[Playbacks Now Available] IAHR in Action: World Water Day 2020
In case you miss the live-streaming, video playbacks of the special event are now available on the same webpage.
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(1) IAHR World Water Day 2020 Special Event: Hydro-environment Engineering and Adaptation to Climate Change
Livestreamed Online & Free of Charge
On behalf of the International Association for Hydro-environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) I would like to extend a very warm welcome to this IAHR Special Event in honour of the United Nations World Water Day. Since 1993 UN has been inspiring the global water community with this event. The theme of this year is “Water and Climate Change”. We are very pleased to contribute our thinking towards adaptation to climate change – which is invariably linked to hydro-environment engineering.
IAHR is a global international organization based in Madrid and Beijing – it is the oldest water organization founded by the heads of hydraulic research institutes in Europe who have helped build the water infrastructure throughout the world. It is a network of international experts on a wide range of subjects ranging from environmental fluid mechanics, hydraulic structures, eco-hydraulics, ice research and engineering, river sedimentation, coastal and maritime engineering, water resources and flood risk management, Artificial Intelligence and Water, to climate change adaptation. There are four regional divisions: Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. We produce authoritative scientific and engineering knowledge products – e.g. journals, design monographs, and technical magazines that have a great impact on adaptation to climate change. We also work closely on global issues jointly with UN-water.
Globally climate change is a grand challenge that pose threats to water security. Over the past three decades, we have witnessed the impacts of climate change - increased rainfall intensity, extreme floods and droughts, changing weather and crop patterns, and warming of the coastal water which has its implication on ecosystem services. The impact is also accentuated by population growth and rapid urbanization in many coastal cities, especially in Asia (which accounts for 58 % of the world’s population) and the developing world. Despite the attention paid to issues such as sea level rise and river restoration, there has been a lack of integrated understanding of climate-change induced impacts on water resources and ecosystem services. And even less action on improving engineering design to cope with climate change. Today we have gathered several IAHR experts to share their views, with a panel discussion and also in-depth lectures. I hope you will enjoy the event and please let us know your comments and suggestions. IAHR will be glad to collaborate with international partners to be the solution for a better water future. Hydro-environment engineering and research (including AI and smart technology) is at the core of sustainability and adaptation to climate change – which is needed to protect health and save lives.
Joseph Lee
Angelos Findikakis
Tom Soo
Peter Goodwin
Roberto Ranzi
Deg Hyo Bae
Yangwen Jia
Zoran Kapelan
INTRODUCTION
DATE: Saturday, March 21, 2020 (recording to be played morning of Sunday March 22 and Monday March 23 in Beijing and Madrid)
TIME: 21:00 (Beijing Time) | 14:00 (Central European Time) | 9:00 (East Coast Time in USA),
VENUE: Online livestream
World Water Day, held on 22 March every year, has been conceived by the United Nations as one more way to raise awareness about global water problems and motivate organizations and individuals to work towards their solution. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.
This year the theme of World Water Day is water and climate change, also the subject of the 2020 World Water Development Report to be released on that day. Key messages of this year’s World Water Day campaign are that climate policy makers must put water at the heart of action plans, water can help fight climate change by using sustainable, affordable and scalable water and sanitation solutions, and that all have a role to play by taking special actions in their daily lives to address climate change.
IAHR, as a partner of the UN Water program, has organized a special event to celebrate World Water Day and share with its members and others, ideas on the connection between water and climate change. Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the IAHR event will be a virtual forum with participants from Europe, Asia and the Americas, and will be livestreamed.
The IAHR World Water Day forum will be held on Saturday, March 21, 2020, 21:00-1:10 (Beijing time), 14:00 – 18:10 (Central European time), (9:00 – 13:10 East Coast time in the USA). A recording of the forum will be played the morning of Sunday March 22 and Monday March 23 in Beijing and Madrid.
PROGRAM
Part A - IAHR Discussion Forum
Introduction (5 min) - Joseph HW Lee, IAHR President, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
IAHR Engagement with UN Water (10 min)
International Panel Discussion on “Climate change and adaptive management – challenges and issues”
Chairman: Angelos Findikakis, Bechtel Corporation and Stanford University, USA
Rapporteur: Tom Soo, IAHR Executive Director
Participants:
Peter Goodwin, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, USA: Global trends and issues; ecosystem services (10 min)
Joseph HW Lee, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong, China: “Innovative storm water management” (10 min)
Roberto Ranzi, University of Brescia, Italy: “The IAHR white paper on climate change” (10 min)
Deg-Hyo Bae, Sejong University, Korea: “Korean experience on climate change impacts on water resources” (10 min)
Yangwen Jia, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, China: “China perspective on climate change adaptation” (10 min)
Discussion (15 min)
Part B - IAHR Distinguished Lectures for World Water Day
Lecture 1: “Water security and ecosystem services” (by Peter Goodwin, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, USA)
Lecture 2: “Scientific & technical issues on climate change adaptation of Korean water resources” (by Deg-Hyo Bae, Sejong University, Korea)
Lecture 3: “Advanced Technologies for Smart Water and Wastewater Management in Future Cities” (by Zoran Kapelan, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
The videos can be watched on the same page of the livestreaming.
(2) IAHR White Paper on Climate Change Adaptation
IAHR has an attitude towards climate change and would like to share with the world what we think about this global challenge. With Roberto Ranzi, Chair of the IAHR Technical Committee on Climate Change Adaptation, as the chief author, this white paper (coming soon) illustrates IAHR's position in the global joint efforts of adapting the climate change.
Download the White Paper (.PDF; Coming Soon)
(3) IAHR Presentation: Lectures on Climate Change
IAHR member are active in doing researches related to climate change. Below are the two presentations given during the 38th IAHR World Congress (Panama City, 2019).
Roberto Ranzi, a professor from University of Brescia, is the chair of IAHR's Technical Committee on Climate Change Adaptation. Tosiyuki Nakaegawa, a researcher from Meteorological Research Institute of Japan Meteorological Agency, gave the report as one of the keynote speeches during the world congress.
by Roberto Ranzi
by Tosiyuki Nakaegawa
Roberto Ranzi's Presentation Tosiyuki Nakaegawa's Presentation
(4) IAHR HydroLink: Special Issues
HydroLink is the primary magazine of the IAHR community and brings you the latest news in the world of hydro-environment engineering and research! Hydrolink also provides a platform for reporting on IAHR Conferences, news from our members and offers a forum for exchanging information and spreading the word on topics and news relevant to the community.
Its 4th issue of 2019 focused on green coastal infrastructure, and the 1st issue of 2020 on climate change adaptation and countermeasures in coastal environments.
HydroLink 2019-04
HydroLink 2020-01
