RSA President's Lecture 2008: Water in a Changing Climate

11th Jun 2008; 18:00

Professor Jorg Imberger, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Western Australia will give the 2008 President's Lecture on global perspectives on the challenges in water management in the 21st Century.

Chair: HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KT

Global water, carbon and energy cycles are finely balanced. The release of greenhouse gases, mainly due to energy generation from fossil fuels, upsets this harmony and leads to the acceleration of global warming. When combined with land use changes and sedimentation of the world's rivers, this poses considerable challenges for the human race.

Rather than scramble for short-term engineering fixes, Professor Imberger suggests that we should determine the consequences and assess the implications for water resources, food production and living space, and design actions to ameliorate them.

Professor Imberger will outline some of the processes that lead us to these outcomes, explore the stress on water resources already being experienced and suggest a possible course of action in order to adjust to the likely changes that the earth will undergo in the next 50 years.

Download full lecture and Q&A session (MP3)