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From drought to deluge: WMO report highlights increasingly erratic water cycle 

The world’s water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic, with societies caught between worsening droughts and devastating floods. This is the key finding of the new State of Global Water Resources 2024 report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
 
‘Water sustains our societies, powers our economies and anchors our ecosystems. And yet the world’s water resources are under growing pressure and – at the same time – more extreme water-related hazards are having an increasing impact on lives and livelihoods,’ said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. ‘Reliable, science-based information is more important than ever before because we cannot manage what we do not measure. The WMO’s State of Global Water Resources Report 2024 is part of WMO’s commitment to provide that knowledge.’
 
The new State of Global Water Resources 2024 report by WMO shows that 2024 was the hottest year on record, beginning with an El Niño event that contributed to severe drought in South America and southern Africa, while at the same time Central Europe, Asia and parts of Africa faced wetter-than-normal conditions. Only one third of global river basins experienced ‘normal’ conditions – the rest had either too much or too little water.
The imbalance extends beyond rivers. For the third consecutive year, glaciers worldwide suffered mass losses, adding about 1.2 millimetres to global sea level in a single year. Extreme events followed: Europe saw its most extensive flooding since 2013, Africa’s tropical zone recorded unusually heavy rainfall displacing 4 million people, and Brazil was hit by both catastrophic floods and persistent drought.
The report highlights the critical need for improved monitoring and data sharing.
‘Continued investment and enhanced collaboration in data sharing are vital to close monitoring gaps. Without data, we risk flying blind,’ said Celeste Saulo.
 
An estimated 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water at least a month per year and this is expected to increase to more than 5 billion by 2050, according to UN Water, and the world falling far short of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation.
 
DHI’s contribution
DHI supported the report with data from the DHI Global Hydrological Model. The model combines high-resolution satellite information with global datasets on weather, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, soil and landscapes. This makes it possible to estimate water conditions even in places without direct measurements. By filling these gaps, the DHI Global Hydrological Model improves global water mapping and gives decision-makers better information in regions where data is scarce.
 
By supporting WMO’s efforts to build a clearer picture of global water resources, DHI helps bring science into practice for more informed water management worldwide, aligning with our mission to enable a sustainable future for water and water environments.
 
About the WMO reportThe annual State of Global Water Resources Report is one of a suite of WMO reports which provide intelligence and insights to decision-makers. It is an authoritative assessment of global freshwater availability, including streamflow, reservoirs, lakes, groundwater, soil moisture, snow and ice. It is based on data contributed by WMO Members, as well as information from global hydrological modelling systems and satellite observations from a wide range of partners.
 
About DHI’s Global Hydrological Model
 
A Global Hydrological Model is a tool for looking at hydrology from the perspective of the Earth as one interconnected system, rather than disconnected and isolated parts. They are basically used for better understanding, predicting and managing water resources on regional, national and global scales. DHI-GHM is unique in the way it handles areas with limited or no local observations. Because it directly accounts for the detailed physical characteristics of landscapes using satellite data, the results from these data-scarce areas are highly reliable and useful in situations where monitoring is a challenge.

Memorandum of Understanding signed between DHI and France Energies Marines

DHI and France Energies Marines have signed a memorandum of understanding as a first step towards a strategic partnership between the two organisations to advance innovation in offshore wind energy.

DHI and France Energies Marines have agreed to work together on two main areas:

Research and innovation: identification and development of joint industrial projects, contribution to the definition of European roadmaps and development of joint proposals for European calls for projects
Services: development of opportunities worldwide based on expertise and enhanced software solutions


‘This partnership is based on our common purpose to support the green transition by converting research and innovation into solutions and knowledge that help solve bottlenecks and challenges in the offshore wind sector. We see strong synergies in the expertise of DHI and France Energies Marines when it comes to marine biodiversity, metocean modelling and design conditions and I look forward to seeing our strategic partnership evolve through research projects and helping clients in the global offshore wind sector,’ states Mikael Kamp Soerensen, Executive Vice President of Energy and Water Resources at DHI.

