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Institute of Sustainable Water Management and Water Law

The Institute of sustainable water management and law of water is serving as a think tank and project leader on issues relevant to the water management and law, aiming at offering support to governments and organizations in realizing the best practices for sustainable water management and identifying or creating the proper legal framework for ensuring appropriate and sustainable water use and distribution.

Mission of the Institute

The Institute’s mission is to help address water related issues, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, by promoting cooperation between non-governmental organizations, governments, businesses, and other environmental policy makers, as well as the free exchange of information and public participation in decision making. It seeks to be an important national and European partner in matters of water diplomacy and national and transnational crisis management regarding compliance with existing legislation and transnational water import and export agreements.

Research and Aims of the Institute

The institute aims at linking water management with water law, dealing with pressing current water related problems that the societies are facing and proposing solutions for establishing a secure and sustainable governance of water sources, taken into consideration that water is a key element in the earth system, with vital relevance for societies, economies, and ecosystems.

The research undertaken at the sustainable water management domain is aiming at addressing how water shortage and climate change affect hydrological cycling, water availability, flood risks and water quality across scales ranging from catchment to continental and global.

The Institute intends also to support the goverments in realising  the objectives of the Zero Pollution Action Plan through engagement with all stakeholders concerned. This will be achieved, in particular by bringing focus on preventing or reducing water pollution and how this can be part of an integrated and holistic approach to achieve the goals of the European Green Deal in the most efficient and effective way.

In this direction, a key area of research is the potential of water reuse in tackling water scarcity, which is a growing problem that is expected to affect mostly Mediterranean countries in Europe, such as Greece, Italy and Spain. Important aspect will be the assessment of how this situation will affect societies and policies in the future and what measures should be taken. Our intention is to apply our research results to other vulnerable parts of the world such as Africa and South east Asia.

The focus of the research undertaken by the Water Law domain relates all legal aspects that govern or rule issues related to water, whether surface or ground water with the concepts of sustainable development, integrated water resources management, equitable and optimal use of water resources and human rights to be among the starting points adopted for such assessments.

Director of the Institute: Dr. Ioannis Katsoyiannis, Assoc. Professor, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Administrative Director of the Institute: Ms Iliana Kosti, Lawyer of Athens

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