Scientific Conference on Integrated Catchment Management for Hazard Mitigation

The partners of NWE ENO INTERREG III B project "WaReLa" and the organising committee invite you to the "Scientific conference on Integrated catchment management for hazard mitigation".

The conference will be held in Trier (Germany) on 24-26 September 2007. The overall aim of the conference is to present and discuss instruments and strategies for an integrated and sustainable catchment management. Both scientific and practical approaches will be addressed within the conference. The organisation committee welcomes river basin managers, environmental and spatial planners, consultants, researchers, land owners and authorities working with the themes of the conference.

Although the intended deadline for submissions of abstracts already expired we still encourage all interested persons to contribute to the conference by sending an abstract (not exceeding more than 1/2 page or 400 words) of their practical or scientific approaches. High-quality submissions will be accepted for oral or poster presentations at the symposium. Both, the publishing of an abstract book and of selected full paper proceedings are planned.

Conference Rationale:

In addition to flood disasters on major rivers, damage caused by the flooding of smaller and medium-sized tributaries is also of considerable significance. To ensure that flood protection measures are effective, engineering flood prevention measures on the rivers must be supported by integrated catchment management. This includes decentralised water retention measures implemented in the sectors of forestry, agriculture and in residential areas.

Within this scope new instruments have to be elaborated and introduced, such as GIS-based systems and systems for the evaluation of economic consequences and eco-efficiency of flood damage precaution measures associated with land-use. These are extremely significant for improving information management, the prevention of advice to the general public and for the acceptance of flood precaution measures.

The conference intends to promote scientific exchange between specialists working on all areas concerning integrated catchment management. This includes the methodology for identification of catchment types prone to flooding hazards, the control and validation of land-use concepts for decentralised water retention as well as its combination and upscaling procedures up to mesoscale catchments. As catchment management is not only the concern of natural scientists the strategies for enhancing catchment management and the development of decision–support tools will also be important topics of the conference.

The conference language will be English exclusively, no translation service will be available.