Professor Philippe Gourbesville – Université Côte d’Azur, France

Candidate for:

President

Biography 

After obtaining a PhD on unsteady free surface flows and hydrological modelling at Louis Paster University, Strasbourg (France), I started my professional life as a hydraulic engineer with a French engineering consulting company and took part in numerous projects in France, in Europe, and in several countries in Asia and Africa. After ten years of engineering, I joined the faculty of Geo Sciences of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis as an associate professor - and full professor since 2006 - of Hydroinformatics. I served as Dean of the faculty for five years before becoming the President of Polytech Nice -Sophia – University Nice Sophia Antipolis for two consecutive mandates of five years.

In 2004, I coordinated a consortium of 5 Europeans universities, 9 international institutions, 60 water sector industrial actors for establishing the EuroAquae joint M.Sc. on Hydrodroinformatics and water management. This M.Sc. was the first jointly awarded in Europe under the Erasmus Mundus framework and has received continuous support from the European Commission for two decades. This program has welcomed about 3.500 students from more than 80 nationalities who joined the M.Sc. or attended some of the various regional activities organized by the consortium such as HydroEurope, HydroAsia and HydroLatinAmerica.

With my research team, in addition to numerous projects, I conducted research activities within 16 European Commission projects under FP5, FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020 frameworks as a participant, work package leader, and coordinator. Most of those projects were related to the development of hydraulic and distributed deterministic hydrological modelling systems that could be used to simulate extreme situations, to assess impacts, and to formulate mitigation strategies for resilience improvement. The developed approaches and solutions have been deployed in numerous environments at the international scale and offered numerous Ph.D. opportunities.

In addition to IAHR activities, I am actively engaged with the Société Hydrotechnique de France (SHF – French Hydrotechnic Society) as a management board member, division chair and initiator of the SimHydro biannual conferences since 2010. I also serve in different national and international working/advisory groups and as a legal expert for several major flood events and for numerous hydro-environmental projects. In 2015, I was one of the founders of the Asian Water Council (AWC) promoting innovative solutions for water issues in Asia and I am currently serving as Vice President. 

On the editorial side, I published 108 journal papers, 110 conference papers, 63 book chapters and edited 13 books and proceedings. I am currently serving as associate editor for the Journal of Hydroinformatics, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, River, and as co-editor in chief for La Houille Blanche / Hydroscience Journal. I received several awards from scientific and professional organizations including the “Grand Prix d’Hydrotechnique” award from SHF in 2011. I am currently invited/honorary professor in 16 universities and institutes in Europe and Asia mainly.

IAHR involvement

In 1993 I attended the IAHR congress in Tokyo and joined the association. The event was the first opportunity to meet the hydraulic international community and initiate a professional network that has been continuously expanded since. Over the last three decades, I have been committed to this community. Following the 1993 IAHR congress and the seminar on Hydroinformatics, I attended the first International Conference on Hydroinformatics (HIC) at IHE, Delft, the Netherlands. I took an active part in this emerging field through the joint IAHR-IWA Hydroinformatics committee. In 2006, I led the organizing committee of the 7th HIC in Nice, France. In the following years, I served within the leadership team and am currently the committee's honorary chair. In addition to my commitment to the Hydroinformatics committee and to the development of IAHR by participating in events, promoting initiatives, serving in several committees, and engaging in editorial activities, I took part in the European Division from its very early stage and served within this division. I served for two terms as a Council member from 2007 to 2011 and currently serving as president since September 2023. Along these last two years, with the active and enthusiastic support of the Executive Committee and the Council, I have been committed to engage our association through a development strategy that will ensure high quality services for members, attract water professionals and increased visibility of IAHR as global hub of knowledge and innovation for holistic water engineering.

