SWITCH: Managing Water for the City of the Future

Managing Water for the City of the Future

Reporting on past events

SWITCH - News and Events

Concept note learning and sharing seminar "Integrated Urban Water Management in cities in Latin America"

Bogotá, Colombia – 16-18 August 2010

The Latin American cities in SWITCH (Belo Horizonte, Bogotá, Cali and Lima) have developed and studied interesting approaches to IUWM. As the context of these cities is relatively similar, there has been an interest to share and learn experiences across them. Although this has happened to some extent, e.g. at the SWITCH scientific meetings, the recent city assessments showed that there is demand for some dedicated sharing of experiences with IUWM across the Latin American SWITCH cities. In view of the above, a three day seminar is planned.

For more information, please contact John Butterworth: butterworth@irc.nl.

EXPOAgua 2010

Pereira, Colombia – 11-13 August 2010

Carol Howe is an invited speaker, together with Monica Sanz from the SWITCH Bogota partner (UNAL). There will be a lecture on SWITCH IUWM in City of the Future.

Singapore International Water Week: Sustainable Water Solutions for Cities: Clean and Affordable

Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre –
28 June - 2 July 2010

The Singapore International Water Week is the global platform that brings policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world. Themed Sustainable Cities: Clean and Affordable Water, the Singapore International Water Week 2010 will focus on the need for efficiency and cost effective solutions to address water problems amidst a constantly changing environment. More than half of the earth?s population already lives in cities, and the trend towards urbanization is accelerating. As urbanization continues to gain momentum, there is an urgency to address the water shortage issues before the situation deteriorates further and hampers economic growth. Kala Vairavamoorthy and Carol Howe will attend as Conference Committee members, speakers and panel session participants.

World Expo 2010 – Better City, Better Life

Shanghai, China – 15-16 June 2010

The theme of Expo 2010 is "Better City, Better Life," representing the wish of humankind for better ways of living in future urban environments. Shanghai hopes to build a powerful and lasting pilot example of sustainable and harmonious urban living. SWITCH, including Cai Jaiming from the Beijing partner (IGSNRR) will take part in the EU sponsored European Science and Technology Week.

ICLEI Resilient Cities 2010

1st World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change

The Gustav-Stresemann-Institut, Bonn, Germany – 28-30 May 2010

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the City of Bonn and the World Mayors Council on Climate Change will jointly host Resilient Cities 2010, the first edition of the annual global forum on urban resiliency and adaptation to climate change. Resilient Cities 2010 will be a prime opportunity to share the latest scientific findings, state-of-the-art approaches and effective programs on climate change adaptation and resilience-building in cities and urbanized areas. Carol Howe and Margaret Pageler from ICLEI will take part in an IWA session on climate and sustainable cities.

Dunkerque 2010 – 6th European conference on sustainable cities and towns

Dunkirk, France – 19-21 May 2010

Dunkerque 2010 will explore how sustainable development can help local governments to face the current economic, social and climate challenges and how it can be further implemented in the current context of crisis. It will convene key actors to identify what changes are needed to our political frameworks and will explore how different sectors can cooperate to advance sustainable development in Europe. This event is the next large conference in Europe to address climate change after Copenhagen 2009 (COP-15) and it will offer a unique opportunity to position local governments as willing partners and leaders on emissions reductions and innovative solutions. The culmination of Dunkerque 2010 will be the conveyance of a political message to Europe and the world on climate and the wider local sustainability agenda. As part of this, Carol Howe will present on SWITCH in an Agora session.

European IAHR Congress

Conference Center, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh – 4-6 May 2010

The purpose of the Congress is to share state-of-the-art research findings and experience across the full range of IAHR interests. The Congress will adopt a multi-disciplinary ethos and the technical sessions will be relevant to researchers and professionals interested in expanding their knowledge of fundamental and applied research in the field of hydraulics and related disciplines. As part of this, SWITCH is to present a range of papers.

APA's 2010 National Planning Conference

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, USA – 10-13 April 2010

This is the American Planning Association's national planning event. Organised by Vicki Elmer (UC Berkeley). Kala Vairavamoorthy represented SWITCH.

For more information about this event, visit the website.

