The Third Space4Water Stakeholder Meeting took place from 24-25 October 2023 at the United Nations Office at Vienna (VIC), bringing togther porfessionals from around the world working with space technology for water resources management and protection. The event was organised by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW).

The participants were all registered stakeholders of the Space4Water Portal. These stakeholders included professionals from academia, government, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, the private sector and industry. Young professionals and indigenous voices were also represented.

The Space4Water Portal is a multi-stakeholder platform for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange on space technology and data (space-based solutions) for water-related topics. It supports capacity-building and enables expert communities to share information on software, applications, publications, projects and initiatives. The portal is inclusive for actors from developing countries.

Opening remarks at the event were given by Ms. Aarti Holla-Maini, Director of UNOOSA (pictured to the right), and Dr Abdulmalek A. Al Alsheikh, General Secretary of PSIPW (pictured below left). Ms. Holla-Mainy stressed how the stakeholder community creates a new format to take advantage of the limitless perspective of space to envision water's interconnected nature.

On both days of the event, stakeholders gave technical presentation on various models, tools, and technologies relating to applying space applications for water management.

PSIPW presented the finding of its research on using space technology to optimise water harvesting in arid regions under conditions of climate uncertainty. This research is carried out through the auspices of PSIPW’s dedicated research chair at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On the second day, there was a panel discussion on multi-stakeholder engagement, communities and informed decision-making. The discussion highlighted not only what can be done technically for better decision making but also the relevant needs related to water of the various members and stakeholder within a society.

There were also presentations of water-related challenges and the space-based solutions that some members of the Space4Water community had started to implement, as well as a hands-on session on co-designing space-based solutions.