The complementarity of the teams is strong, especially within the fields of:

Interaction of wind farms and biodiversity, minimising environmental impacts and proposing optimised mitigation solutions
Air-sea interaction, quantifying uncertainties in sea states and production estimates
Wind characterisation considering the impact of turbulence, wakes and climate change on turbines' design and power production
Metocean modelling, reducing uncertainties in design under extreme conditions


‘Joining forces in the field of Research and Innovation is key to deliver adapted solutions to the offshore wind industry. France Energies Marines and DHI pursue the same ambitions to contribute to the sustainability of this industry through delivering solutions, expertise and software enabling to optimise the integration of wind farms in the environment and support cost reduction,’ says Herveline Gaborieau, Executive Director of France Energies Marines.

Several concrete actions have already been initiated as part of this new partnership and will result in new industry-driven proposals for joint projects.

DHI and Nile Basin Initiative strengthen cooperation on sustainable water management

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and DHI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build on their long-standing collaboration in advancing sustainable, science-based management of the Nile’s shared water resources.

The agreement was signed by Dr Florence Grace Adongo, Executive Director of the Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat, and Mette Vestergaard, CEO of DHI, during World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Established in 1999, the NBI is the only all-inclusive, basin-wide platform for dialogue, knowledge-sharing and joint action among its ten member states. It plays a critical role in balancing national development needs with basin-wide sustainability and in enabling transparent, evidence-based decision-making. In a region where the river is central to the livelihoods of over 250 million people, the NBI’s work helps to reduce political tensions, identify cooperative investments and ensure that the Nile’s resources are managed for the benefit of all Nile Basin countries.
NBI’s Executive Director, Dr Florence Grace Adongo said, ’In these final few years of our 10-year strategy, strengthening our partnerships for the people of the Nile Basin has become ever more urgent. Today marks an important milestone. By formalising our collaboration with DHI, we commit to jointly developing the next generation of the Nile Basin Decision Support System — 2.0 — and aligning it with other key tools, including NBI’s flood forecasting system, drought early warning systems and digital innovations for managing the Nile’s water and ecosystem.’
DHI and NBI have previously collaborated on the Nile Basin Decision Support System (NB-DSS), a shared planning tool that integrates data, models and analysis to support cooperative decision-making. Looking ahead, they share the ambition of further enhancing such tools to meet evolving needs for basin-wide planning, climate resilience and sustainable water use.
Over the years, the collaboration has also included basin-wide flood and drought forecasting systems, flash flood assessment in the Nile Equatorial Lakes region, hydropower optimisation studies and flood risk mapping in the Eastern Nile. These initiatives have complemented the development and maintenance of the NB-DSS, ensuring that decision-makers across the Basin have access to reliable data and scenario analysis tools for planning and cooperation.

The MoU builds on more than a decade of cooperation between NBI, DHI and the UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment. The agreement outlines areas where the partners aim to work together to strengthen transboundary water cooperation across the Basin’s member states. These include:

Building technical capacity – supporting knowledge-sharing and training in science-based decision-making and collaborating with universities in the Basin to apply research in practice.
Enabling data and knowledge exchange – promoting dialogue among stakeholders, including through NBI events such as the Nile Basin Development Forum and Nile Day.
Supporting investment planning – undertaking environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies for member state projects.


By formalising their cooperation, NBI and DHI aim to leverage their combined technical expertise, digital tools and networks to deliver practical solutions for sustainable water management in one of the world’s most complex and important river basins.
‘The Nile Basin Initiative plays a vital role in enabling countries to work together on the sustainable management of the Nile. DHI is pleased to continue our long-standing partnership, bringing science and technology to support cooperation and informed decision-making. Through this agreement, we look forward to exploring new opportunities with NBI to strengthen resilience and deliver benefits for communities and ecosystems across the Basin,’ states Mette Vestergaard, Chief Executive Officer at DHI.

