The workshop is being organized within the framework of a UNESCO project that aims at establishing a virtual laboratory for researchers working on large drying lakes and interior seas – such as the Dead Sea, the Aral Sea and Lake Chad – to share data, information and experience and to work on similar problems and research together with laboratories in other regions.

In particular, the project aims at establishing and developing information and communication services and collaborative work facilities for scientists as well as at training and developing human resources in charge of operating, maintaining and developing the virtual laboratory network.