The Institute for Water Futures (IWF) is an interdisciplinary Institute operating across three colleges, three schools and two institutes at the Australian National University (ANU). The IWF brings together experts from sciences, social sciences, humanities and public policy from across the ANU and has established research partnerships with CSIRO, state and federal water agencies, and other research organisations.

The IWF mission is to support sustainable water futures and to identify transformative, innovative and robust strategies to resolve the water challenges of today and tomorrow.  The objectives of the Institute are to create risk-focused and adaptive options for water futures, and deliver positive contributions to the policy and practice of water management through effective engagement and partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders and communities in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Through three integrated themes – Hydro-ecological futures, Technological futures, and Socio-political futures – our goals are to

  • Unite science, policy and community to facilitate a sense of shared local and national vision and responsibility to progress our country’s water management and secure our water futures.
  • Develop and assess model outcomes to investigate the range and scope of plausible water futures in terms of hydrological, ecological, cultural and social outcomes.
  • Assimilate measurements into modelling to provide quantitative scientific information relevant to key policy challenges.
  • Ensure socio-economic and governance benefits through identification of transformative and innovative strategies that lead to outcomes which are robust to anticipated future climate and other influences.