World’s largest open-jet wind generator now in operation at DHI

DTU Wind and DHI have successfully developed, installed and tested the world’s largest open-jet wind generator for floating wind tests – a major milestone in advancing the physical testing of floating offshore wind turbines.
 
With its 5x5m area, the wind generator can blow up to five metres per second, corresponding to a prototype wind speed of approximately 40m/s with a model scale of 1:70. It is therefore believed to be one of the world’s most powerful. Combined with 3D waves with directional spreading in DHI’s ocean basin, the facility enables comprehensive testing of floating wind turbines under operational and extreme conditions.
The wind generator is a key deliverable in the FloatLab research project and will allow the team to perform test campaigns that simulate extreme offshore conditions using realistic wind and wave interaction. The FloatLab project aims to ultimately reduce risks and validate engineering models used for turbine and floating foundation design in the offshore wind sector.
 
‘In our spring test campaign, we have documented its performance and applied it to test a design variant of Stiesdal Offshores TetraSub concept,’ says Henrik Bredmose, Professor at DTU Wind. ‘Each of the 25 fans operates as part of a synchronised system. Very much like voices in a choir, singing a very coordinated melody,’ says Henrik Bredmose. ‘The fans replicate the turbulent inflow that turbines experience offshore. So now, we can physically recreate turbulence in a controlled lab setting for floating wind.’ 
In the tests, the project team uses a scaled version of the IEA Wind 22-megawatt turbine, mounted on a variant of the Stiesdal TetraSub floating foundation. It is already built and installed at DHI’s wave basin facility in Hørsholm, Denmark. 
Measurements of the tests will be connected directly to calculation models in a digital twin setup. The aero-hydro-servo-elastic response of the floater and turbine in wind and waves can then be simulated and studied, potentially improving accuracy and reducing risk. 
‘With the wind generator now in operation, we can replicate offshore wind and wave conditions more realistically than ever before,’ says Pietro Danilo Tomaselli, Senior Hydraulic Engineer and Head of FloatLab activities at DHI. ‘This gives DHI and DTU Wind a unique opportunity to optimise floater designs, improve turbine control systems, and validate engineering models, ultimately making floating wind a more reliable and cost-effective solution for the green transition.'

New global report charts the digital future of water management

Survey of 120+ water institutions highlights five technologies reshaping the sector and the risks that come with them.
 
A new international report offers timely insight into how digital technologies are changing the way the world manages water. Developed by IAHR in collaboration with DHI and other global research institutes and experts, the Global Water Institutes report on digital transformation ‘From data to water decisions – Accelerating the digital journey’ outlines how digitalisation is accelerating across the hydro-environmental sector and what needs to happen next.
 
At the heart of the report are five key digital accelerators that can transform water management systems across scales and geographies:
 

Remote sensing: 80% of respondents already use or plan to use remote sensing, which provides essential data for monitoring and modelling everything from flood risk to water quality, especially in data-scarce or hard-to-reach regions.
Data, sensors and Internet of Things: Enable real-time monitoring of water systems, supporting early warning, performance tracking and incident response in increasingly complex and climate-sensitive environments.
Advanced modelling: The most widely adopted technology among respondents, with over 90% using models for scenario testing, optimisation and planning under uncertainty.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Opening new possibilities for predictive maintenance, system forecasting and operational efficiency.
Digital twins: Representing the full integration of data, models and real-time systems, digital twins are seen as a powerful tool for both short-term operations and long-term strategic planning.

 
Opportunities and risks in the digital water transition
Drawing on survey input from 127 respondents in 41 countries, the report shows broad alignment on the benefits of digitalisation – better prediction, faster decision-making and more efficient resource use. However, it also draws attention to a consistent set of risks:
 

Data gaps: Inconsistent, inaccessible or poor-quality data remains a significant challenge.
Technical capacity: Many organisations cite a lack of in-house expertise to process and apply digital tools.
Cybersecurity and reliability: As systems become more connected, the exposure to cyber and infrastructure vulnerabilities increases.
Ethical and social implications: Automation, AI and the shift toward digital twins raise questions about transparency, accountability and inclusion.
Dependence on proprietary tools: Vendor lock-in is an emerging concern, especially around AI and platform integration.

