University of Southampton Celebrates World Water Day 2013

It was the first year that the University of Southampton formally celebrated the international World Water Day and the full day of thematic events->Water Quality; Energy & Water; and Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation- certainly provided new insights into challenges, benefits and future opportunities for ‘water cooperation'. The entire day touched on all the multifaceted challenges re. water resource management and it was clear that a interdisciplinary approach is critical to bringing solutions to this pressing societal challenge.

The day involved academic, post graduate and political leaders, and included inspirational presentations, interactive demonstrations and the screening of the seminal award winning documentary ‘Flow- For Love of Water'.

Key messages from the day (incl. facts from the UN World Water Day), can be found here .

Multi-Media:

See the latest videos, interviews, pictures, tweets and views from the floor at World Water Day, University of Southampton!

Listen to interviews with the speakers:

• Professor AbuBakr Bahaj (University of Southampton- Energy and Water) ;
• Dr Yvan Biot (DFID- Influencing Policy) ;
• Dr Daniella Russi (IEEP- TEEB approach) .

In pictures:

• Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/alisonsimmance/world-water-day-water-cooperation-2013-at-the-univ/
• UN Flicr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94685784@N06/8619920130/in/pool-wwd2013events

Full Story:

• Storify : http://storify.com/Good_boy113/world-water-day-2013

Presentations:

Water Quality: Addressing Global Problems at Source-

• ‘Water quality: addressing global problems at source', by Dr Jim Wright, UoS.
• ‘Human Capital and Water: Assessing the direct relationship and the impact of urban dimensions' , by Sylvia Szabo, UoS .
• ‘WaterAid', Presentation by Alice Dibblin, UoS and lead volunteer for student WaterAid group.

Demonstrations:

• ‘ Screen-printed potentiometric sensors for chloride measurement in soils.' by Dr Nick Harris & Dr Andy Cranny, UoS.
• ‘Collaborative Catchment Scale Water Quality Management Using Integrated Wireless Sensor Networks' by Huma Zia, UoS.
• ‘The Aquatest System demonstration (The Aquatest Research Programme)', by Rob Matthews, University of Bristol.

Energy and Water: Energy for Development-

• ‘ Energy and Water: Energy for Development', by Professor AbuBakr Bahaj, UoS.

Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)-

• ‘ ESPA DELTA Assessing Health, Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation In Populous Deltas ', Presentation by Dr. Craig Hutton, UoS.
• ‘ Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems through Trade-off Scenarios ', by Dr Kate Schreckenberg,UoS.
• ‘ Ecosystem Services Approach and Mainstreaming Biodiversity - Experiences of GIZ ', by Dr Kirsten Probst, German Development Agency,( GIZ), Member of the ASSETS advisory board.
• ‘ Research-policy Linkages: Lessons from DFID ', by Dr Yvan Biot Senior Scientist, Department for International Development (DFID).
• ‘ The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB): Water and Wetlands ', by Dr Daniela Russi, Policy analyst, Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP).

The World Water Day celebrations was organised by Multidisciplinary Research Week 2013 in association with: Sustainability Science at Southampton; the ESPA ASSETS project; and the ESPA Deltas project. The day was in support of the Southampton local Water Aid group.