Too much, too little, and too polluted: local solutions to the global water crisis

On the evening of Tuesday 29 October 2026, we will welcome Prof. Wouter Buytaert, Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources at Imperial College London.

Wouter Buytaert works at the interface between hydrological process understanding, water resources management, and global development. He focuses in particular on studying the impact of environmental change on the terrestrial water cycle, and its consequences for managing water resources and flood and drought risk. He applies and develops advanced methods for data collection, computer simulation, and knowledge transfer to support environmental decision making and development policies. He is working extensively in the Global South, with a particular interest in mountain regions such as the Andes and the Himalayas.

Professor Wouter's talk will address the global challenges surrounding water resources, including the possibility that water scarcity could become a source of geopolitical tensions and conflict in the future. Climate change, together with increasing soil sealing and urbanisation, is also putting additional pressure on groundwater resources and their replenishment.