History shows that the economic prosperity of a society and its cultural wealth was always closely related to the level of the development of the hydraulic schemes, including dams and reservoirs. In view of climate change, dams and reservoirs will and have to play an even more important role as mitigation and adaptation infrastructures in order to satisfy the vital needs in water, renewable energy and food in the different continents worldwide. To gain wide acceptance and to obtain a win-win situation between all stakeholders, such large water infrastructures projects have to be designed as multi-purpose projects by multidisciplinary teams with a complex system approach. This needs excellence in engineering sciences and management. Through the excellent work of his technical committees, ICOLD is contributing to the worldwide vision "better dams for a better world".