The past provides considerable evidence of the influence of water on the growth of civilization. Today’s world exhibits countless examples of the importance of water in sustaining civilization. Forecasts of the future of this planet and of the exploration of the frontiers beyond it, indicate that water will become even more important to human advancement as the third millennium progresses.

It can be argued that both the past and the present progress of the human race has been, and is, largely based on advances in science, particularly through their application in engineering and technology to the benefit of society. It can also be argued to the contrary, that the unfettered application of these advances has brought about many of the problems that the world faces today. From either standpoint there can be little doubt that the scientific advances involving water have been central to progress and to the solution of many of the problems that this progress has generated—advances such as the water wheel, the construction of canals, the use of steam power, establishing the link between polluted water and disease, the centrifugal pump, filter beds for water treatment, and flood forecasting. Each step forward in water science and its application has had an impact on the use of water and subsequently on the economy, on society, settlements, law, the environment and on many other areas of human endeavour and concern. However, the accelerating demand for water and the mounting burden of pollution leading to water scarcity is currently a considerable threat to society in many parts of the world, a threat which heralds a world water crisis later this century. Will this crisis bring a halt to civilization as we know it? Will it be able to adapt to conditions similar to those existing in the Basin of the Aral Sea? But this may be grossly overestimating the importance of water and of water science. Does civilization owe more to culture, politics, religion, ethics and similar areas?

The International Symposium on "The Basis of Civilization—Water Science?" explored these arguments, ideas and concepts. It considered a range of developments in space and time and from continent to continent. It discussed the fostering of advancements in water science and technology, particularly through education and technology transfer and, to some extent, how to avoid the detrimental effects of their unrestricted application. How can we learn from history of the successful ways to combine politics and religion on the one hand with water science and technology on the other, to the betterment of the lives of every man, woman and child on the earth?

This Symposium was convened by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) as a contribution to the International Hydrological Programme (IHP-UNESCO) with the support of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Italian National Committees for the IHP and for IAHS and a number of other Italian bodies, both governmental and non governmental, and also with the International Water History Association. It was also aimed as a celebration of the United Nations International Year of Freshwater, being held during its closing days. The Symposium took place 3–6 December 2003 at the Rome Headquarters of the Italian National Research Council for the first three days, while the fourth day was given over to a visit to a National Water Exhibition in Rome.

About 150 participants attended the Symposium, with 60 or more coming from outside Italy. After the Opening Ceremony, which was addressed by the Minister for the Environment followed by two specially invited presentations, the proceedings were divided into six sessions. This volume follows this pattern. Sessions one, three, four and five consisted of a total of eight invited papers and about 30 papers presented by participants, the latter having been screened by the Scientific Committee. There was also a Poster Session with about 15 posters, which was run in parallel with the other sessions. The second Session contained four papers which had been invited from UN Agencies and was designed as a celebration of the International Year of Freshwater. These papers were presented by Dr Andras Szollosi-Nagy, UNESCO; Dr Gordon Young, WWAP; Professor R. Gonfiantini, on behalf of IAEA and Mr Pasquale Steduto, FAO. The last Session was a Round Table discussion led by Professor Jim Dooge and four panelists drawn from the participants. Their contributions stimulated a number of questions from the floor for about 90 minutes and these concluded the scientific part of the Symposium. There was a live web cast of the Symposium.

The Exhibition, which was in a different part of Rome, included a number of photographs of water problems particularly from the developing world, together with some Roman artefacts.

There seemed to be agreement that the Symposium had attracted a number of interesting and well presented papers and that it had been a very good medium for disseminating knowledge, especially of the work and aspirations of the UN agencies participating in the celebratory session. It had widened the horizon for many of the participants by addressing a number of interesting and disparate areas and their links to water, namely: law, religion, culture, history, archaeology and economics, as well as science. From discussions in the Round Table there did not seem to be general agreement that water science is the basis of civilization. There were opinions in both directions which led a number of contributors to consider the topic to be very worthy of further exploration and to receive more attention at a future meeting.

The editors wish to thank UNESCO and the International Hydrological Programme, the World Water Assessment Programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency for their help and support, together with the Government of Italy, the National Research Council, the University of Rome and a number of other Italian bodies and societies. They are very grateful for the assistance of the members of the Local Organizing Committee, particularly Dr Salvatore Grimaldi and Dr Roberto Gaudio and for the work of the members of the Scientific Committee, especially Mr Arne Tollan, Professor Gert Schultz, Mr Pradeep Aggarwal and Professor Jacob de Vries. Thanks are also due to the authors who contributed to this volume and to all those who made the Symposium a success.

John C. Rodda