Watervoorziening) and the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF). It has the objectives of dimensioning, designing, installing and evaluating an Inverse Osmosis System plant with Photovoltaic Energy that is energetically self- sustainable and that does not affect the environmental conditions in Isla Damas, located in the National Humboldt Penguin Reserve. Objective: propose technology innovation for Chile, combining the technology available for seawater desalinization and the use of photovoltaic energy for this. It is expected that this experience can be repeated in other areas of the country, under similar conditions. This being, the water requirement for human consumption on islands, remote places, without access to conventional sources of electrical energy. 2.3 Training activities that directly contributed to the IHP-VII and WWAP objectives During the period, CAZALAC, through the researcher Jorge Nuñez, taught the following training courses: Cooperation with EUROCLIMA-Water Project. During the Guayaquil EUROCLIMA- Water Workshop (Ecuador, October 2011). 18 participants from different countries in the Region were trained by professionals linked to CAZALAC about the use of open code analysis tools, for the processing of rainfall data in the entire Region. At least, data coming from 6,000 meteorological stations was analyzed during the event, which allowed generating a group of regional maps and statistical properties and rainfall frequency in the Region. Course on the Analysis of Regional Drought Frequency based on L-moments (Robust estimation of the frequency of meteorological drought). III South American Meeting about the application of the eumetcast meteorological and environmental monitoring system. Maceio, Brazil, August 30th - September 2nd 2011. Training Course of Regional Frequency Analysis based on L-moments. Ispra, Italy. Course financed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre through the EUROCLIMA-Water project. Ispra, Italy. 11-14 July 2011 International Course of Regional Frequency Analysis based on L-moments. Course financed by the European's Commission's Joint Research Center through the EUROCLIMA-Drought project. Santiago, 4-5 April 2011 3. Collaboration and linkages 3.1 Participation in major international networks, programs, partnerships