Newsletter 01/2017
Research
MANTRA - Management of Transboundary Rivers between Ukraine, Russia and the EU
The proposal for funding of the CAWR-project “Management of Transboundary Rivers between Ukraine, Russia and the EU” was approved by the Volkswagen Foundation. The Kick-Off-Event took place on November 4-5, 2016 at the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute in Kiev, Ukraine. In the framework of this project, scientists of CAWR want to set the basis for an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) exemplarily for three transnational river basins: the Western Bug (shared by Ukraine, Belarus and the EU), the River Desna (shared by Russia and Ukraine) and the Western Dvina (shared by Russia, Belarus and the EU). CAWR scientists can now continue their research concerning the investigation and improvement of surface water quality in the catchment of the Western Bug, which was also part of the CAWR project IWAS. More information here, Contact: Thomas Pluntke, TU Dresden
Urban Observatory Dresden
The Helmholtz Water Network-funded project “Urban Water Resources Management” has been extended. In the framework of the project, CAWR scientists run the Dresden Urban Observatory (see also CAWR News 08/2015): They continually collect data at five monitoring stations in Dresden, located in the combined sewer, storm water drainage and the river Lockwitzbach. With this monitoring infrastructure, the frequency, duration and intensity of critical discharge situations can be assessed and the urban impact on the river system can be quantified. Data acquisition is continued in order to evaluate the importance of rare events, e.g. intense rainfall, on the urban aquatic system. Collected datasets are made available via the data management portal of the Helmholtz TERENO platform. More information here, Contact: Björn Helm, TU Dresden
Scientific Events
Magdeburger Gewässerschutzseminar Oct 06- 07, 2016
The 17th Magdeburger Gewässerschutzseminar took place on October 6th – 7th 2016 in Dresden and focused on the topic “The Elbe River and its urban impacted waters”. The conference was organized by scientists of the CAWR and the International Commission for the Protection of the Elbe River (IKSE) and attracted 140 participants, contributing to CAWR Thematic Field 3 “Urban Systems” with a special focus on micropollutants in the catchment of the river Elbe. Representatives from national and international research institutions, policy and industry took the opportunity to exchange know-how and best practices concerning diverging claims on urban waters, emerging (micro)pollutants and extreme events. CAWR scientists presented their research concerning micropollutants in the Elbe catchment in several contributions.
CAWR-Workshop on Micropollutants
A workshop jointly organized by scientists of CAWR and UFZ Integrated Project „Controlling Chemicals Fate (CCF)“ took place from October 19 - 20, 2016. The workshop focused on the topic „Fate of micropollutants in aquatic environments: (bio)-transformation and linkage with antibiotic resistance“. The 2-day-workshop with participants from CAWR and University of Wageningen (Netherlands) pooled the activities of the research institutions with regard to the topics micropollutants and antibiotic resistances.
CAWR International Summerschool 2017
The proposal for an International Summerschool with the topic „Networks in our natural and engineered environment – Analysis of structure and function analogies" was granted by TU Dresden and will take place from August 4th to 18th 2017 at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Scientists of the CAWR, the Purdue University and the University of Florida will organize the interdisciplinary event funded by the Institutional Strategy of TU Dresden. 20 excellent international young researchers working on complex networks are expected as participants. Researchers of the TUD faculties Environmental Sciences, Transport and Traffic Sciences and Civil Engineering as well as UFZ scientists will be integrated in the conception and realization of the summerschool. The call for applications will be published in February 2017.
ReWaM Status Conference in Dresden
The ReWaM-Status Conferece is taking place from January 25 – 26 2017 in Dresden at the ICC. The conference with the motto „Water practice between frameworks and regulations“ aims at presenting the preliminery results of the 15 BMBF funded projects within the funding activity „Regional water resources management for a sustainable protection of waterbodies in Germany” (ReWaM). In addition to presentations and panel discussion, there will be booths presenting the 15 projects in detail. CAWR scientists are contributing to three of the projects within the funding activity ReWaM: BOOT-Monitoring, In_StröHmunG and CYAQUATA. Registration is open until January 11, 2017. More information here (in German only).
Faces of CAWR
Dresden Senior Fellow: Prof. William H. McDowell
In spring and autumn 2016 Prof. William H. McDowell from the University of New Hampshire in Durham (USA) completed two research stays in Dresden. Since 2000, he is the Director of the New Hampshire Water Resources Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. As an expert in the field of ecology and biogeochemistry of flowing waters at the interface between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, he was dealing with the impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors on water quality during his stays at the CAWR. A further research stay in spring 2017 is currently planned. More information here and here.