Welcome to our Water Institute November bulletin.
Our recent DCU Water Institute conference, “IWA Regional Conference on Diffuse Pollution and Catchment Management” took place in Dublin City Universityfrom October 23rd to October 27th 2016 and was hosted in conjunction with the International Water Association (IWA).
The conference was a great success and we are delighted to have been associated with such an international and reputable event. We are delighted to have had a breadth of expertise and knowledge in our two parallel sessions over three days.
Each day was kicked off with stimulating plenary talks – the conference had 6 plenary speakers in total – Karin Lexen, Director, Stockholm Water Institute, Will Sarni, Managing Director, Deloitte, Jean Luc Bertrand, Chairman IWA Specialist Group on Drainage, John H. Matthews, secretariat coordinator and co-founder of the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), Mark Maimone, Philadelphia Water Department and Marion Colonerus, Principal Managerat the European Court of Auditors.
In addition, we had over 20 wonderful keynote presentations comprising of national and international perspectives on topics relating to diffuse pollution and related impacts, given by key leaders in the water space from industry, academia, and agency – including Michael Bruen, UCD Director of the UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research, Dennis Collentine, an environmental economist from Gävle University in Sweden, Matthew Crowe, Director of the EPA , Karen Daly, Research Officer within the Crops Environment and Land Use Department of Teagasc, Justin Dunning, Chelsea Technologies Group Ltd, Dave Foster, Director of Regulatory and Natural Resources Policy, Hugh Henry, Director of Innovation and R&D Teagasc, Eleanor Jennings, Director of the Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies, DKIT, Phil Jordan, Professor of Catchment Science, School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Mary Kelly-Quinn, Associate Professor in University College Dublin, Harry Kolar IBM Distinguished Engineer with IBM Research, Ralf Kunkel, Research Centre Juelich, Anthony McCloy, Managing Director of McCloy Consulting, Bruce Misstear, Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Trinity College Dublin, Alec Rolston, research associate at the Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Chris Saint Director at the Centre for Water Management and Reuse, and Patricia Torpey, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
We also had the pleasure of offering a wide range of interesting workshops being led by experts who have developed programmes with stimulating ideas for discussion. The workshops included a Water Economics workshop, led by James Joyce, Chief Economist of Stockholm Water Institute; we had a workshop on Invasive Alien Species and Managing Biosecurity in the Workplace; a workshop on Integrated Constructed Wetlands (ICW), An In Situ Automated High-Resolution Nutrient Monitoring workshop and finally, the Water Joint Programming Initiative Workshop led by Alice Wemaere and Dominique Darmendrail.
The closing ceremony commenced was chaired by Duncan Stewart, a well-known media expert in the area of Environmental issues in Ireland. Duncan oversaw a panel discussion made up of Alice Wemaere, EPA, Chris Saint, University South Australia, Dominique Darmendrail, Agence Recherche France, Brian D’Arcy, IWA, Fiona Napier, IWA, and Dennis Collentine, from Gävle University in Sweden. The overriding message of the closing ceremony was “we must value water”. “We need to engage our citizens and incentivise.”
It was a pleasure to welcome our 150 delegates from 26 countries. We were heartened by, not only the geographical diversityof the delegates and speakers, but also, by the breadth of knowledge and excellent presentations which provided insightful scientific content on topics in the water space, such as catchment management, new innovations for water treatment, emerging policy issues and stakeholder engagement, ecosystem health and services, and novel approaches.