The Korea Herald

피터빈트

What is Hydro Asia?

By Seo Jee-yeon

Published : July 24, 2014 - 21:03

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Hydro Asia is the largest regional meeting to discuss water issues on an academic level. The event has been held in Korea since 2007 and K-water took over hosting the regional event from 2014.

The event originates from Hydro Europe, created by the University of Nice in France, which implemented the launch of the program in association with six European universities in 2001.

The objective of Hydro Europe is to promote ― in a global European vision ― the key concepts, methodologies, tools and good practices which are essential today for sustainable water management.

Hydro Asia has the same vision as Hydro Europe, and has collaborated closely with its European counterpart. The Asian event, in particular, continues to provide participants with valuable technical know-how and insight into sustainable water management specifically in Asia.

At Hydro Asia 2014, which is being held from July 21-26 at the K-water Academy in Daejeon, 150 professors and students concerned with water resources from 35 of the world’s leading universities in 26 countries including Korea, France, China, Spain, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam, come together to explore ways to resolve water-related issues and share effective water management knowledge.

The main theme of the event this year is “climate change and scientific water management.” By focusing on the case of the Geum River basin in Korea, three sessions have been created to analyze the basin, floods and flood damage reduction measures, river water quality analysis and an improvement plan, and the development of policy for sustainable water management.

In preparation for the event, Hydro Asia formed 14 teams two months before the main event to carry out a Web-based online collaboration project. Each team consists of 7-10 students, one to two professors, and a working-level researcher.

During the actual event, participants focus on learning and practicing numerical analysis methods and water quality modeling in addition to discussing sustainable water management policies and ways to solve water issues.

(jieunl@heraldcorp.com)