Shahbaz Khan - Regional Coordinator, UNESCO IHP-HELP, Professor of Hydrology, Charles Sturt University & CSIRO Land and Water , Locked Bag ۵۸۸, Wagga Wagga ۲۶۷۸, Australia
Zahra Paydar - CSIRO Land and Water, GPO Box ۱۶۶۶ Canberra, Australia

Internationally there is a major lag between research, and real world water policy and management. Most water management policy is based on outdated knowledge and technology. Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) is a joint initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). UNESCO HELP initiative is aimed to bridge the gap between water policy, water resources management and scientific communities from the setting of research agenda to the free flow of information to be used in the day to day management and policy making processes. HELP is creating a new approach to integrated catchment management through the creation of a framework for water law and policy experts, water resource managers and water scientists to work together on water-related problems. The broad objectives of HELP are to strengthen field-oriented experimental hydrology using drainage basins with scales ranging from 104 to 106 km2 as the framework. Water related physical (hydrological, climatological, ecological) and non-physical (technical, sociological, economics, administrative, law) observations will be made in these catchments which address the most critical policy and management issues as perceived by “users” under different biophysical and socio-economic environments, taking into account the needs for sustainable development. The desire for this new programme to be truly “user-driven” will require the active involvement of research, university teaching, policy-making and facilitating (water and land resource managers groups) to set the policy agenda and ensure the scientific results will benefit societal needs through the revision of policy and management practices. In Australia, the multilevel stakeholder engagement in urban and rural water research and development of management tools and policies in the Murrumbidgee catchment had helped it gain the status of reference catchment under the (HELP) programme.The competing water uses and environmental and economic concerns in the Murrumbidgee are typical of other arid catchments in the world. Both completed and ongoing hydrological projects are available that can be used to illustrate how communities, researchers and regulation bodies are involved in catchment management by developing appropriate geographic information system, irrigation management tools, hydrologic– economic and educational models. The approach has been very influential in bringing about change in land and water management and in informing and guiding regional policy.

Hydrology, HELP, UNESCO, Participatory Water Management research, Catchment, Irrigation Management in Australia