On 22 June 2026, IAHR hosted a Global Water Security webinar on Climate Resilience and Hydro-Environmental Modelling, bringing together leading experts to explore global challenges and emerging technologies for enhancing climate resilience through hydrodynamics and hydro-environmental modelling. The webinar featured keynote presentations by Joseph Hun-wei Lee (IAHR Past President; Macau University of Science and Technology; China Three Gorges University) and Reza Ahmadian (Cardiff University), and was chaired by Qiuwen Chen (Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute). Reza Ahmadian and Qiuwen Chen serve as the Joint Chairs of the IAHR Technical Committee on Global Water Security.

Keynote 1: Hydrodynamics for Climate Resilience: Global Challenges and Emerging Technologies

Professor Joseph Hun-wei Lee presented innovative hydrodynamic solutions to strengthen climate resilience, drawing on research in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. He highlighted growing climate risks, including sea level rise, typhoons, flooding and harmful algal blooms, and emphasized the need for international collaboration and long-term environmental monitoring. He showcased an AI-enhanced storm surge and urban flood forecasting system for Macau, along with IoT- and AI-based technologies for early warning of harmful algal blooms. He concluded that technological innovation, sustained investment in environmental data, global scientific cooperation and community preparedness are all essential to addressing climate-related water challenges.

Keynote 2: Hydro-Environmental Modelling for Water Security: Combining Physical Understanding with Data Driven Intelligence

Professor Reza Ahmadian explored integrated hydro-environmental and hydroepidemiological modeling to enhance global water security, highlighting the complementary roles of process-based mechanistic models and artificial intelligence. Using UK estuary case studies, he demonstrated how advanced hydrodynamic modeling can identify pollution sources and improve understanding of pathogen transport. He also presented an optimized AI framework that combines feature selection, dimensionality reduction and knowledge distillation to deliver accurate real-time predictions of microbial water quality. Concluding that neither approach alone is sufficient, he emphasized that integrating mechanistic and AI models offers the most robust solution for water quality forecasting, risk assessment and public health protection.

This event was the ninth edition of the Global Water Security webinar series, launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by the Technical Committee's two former Chairs, Roger Falconer and Arthur Mynett.

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