| Water resource management is the cornerstone for sustainable development. According to the United Nations world water development report, one-fifth of the world’s population lives in areas characterized by physical water scarcity (Xu et al. 2018). The increase of water demand concomitantly with water scarcity is a common threat for humanity; it is expected to be worse in the future. Almost half of the world population will be living in area with high water stress by 2030 (United Nation Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2012). Thus, potential water resources need to be monitored with care for strategic management. Population growth and economic development cause significant increase in agricultural and industrial demand for water. Recently, Guerra and Reklaitis (2018) addressed the growing vulnerability to both availability and quality of water sources. They stated that Bthe vulnerability of energy systems to water utilization constraints could be mitigated by the effective design and implementation of water management strategies.^ This was consistent with main target of the 2nd International Conference on Integrated Environmental Management for Sustainable Development (ICIEM), held in Sousse-Tunisia from 27 to 30 October 2016 because water management issues require more attention by the research community, especially in arid/semi-arid countries. The integration of wastewater quality and vulnerability into the design and planning of water management strategies are needed. Numerous researchers have addressed the strategic topic of water resource management, especially for agriculture (Al-Saidi 2017; Christ and Burritt 2017; Gao et al. 2017; Liu et al. 2017; Nguyen et al. 2018; Ross 2017; Skouteris et al. 2018; Zhou et al. 2017). It is well known the agriculture accounts for more than two thirds of the global water use (Kraiem et al. 2014). This situation may induce severe water crisis and all waters even those of bad quality have to be valued and stored. Therefore, integrated water management is one of the pillars of sustainable development. In this context, the 2nd ICIEM conference aimed at exchanging relevant experiences, up-to-date scientific research, and findings carried out all over the world to protect and preserve the environment through rationalizing water resources. |