 
A call for integration and collaboration
The report advocates for a more integrated approach to digitalisation, combining open standards, multidisciplinary training and collaborative frameworks. It highlights underused opportunities, such as leveraging open-source remote sensing data, cross-sensor data fusion and hybrid AI-physics modelling.
While the digital transition is already well underway, the report urges the water community not to see it as a purely technical journey. Governance, trust and human capacity must evolve in parallel. The report calls for greater collaboration across research, engineering, public agencies and the private sector to ensure digital innovation is both scalable and accountable. 
The key recommendations from the report are:
 

Increase use of open data and interoperable platforms
Promote hybrid modelling approaches that combine physics and machine learning
Support capacity development through training and institutional knowledge-sharing
Ensure governance and ethical frameworks keep pace with digital innovation

 
The report is published under IAHR’s leadership as part of the organisation’s commitment to advancing knowledge and innovation across the entire water cycle. It was introduced at the IAHR World Congress 2025 in Singapore, with DHI colleague Henrik Madsen, Research Manager, presenting the sections of the report on Earth Observation data and digital twins. 

New partnership between DHI and PlanBlue to strengthen ocean health and coastal resilience

DHI and PlanBlue announce a new strategic partnership, signed at the recent UN Ocean Conference in Nice. This collaboration brings together DHI’s global expertise in marine and coastal services with PlanBlue’s innovative ocean monitoring technologies, enabling new ways to monitor, protect and sustainably develop the world’s oceans.
PlanBlue, based in Germany, is a deep-tech company specialising in high-resolution seafloor imaging and smart data analytics. Their proprietary system provides detailed, geo-referenced visual data that support precise and repeatable ocean monitoring. Their value lies in translating seafloor imagery into actionable environmental metrics to support habitat classification, biodiversity assessment and long-term marine planning.
‘At a time when data-driven solutions are essential for addressing the ocean crisis, this partnership will enhance how we measure and manage underwater environments,’ said Ole Larsen, Director of Strategic Partnerships at DHI. 
Together, DHI and PlanBlue will accelerate the delivery of tools that support ecosystem protection, smarter infrastructure planning and transparent decision-making in marine projects.
‘Our partnership allows us to go deeper – literally and figuratively – in understanding the seabed and supporting better decisions for ocean health. We will strengthen biodiversity mapping, enhance our services for sustainable marine infrastructure and help our clients make informed decisions based on sound data and science,’ Ole Larsen said.
Technology for healthier oceans
The partnership will focus on making complex marine data more accessible, visual and usable for stakeholders – from government agencies and NGOs to ports, energy companies and coastal cities.
 
With PlanBlue’s advanced underwater imaging technology and DHI’s environmental modelling and advisory services, the joint solutions will enable:

Mapping and protecting marine habitats, including seagrass meadows, coral reefs and artificial coastal structures such as harbour walls, helping authorities plan marine protected areas and assess ecosystem health over time.
Minimising the ecological footprint of infrastructure projects through precise baseline data, improved impact assessments and ongoing monitoring.
Accelerating restoration initiatives, such as coral regrowth or habitat recovery following dredging, by using data to guide interventions and evaluate their effectiveness.
Supporting nature-inclusive design in offshore energy and coastal protection projects, ensuring developments are aligned with biodiversity goals.

These applications align closely with DHI’s commitment to advancing the UN Ocean Decade goals and building the knowledge base for more resilient and sustainable coasts.
 
‘This is about making the invisible visible – turning ocean data into actionable insights for healthier ecosystems,’ said Dr. Hannah Brocke, co-founder of PlanBlue. 
The partnership will roll out with joint projects in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia with a focus on habitat mapping, coastal development and sustainable marine operations.

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