1999-08-25 section meeting: minutes

Agenda

1. Reports on activities
2. Future of IAHR Congress
3. IAHR-IWA Joint Committee
4. Hydroinformatics journal
5. European Graduate School

Participants

• Roger Falconer, Cardiff University, FalconerRA@cardiff.ac.uk
• Jianhua Tao, Tianjin University, jhtao@tju.edu.cn
• Dimitri Solomatine, sol@ihe.nl
• Gaele Rodenhuis, Delft Hydraulics, gaele.rodenhuis@wldelft.nl
• Chris Purdon, International Water Association, publications@iawq.org.uk
• Andreas Müller, ETH Zürich, mu@ihw.baum.ethz.ch
• Chris Whitlow, Eden Vale Modelling Services, chrisw@edenvms.uunet.com
• Nigel Wright, University of Nottingham, nigel.wright@nottingham.ac.uk
• Yonas B. Dibike, IHE Delft, ybd@ihe.nl
• Andreja Jonoski, IHE-Delft, jon@ihe.nl
• Jacob Odgaard, University of Iowa, IIHR, jacob-odgaard@uiowa.edu
• Larry Weber, University of Iowa, IIHR, larry-weber@uiowa.edu
• Forrest Holly, University of Iowa, IIHR, fmholly@engineering, uiowa.edu
• Adri Verwey, Delft Hydraulics, adri.verwey@wldelft.nl
• Massimo Greco, University of Napoli, grecom@unina.it
• Michael Abbott, IHE-Delft, mba@ihe.nl
• Christopher George, IAHR, c.george@iahr.nl
• Arthur Mynett, Delft Hydraulics, arthur.mynett@wldelft.nl
• Vladan Babovic, Danish Hydraulic Institute, vmb@dhi.dk

Minutes of meeting

1. Reports on Activities
   • Hydroinformatics 2000 — report by Jacob Odgaard

     The conference will be held in Cedar Rapids, a short distance from Iowa City, because of better and more convenient technical facilities. The conference has generated excellent response in both the USA and Europe. The conference programme has been expanded slightly to include atmospheric sciences. A link with L Eau et l informatique to be held in Paris in September 2000 has been established.

     The most important immediate task is to solicit a large number of contributions. The conference should be widely advertised especially using electronic means such as electronic mailing lists, Internet sites and the like.

   • Proposal for NATO ARW — report by Vladan Babovic

     The Ecohydraulic Research group at the University of Idaho (Peter Goodwin and Tony Minns) has prepared a proposal for NATO ARW. In the case that the funding is approved, the ARW will be held in the spring of 2000.

   • IAHR Congress, Beijing, August 2001 — report by Arthur Mynett

     The congress will be organised along five main themes. The Hydroinformatics section has offered its assistance in all themes and suggested that the local organising committee includes special hydroinformatics-related technical sections in all these themes. As a result of very good experience from the congress held in San Francisco, the section will assume part of the responsibility to actively solicit papers and provide support in their review. The section will help in providing contact with members from Far East and South East Asia and encourage their participation in the work of the congress. The section has also offered support in suggesting and providing key-note lecturers.

   • Hydroinformatics 2002 — report by Roger Falconer

     The Fifth International Conference on Hydroinformatics will be held in Cardiff/Bristol in the summer (June, July or August) of 2002. The conference itself will be held in Cardiff, whereas related workshops will be held in Bristol. Professor Falconer from Cardiff University and Professor Cluckie from Bristol University have started preliminary arrangements for the conference. Institutional support from the British Environmental Agency is already secured. This will be a joint IAHR-IWA event, with more prominent themes in water treatment and water quality.

2. The future of the IAHR Congress

   A bid for hosting the IAHR Congress in 2003 in Thessaloniki has already been announced and the most appropriate format for such a meeting is already under discussion. One of the proposals was to view future IAHR Congresses as umbrella events for most of its sections. Under such a formula, future conferences organised by sections will be collocated with the main event. It is hoped that this principle would help cross-fertilisation within IAHR. However, the organisation of such a large event may prove to be very difficult.

3. IAHR — IWA Joint Committee on Hydroinformatics

   Draft of by-laws for the joint committee have been prepared by a working group consisting of Minns, Falconer and Holz. By-laws are available and are open for discussion. In order to strengthen ties with IWA, Arthur Mynett in his capacity as chairman of the Hydroinformatics section will prepare a paper for IWA journal Water 21. It has been suggested that the International Association for Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) be invited to join this joint committee.

4. Journal of Hydroinformatics

   The Journal of Hydroinformatics was successfully launched at the Graz Congress. The first issue was distributed free of charge to all delegates attending the meeting. Despite slight delays and some initial problems, the Journal has been very well received.

5. The European Graduate School for Hydraulics

   Within the framework of the European Graduate School for Hydraulics, a second school for Hydroinformatics has been organised for the second time in Cottbus, Germany. This is a very positive initiative. However, the school has been organised with almost no involvement from the section and without any communication between the Hydroinformatics section and the course organisers. As the section is responsible for dissemination of hydroinformatics, it is hoped that the organisation of future similar events will be carried out with the involvement of and in close collaboration with the section.