Abstract:
Life on Earth today is a challenge for all living things. The accelerated pace of development since the second half of the 20th century has led to great achievements for humanity, but has also created pressures that are reflected in commonly used terms such as "climate crisis", "biodiversity crisis" and "water crisis". The need and will to act is documented in the United Nations" 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A large and growing proportion of the world's population lives in the coastal zone and economically depends on its resources. In this context, water is of paramount importance in connecting land and ocean, as a resource in its own right, as a habitat for aquatic life, as a major carbon sink, and as a transport and transformation medium.
There are separate SDGs for water on land, SDG 6 'Clean water and sanitation', and for the ocean, SDG 14 'Life below water'. The Source-to-Sea approach recognizes that water is the connecting element between land and ocean, and that everything we do on land can affect the downstream coastal and open ocean simply through the flow of water and associated human activities. It acknowledges that water management requires a holistic approach, combining the targets of SDGs 6 and 14 to achieve greater benefits for system Earth and humanity.
The concept was developed and is promoted by the Action Platform for Source-to-Sea Management (S2S Platform), a multi-stakeholder initiative that ZMT is part of to share and generate knowledge and support collaborative action for improved water management. The vision is to enable sustainable development across the land-freshwater-marine continuum. The strategic aims of the S2S approach are (i) to strengthen partnership across actors and initiatives, (ii) to increase understanding of S2S linkages, (iii) to build commitment for S2S action and (iv) to take action on the ground.