Personal statement

I am deeply grateful to the Nominating Committee for selecting me for the election for IAHR president. IAHR is the place for excellence in hydraulic research since 1935 and we will celebrate the 90th anniversary of our community in 2025. The association is born in Brussels in 1935 by the willingness of 66 visionary directors of hydraulic laboratories. The initial objective of the new association was to promote international cooperation in hydromechanics and its application to hydraulic engineering. At that time, improving and consolidating knowledge were priorities for supporting the industrial development of hydropower, navigation, and aeronautics. Over the past nine decades, accompanying the evolution of the hydraulic sector and the demands of modern societies, IAHR has expanded its expertise fields to encompass hydro-environment issues by promoting innovative research and engineering solutions. With this continuous evolution, IAHR has federated and consolidated, through its members’ community, a unique and vivid set of expertise and competencies able to deliver the most advanced research results, and at the same time, to take part in most of the major water engineering projects at the worldwide scale.

The UN 2023 Water conference has underlined the need to engage without delay massive investments and actions in the water sector to keep the hope to achieve, by 2030, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and especially the SDG 6 directly related to water. With this event, the international community has recognized and understood the central place of water and the numerous connections existing among the SDGs and especially with those related to food and energy production. Unfortunately, the recent reports published in 2024 have already concluded that none of the SDG 6 will be reached in 2023 despite efforts. Within this context that requests to multiply at least by four the current investments, IAHR has a key role to play and should be seen as a solution provider. All our members are engaged with knowledge production and the development of operational solutions for the full water cycle. The association must have the ambition to be the reference global hub of knowledge and innovation for holistic water engineering. IAHR should be the place where results are shared but also where the transfer to the industry and to the Society should take place. As joining the various international bodies involved in the global water challenges, interactions and synergies with the industrial sector should be a priority for our association. The platform created with the national water associations is offering today an easier communication among water professional at the global scale and expand the visibility of IAHR.

Today water challenges request to develop a holistic approach that encompasses water uses, hydro environment preservation, and water-related hazards mitigation. Obviously, addressing the complexity of the water-related processes requests to invest within the fundamental knowledge but also revisiting the water management principles and the current engineering practices to build more resilient communities. IAHR is the place for innovation. The association gathers all components for formulating and promoting actively innovative and disruptive solutions that can contribute to answering some of the major challenges we are facing. IAHR should promote actively the innovative solutions of its members and be a voice on major challenges to which water experts can contribute. To increase visibility, the strategic plan is articulated around four priorities areas that are climate change adaptation and mitigation, water for energy transition, food security and nature, improving resilience against water hazards and disasters, and digital transformation as cross-cutting topic. Our members are massively contributing to these challenges with robust and innovative solutions as demonstrated during our recent regional congresses and events in 2024.

Within the context of needed innovation and developments, IAHR should welcome students and young professionals. In addition to exciting research topics where all the emerging methods must be mobilized, the water sector is facing the digitalization challenge that offers numerous opportunities for new approaches and solutions. The demand for water professionals in developing countries is tremendous and local capacity-building institutions are frequently not able to cope with the demand of the operational and economic sectors. As at the initial stage of IAHR, cooperative training courses, workshops, seminars, … should be offered on-site and online with the objective to consolidate local competencies. The new IAHR UNESCO label for Water training and Education is offering the possibility to recognize excellence and commitment in programs dedicated to train the new generations of water professionals who are essential to tackle water challenges. In addition to the water-related topics, IAHR should also assist and advise its young members on their professional life strategies including entrepreneurship and start-up development. The inclusive participation of the young professionals is vital for our association and for the future of the hydro-environment research and engineering sector. Numerous efforts have been engaged, and they must be amplified with an active participation of all.

Today, I commit to bring my dynamism, experience, and international network to pursue the development of IAHR according to the strategic plan established for 2024 -2027 by the Executive Committee in close collaboration with the Council and all IAHR members. From the sound foundations built by the past presidents, I intend to work with all members to:

• Enhance synergy with industrial water actors especially through the platform established with the national water associations

• Promote innovation and interdisciplinary activities federating scholars and practitioners

• Promote IAHR views on major water challenges identified in our strategic plan at the international level

• Promote international collaboration especially towards developing countries

• Welcome young professionals and to engage them widely within the association activities

• Increase significantly IAHR membership especially with young professionals

• Ensure effective governance and management of IAHR as an inclusive association