The UNESCO IHP FRIEND-Water programme: a global network for hydroclimatic change research and education

The Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data (FRIEND-Water) is the oldest UNESCO Flagship Initiative within the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP).  Active since 1985, it seeks to facilitate, promote and foster collaborations across borders between scientists (hydrologists and related disciplines) to conduct studies on shared river basins. The programme has evolved over time to focus on four key themes relating to (i) data collection and sharing, (ii) the impacts of global change on hydrological regimes and extremes, (iii) water-society interactions and equitable water management and (iv) interdisciplinary educational resources and programmes. Involving researchers from over 150 countries, FRIEND-Water is currently structured into six regional groups around the world of which four focus on Europe-African collaboration: Europe, the Mediterranean, West and Central Africa, Southern and Eastern Africa.  Collaborations include joint research activities, joint supervision of young researchers (PhD and postdoc), exchange visits and scientific events. In partnership with initiatives such as CEH Robin, WMO HydroSOS, IHP-WINS and GRDC, activities notably focus on increasing the collection and sharing of hydroclimatic data across FRIEND-Water regions. Hydrometry training, data rescue, and ongoing collection of hydrological data from ground observation networks are actively supported. Researchers explore large-scale climate and hydrological regime trends as well as the local impacts of future climate projections from CMIP5/CMIP6 models. Hydrological modelling helps forecast the amplitude and frequency of extreme events (floods, agricultural droughts and compound extremes) and support disaster risk reduction and early warning systems.  Working on urban and rural areas, research also seeks to define adequate hydrological norms (accounting for climate non-stationarity) and guide the design of water infrastructure, as well as water management and allocation policies. Activities over the past decade have notably led to the joint EU-African organization of over 30 workshops and trainings on topics including early warning systems, hydrological modelling, hydrometry, as well as four conferences on the Hydrology of African Large River basins. Going into UNESCO IHP-IX, the FRIEND-Water programme has been restructured and is now actively supported by the UNESCO Category II Centre ICIREWARD in Montpellier, leading to increased academic collaboration and capacity building opportunities between Europe and Africa.