One Water Vision: Launch of the Working Groups

The Working Groups are at the heart of the OWV initiative. They provide a structured space to exchange perspectives, identify scientific and operational gaps, and co-develop priorities that will feed into the Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA), to be consolidated by mid-2025.

Despite their different thematic scopes, all four Working Groups shared common objectives during these first meetings:

• Building a shared understanding of challenges and expectations across disciplines and regions,
• Clarifying the added value of satellite Earth observation when combined with in-situ data and models,
• Ensuring that scientific advances translate into usable, operational outcomes for water managers and users.

A diversity of perspectives and scales
Discussions highlighted the richness of viewpoints, from global satellite missions and international frameworks to basin-scale management and local applications. Participants emphasized the need to better connect science, data infrastructures, and governance, while remaining realistic about operational constraints and user needs.

The Working Groups also underlined the importance of coordination across themes: blue water, green water, services for users, and data infrastructures are deeply interconnected and must be addressed in a coherent way within OWV.

From dialogue to action
These first meetings were not intended to produce immediate technical solutions, but rather to lay solid foundations:

• Refining the scope and objectives of each Working Group,
• Identifying priority research and innovation topics,
• And defining realistic next steps for the coming 6–12 months.

In the coming months, the Working Groups will continue to meet regularly to refine their contributions to the SRIA, engage more closely with end users, and move progressively from discussion to concrete, impact-driven actions.