Purpose and structure of the Proceedings.

This collection of papers represents the outcomes of the International Symposium
held in Delft, The Netherlands, on June 13-15, 2007, at the occasion of the 50th
anniversary of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The papers discuss
how to contribute to the sustainability of effective international development and
water management with a digest of lessons learned on local knowledge and capacity
development. Authors expose recent research, strategies and policy positions.
Water for a Changing World starts with an introduction and overview of the water
resources and the water supply and sanitation sectors in developing countries and
worldwide. Topics of these reviews are water security, environmental integrity, the
newest earth system science technologies, integrated urban water management, and
the global-local nexus of water governance. The second part presents positions on
catalyzing and disseminating knowledge and capacity development in response to the
current challenges and opportunities. It consists of a variety of papers on theory and
analysis of capacity development, methods and case studies, and policy positions.
The authors represent a diverse and representative group of prominent actors,
practitioners and academics within the water, sanitation and development sectors.