The second international workshop for IAC (Inter-Academy Council) water programme was held in Beijing on September 17-18, 2010, with the theme of water vulnerability and adaptive governance under climate change and development. Prof. XIA Jun took the chair of its local organization committee, and the workshop local organizations included Institute of Geographical Sciences & Natural Resource Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Center for Water Resources Research, CAS, and Key Laboratory of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, CAS. Nearly fifty international and domestic experts and professors, mainly from USA, Netherland, Norway, France, Japan, India and Australia, attended the workshop.

The academician of CAS, LIU Changming delivered a keynote presentation during the first day’s discussion. He reviewed the temperature and precipitation trends in China over the last 50 years and their influences on the Asian water tower. He mentioned that the snow pack and glacier recession and ecological degradation were the two key issues for the Yangtze, Yellow and Lantsang headwater. In order to solve these problems, enhancing water cycle monitoring, developing water cycle modelling and adopting adaptive water management measures are needed urgently.

Prof. Lars Gottschalk, academician of Norwegian Royal Academy of Sciences, gave a talk on environmental flow assessment. The operational approach provided the inspiration for relative studies on ecological water demand in China. Porf. Marcel J. F. Stive, Co-Chair of the IAC Water Program from Netherland, introduced the IAC sustainable water future project. Prof. XIA Jun shared his perspective on water governance to changing environment: managing the potential impacts of climate change to water sector in China. Prof. Jun Xia is Co-Chair of IAC Water Program of China and president of International Water Resources Association (IWRA).

Participants also actively participated in the discussions around water shortage problems and countermeasures on part of China, ideas to improve water resources management in arid inland river basins, Northwestern China, quantifying uncertainty in the impacts of climate change on river discharge in sub-catchments of the River Yangtze and Yellow Basins, adaptive land use and water management in the Pearl River Delta under climate change, climate change and sustainable water use in Asia, vulnerability and adaptation in a highly water dependent community in South Australia, impact and irrigation in the Mediterranean, floods and droughts in the combined land-atmosphere hydrological cycle under climate change, adaptive management of lakes and lake basins, and uncertainties in climate change projections.

At the closing ceremony, Dr John Campbell who is the executive director of IAC carried a detailed review on the history of the development and achievements of the IAC Water Program (WP). Future actions and projects were also programmed for IAC-WP and IWRA. Under the support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Beijing IAC international workshop further strengthened bilateral cooperation.