African Water Congress

"Water and Sanitation: which perspectives for energy stakes and climatic change"

Kampala, Uganda – 15-18 March 2010

This congress promotes exchange of experiences and knowledge on issues relating to drinking water and sanitation in Africa at a time when new challenges require new approaches. All stakeholders engaged in providing basic services related to water and sanitation face sizeable constraints in connection with the cost of energy. In recent years, the largest expenditure item of drinking water and sanitation has been increasing thereby endangering seriously the efficient operation of farms and the ability to meet adequately the needs of local populations being served. Carol Howe attended as an IWA sponsored representative and speaker, also organising a session on climate change, and acting as a CoF and keynote speaker.

For more information about this event, visit the website.

WEF/IWA Cities of the Future Conference

Boston, Massachusetts – 7-10 March 2010

Cities of the Future 2010 brought together a diverse group of practitioners, researchers and policy-makers who share a vision of an improved urban landscape for future generations. The conference hosted interdisciplinary discussion required to create sustainable urban infrastructure that will meet the challenges of the 21st century and the interdependent engineered and natural systems that will characterize Cities of the Future. Although SWITCH did not participate, it was linked through IWA CoF committee.

For more information about this event, visit the website.

SWITCH International Symposium on City Water Indicators for the Strategic Planning of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv Crown Plaza, Tel-Aviv, Israel – 13-14 January 2010

This was organized by SWITCH partners HUJI, MEKOROT and IHE. SWITCH Members taking part were: Avi Aahronni, Avner Adin, Kala Vairavamoorthy, Peter van der Steen, Carol Howe, Iwona Wagner and Nilo Nascimento who acted as keynote speakers, speakers, organisers and panel session leaders.

The New Urban Question – Urbanism beyond Neo-Liberalism

Delft University of Technology, (TU Delft), The Netherlands –
26-28 November 2009

The theme of the conference was about the recovery of the discipline of Urbanism under the conditions of urbanization and urban transformation, ecological threats and economical crises.

IWA Development Congress

Mexico City, Mexico – 15-19 November 2009

This event brought together 1,000 international water and sanitation professionals to discuss emerging solutions, developments and approaches to sustainable water and sanitation management and exchange knowledge on all aspects of service delivery in low and middle income countries.

SWITCH participation included involvement in the following sessions:

Agua 2009: Integrated Water Resource Management and Climate Change

Cali, Colombia – 9-13 November 2009

The main theme of the conference was IWRM and global climate change: how to deal with the challenges and new situations for urban and rural water management using the concepts of mitigation and adaptation, the implications for development and how scientific research is facing, this challenge.

SWITCH had a whole day session and seminar on "A new paradigm on IWRM in urban areas", organized by Alberto Galvis and Diana Paola Bernal.

WWW-YES Brazil 2009

Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil – 26-30 October 2009

For more information about this event, visit the website: www.yes.h2o.net.

Efficient2009: 5th IWA Specialist Conference on Efficient Use and Management of Urban Water

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Australia – 25-28 October 2009

The aim of the 5th international conference on efficient use and management of water in urban areas was to provide a forum for the exchange of the most recent ideas, techniques and experience in all areas of water management that could contribute to more efficient and sustainable use of water. Professionals from around the world (water managers, regulators, consultants, scientists, local authorities, environmentalists, researchers and providers of equipment and solutions) attended the conference as it is the key international event on water efficiency.

Carol Howe was one of the keynote speakers.

View the brochure for more information.

7th European Forum on Eco-innovation

Copenhagen, Denmark – 23-24 October 2009

The European Forum on Eco-Innovation brought together business and policy perspectives in a unique series of events that explored strategic orientations for eco-innovation and environmental technologies, in support of the EU Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP). Decision makers and actors from finance, technology development, business, policy development, academia and NGOs debated and discussed relevant topics.

SWITCH participation included a presentation by Dionysis Assimacopoulos.

Global CityWater Futures Summit

Delft, The Netherlands – 7-10 October 2009

This Summit, hosted by SWITCH, brought together over 50 experts from around the world with 100 practitioners from cities in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia as well as donor groups and international organisations to join forces in accelerating change toward a more sustainable water City of the Future.

To find out more about what happened during the Summit, visit the SWITCH Water Summit Blog for videos and reports from the event.

Water/Energy Sustainability Symposium

Salt Lake City, Utah – 13-17 September 2009

This unique Symposium explored the complex relationships between water resources, quality, and sustainability, and energy development and generation, with the goals of informing policy decisions at state and federal levels.

Nothing is more vital to life on our planet than water – a finite and vulnerable resource. Correspondingly, the demand for greater quantites and additional sources of energy is increasing rapidly. Much like siblings, these two entities both depend on and compete with each other.