On the 8th of March 2006 in the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the Director General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, and the Minister of Science and High Education of Poland, Michal Sewerynski, signed an agreement on the establishment of the European Regional Centre on Ecohydrology under the auspices of UNESCO in Lodz, Poland.

The Centre has been established as an international institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in co-operation with the University of Lodz. The major activities has been developed in the framework of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP). The initiative has been strongly supported by the authorities of the City of Lodz.