Since sustainability challenge is really large in breadth and depth, localizing and streamlining the global commitments such as SDGs or PCA through understanding and internalizing by each countries and their local governments are crucial. Integrated use and management of resources are being increasingly considered as a means of achieving sustainability, however, it is yet to be reflected that down to the local level in the instruments (i.e. policies, programs, institutions, etc.) to put that in practice. Therefore, interventions on the governance front by harmonizing policies, programs, and actions – focusing at system scale, and coordinated across sectors and scales – are crucial in this endeavor. Localizing global commitments means more than just “landing” internationally‐agreed goals at the local level, but making the aspirations of the global goals such as SDGs become real and meaningful to the communities, households, and individuals, particularly to those who are at risk of falling behind (UNDP, 2020). Five drivers of transformational change stand‐out for localizing the global goals: (i) sensitization and engagement of local actors, (ii) accountability mechanisms, (iii) participatory planning and service delivery, (iv) local economic development, and (v) partnership (UNDP 2020). Developing toolboxes to (e.g. Local 2030) to support local stakeholders and their network, under the leadership of the governments (i.e. local, regional, and national governments), and education for sustainable development (ESD) framework (Kioupi and Voulvoulis, 2019) could be some of practical ways of localizing the global agenda. A learning platform (www.localizingthesdgs.org) further highlights the tools and guidance on localizing the global goals with specific focus on SDGs. The most important, however is working with local government and local actors are the key for successful localization of the global commitments such as SDGs.
Though it is a challenging endeavor and requires investments in terms of awareness raising, capacity strengthening, and motivating people to work together, but will be rewarding in a long‐run in terms of sustainably using the resources and synergizing broader outcomes. For many countries, being a part of global commitments and partnering to localize them, are also an opportunity to access more resources, strengthen human capacity, enhance competency, synchronize local initiatives to contribute in solving global problems, and opportunities for cross‐learning across the sectors and regions with diverse and rich set of experiences and local knowledge. Furthermore, this also offers an opportunity to develop database infrastructure which in a long‐run helps the countries for informed‐planning, decision‐making, policy‐making, and also provide policy feedback for future global initiatives.
The intent of all the chapters in this book, in one way or other, reinforce the need to streamline global goals to the needs at various local levels, where actions will actually be taken. Various concepts, approaches, tools, and techniques are being applied and/or to be used with adequate investment of resources for achieving the SDGs and PCA. This book provides key concepts on the hydro‐ and climate‐sciences and their prospective applications; introduce/elaborate selected tools/techniques; demonstrate their applications in water‐sector with selected examples; and provide future directions on research and application. The 16 chapters in the book basically unfolds five key issues: (i) addressing nexused relationship of water with others to address SDGs, which are interrelated to each other, (ii) securing resources by managing demands and ensuring supplies/availability, (iii) customizing various approaches, tools and techniques at different contexts, (iv) operationalizing climate‐resilient solutions and climate actions, and (v) localizing and streamlining SDGs. The linkages of the aforementioned issues and the chapters are depicted in Figure 1.4.
The first three chapters after this introductory chapter elaborate the concepts like river basin (Chapter 2), water‐energy nexus (Chapter 3), and safe‐sanitation adaptive integrated management system (Chapter 4) for coordinated implementation of interventions aimed at achieving the SDGs targets. The second section of the book consists of six chapters, which starts with a systematic review of approaches and tools to assess water‐climate‐sustainability nexus (Chapter 5) and then presents various approaches and tools that help translate global goals and policies in the areas of water, climate and sustainability to local contents. They include a combination of technical, governance, research, and education approaches such as rejuvenation of springs (Chapter