From October 25 to 27, 2016, the "G-WADI More Than a Decade Enhancing Water and Sustainable Development for Arid Regions" International Conference, hosted by the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, CAS, organized by the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), was held at Foreign Experts Building Beijing.

Soroosh Sorooshian, a professor of the University of California-Irvine, an Einstein professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering; a professor of the University of Saskatchewan and chief scientist of the Global Water Future Program; Abdin Salih, a member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, a professor at the Hydrological Research Center, University of Khartoum and former Head of UNESCO IHP, as well as 41 experts and scholars from 21 countries such as Australia, Canada, UK and the USA attended the conference.

The attendees discussed issues such as the decade summary and construction of G-WADI, mutual cooperation in IHP-related international programs, case studies, water safety in arid regions, model and data tools in integrated river basin research, the water resources decision support system supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and integrated water resources management in climate change scenarios.

Prof. Zheng Yi of SUSTech introduced the research of SUSTech's research teams on water resources in arid regions, and shared the results of integrated modeling in the major research program of "Heihe River Basin Ecology-Integrated Research on Hydrological Process" supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

G-WADI is a global arid region hydrology research program launched by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) in 2003. This program aims to build a global network by integrating the existing resources of relevant research centers, organizations and individuals in arid and semi-arid regions, to promote the international and regional cooperation in the water resources and sustainable development of arid regions.