A watershed is an area of land and water bounded by a drainage divide, where the surface runoff generated by rainfall collects and flows out to a single outlet (river, lake, dam, stream, pond etc). Generally, two or more catchments form a small watershed, while a group of large watersheds form a river basin. The traditional  watershed management practices cannot cope with the rapidly emerging climate change risks. Sustainable watershed management practices may enhance the resilience of natural resources to climate change induced risks (floods/droughts)  but lack of knowledge, skills, resources and awareness in Pakistan are the main impediments. 

Addressing these issues, the CEWRI, NARC in collaboration with three research and development organizations each from Nepal and Sri Lanka has initiated a capacity development project under the financial support of Asia Pacific Networks for Global Change Research (APN GCR). A training workshop will be conducted in each collaborating country, where a network of around 20 project Partners (hydrologists/ climate scientists /agriculturists /community workers) from the lined departments will be developed who will assess the watersheds and will prioritize the most effective technologies according to the local climate change scenarios. The first inception cum training workshop was held in Pakistan, where the experts have selected the following technologies for dissemination.