1. Global Issues Project Water Issues Expert Roundtable WATER FORE sight David Harries, PhD, P Eng Royal Military College & Foresight Canada

2. Outline Water Futures Foresight Water Foresight Water Facts

3. WATER Security Safety Sufficiency…So many Shares challenging factors Sciencewith complex relationships Substitutes Settings

4. WATER SECURITY Security ofsource systems infrastructure access people funding

5. WATER SCIENCE Science (and technology) for Production >>> for Performance >>> for Preservation >>>

6. WATER SETTINGS Water in changing - Climates - Seasons - Politics - Demands - ……

7. FUTURES 1988 (-20) ! 2008 (now) ! 2028 (+20) ? Predictions Accidents

8. 1988 USSR, Cold War, Berlin Wall search engines ? personal computers ? Magnetic resonance? Global warming ? brick phones Human Genome project? Nano- ? Cyber- ? Oil at US $10-20 per barrel

9. 2008 The world is getting better and better, worse and worse, faster and faster. The problem with life is there are no rehearsals; life is live.

10. Heavier than air flying machines are impossible - Lord Kelvin, President Royal Society 1882 The horse is here to stay, the automobile is a novelty - Bank Manager to Henry Ford 1908 There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom - Robert Milliken, Nobel Prize in Physics 1923 Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? - Henry Warner, Film Producer 1927 There is a world market for about five computers - Thomas Watson IBM 1943 We dont like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out - President Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles 1962 GREAT PREDICTIONS

11. ACCIDENTS - Serendipity Viagra ATMs Frisbee Gelatin Microwave Post-it Slinky Superglue

12. FORESIGHT What it is –Definition, description and elements What it offers Why it is needed A way it is done

13. FORESIGHT IS… Definition - process and ability to prepare better, sooner for the (uncertain) future Description - process and ability to anticipate; to create and maintain a high-quality, coherent and functional forward view.. Elements - ~ three dozen; ~ one dozen key ones

14. Foresight is NOT futures studies; not in a/the future

15. 2028 ?

16. FORESIGHT OFFERS… HELP -examining developments out 5-25 years -understanding ranges of factors and drivers -accommodating risk, diversity -anticipating multiple plausible futures -highlighting emerging opportunities, threats -designing rehearsals -creating transition strategies for preferred outcomes

17. FORESIGHT IS NEEDED BECAUSE… …assumptions, biases, organizational structures, the rewards paradigm, and the urgency of the present fog the fact that the future WILL NOT be what, today, we prefer it will be. …S.W.O.T. in 2008 WILL NOT be S.W.O.T in 2028

18. A FORESIGHT PROCESS 1.Define project topic 2. Review current situation 3. Identify key lenses 4. Answer challenge questions 5. Identify change drivers 6. Select critical drivers 7. Design scenarios 8. Populate each scenario 9. Back-cast to today 10. Synthesize and recommend (action)

19. a Foresight process for WATER Define project topicsafe water Review current situation Identify key lensessecurity Answer challenge questionstrends? Identify change driversclimate Select critical driverstechnology Design scenariosnot 3, not too many Populate each scenariowrite the 2028 story Back-cast to today2028> ?? > 2008 Synthesize and recommendaction now

20. WATER FORESIGHT Water issues -Now -2028? Water Competence -Now? -2028? 2028 Water Scenarios

21. WATER ISSUES Now ! 2028 ? Security Safety Sufficiency Shares Science Substitutes Settings The same list? The same order of importance/magnitude? The same relationships? WHAT DO WE PLAN FOR, AND, THEREFORE WHAT DO WE HAVE TO BE COMPETENT AT IN 2028?

22. jdsharries@aol.com plus Innovation Adaptability Responsiveness Sustainability * always a f(t)

23. WATER COMPETENCE Now ? 2028 ????? IN TERMS OF WATER ISSUES, DO WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE COMPETENT IN TODAY? DO WE KNOW THE COMPETENCES WE HAVE NOW THAT WE SHOULD BUILD ON, AND THOSE WE CAN LET GO? WHAT STRENGTHS WILL WE NEED TO COMPETENTLY DEAL WITH THE THREATS TO AND EXPLOIT THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR WATER IN 2028 ? … AND WHAT WEAKNESSES MUST WE AVOID ?

24. 2028 WATER SCENARIOS Water Wars UCC Pipeliners Bottle Borders OWEC Leisure Caps PWGSC Sovereign Waters Happy Humanity

25. WATER FACTS Water is today a strategic material in every sense of that term. It is impossible to imagine it being less so in 2028. Some of each of all the water scenarios will have happened by, be happening in, or be about to happen in 2028. We can neither predict which or when some will happen, nor the relationships and consequences of them, in 2028 or thereafter.

26. Water Foresight Facts Foresight on water is a process that, done well, offers: -a means to focus on – to explore - the most important plausible water scenarios; the worst case one and the best case one and those between -support for development of options for the future -a foundation for more confident, better decisions (and not) to shape water realities future.