Interdisciplinary assessment of sea-level rise and climate change impacts on the lower Nile delta, Egypt.

International audienceCLImate-induced changes on WAter and SECurity (CLIWASEC) was a cluster of three complementary EC-FP7projects assessing climate-change impacts throughout the Mediterranean on: hydrological cycles (CLIMB —CLimate-Induced changes on the hydrology of Mediterranean Basins); water security (WASSERMed — WaterAvailability and Security in Southern EuRope and the Mediterranean) and human security connected with possiblehydro-climatic conflicts (CLICO — CLImate change hydro-COnflicts and human security). The Nile deltacase study was common between the projects. CLIWASEC created an integrated forum for modelling andmonitoring to understand potential impacts across sectors. This paper summarises key results froman integratedassessment of potential challenges to water-related security issues, focusing on expected sea-level rise impactsby the middle of the century.We use this common focus to illustrate the added value of project clustering.CLIWASEC pursued multidisciplinary research by adopting a single research objective: sea-level rise relatedwater security threats, resulting in a more holistic view of problems and potential solutions. In fragmenting research,policy-makers can fail to understand how multiple issues can materialize from one driver. By combiningefforts, an integrated assessment ofwater security threats in the lower Nile is formulated, offering policy-makersa clearer picture of inter-related issues to society and environment. The main issues identified by each project(land subsidence, saline intrusion — CLIMB; water supply overexploitation, land loss — WASSERMed; employmentand housing security — CLICO), are in fact related. Water overexploitation is exacerbating land subsidenceand saline intrusion, impacting on employment and placing additional pressure on remaining agricultural landand the underdeveloped housingmarket. All these have wider implications for regional development. This richerunderstanding could be critical in making better policy decisionswhen attempting tomitigate climate and socialchange impacts. The CLIWASEC clustering offers an encouraging path for the newEuropean Commission Horizon2020 programme to follow