2nd African International Symposium
Ecohydrology for Water, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Resilience in Africa
7-9 November 2016
and the Advanced Training Course in
Ecohydrology and Systemic Biotechnology Solutions for Implementation of Sustainability in Africa
10-11 November 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Aims
With this symposium we aim at building a strong network of cooperation and collaboration between research institutes, universities, NGOs and central and local governments all around Africa to boost research and implementation in the field of Ecohydrology.
In the face of increasing climatic instability, demographic growth and human migration, there is an urgent need to gather better knowledge of the role of different types of water-related ecosystems in coastal, urban or agricultural areas, and share it on the use and integration of innovative ecohydrological technologies for restoration of modified landscapes. Development of effective policies and practices for Integrated Water Resources Management in the context of ecohydrology deals with land management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, resilience of urban, wetland, coastal and agroecosystems and bio-based green economy. Moreover, as it was suggested by the title of UNESCO-IHP Theme 5 “Ecohydrology, engineering harmony for a sustainable world”, technical infrastructure should be harmonised with ecosystems’ requirements.
The advanced training course (ATC) will give the professionals some examples of ecohydrological biotechnologies solutions implemented in practical case studies in Africa and Europe as an incentive for proliferation of the ideas and inspiration for the own knowledge based ecohydrological solutions. As an integral part, the Advance Training Course will take place after the symposium.
Rationale
In September 2015, Member States have agreed that biodiversity (UN Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15) and water (UN SDG 6) are key ingredients for sustainable development, which cuts across several of the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. This Agenda needs a sound problem-oriented scientific background dealing with hydrology and biodiversity sustainability in an integrated manner and a solution-oriented approach – and that approach is Ecohydrology, which seeks firstly to understand the underlying water-biota interactions and then to use the ecosystem processes as management tools from molecular to river basin scales. Ecohydrology also calls for maintaining notions of conservation for pristine ecosystems and expands efforts for regulation of ecohydrological processes at novel ecosystems (human modified) in order to reinforce the sustainability potential (carrying capacity) and to achieve sustainability of water-related ecosystems in terms of Water resources, Biodiversity, ecosystem Services and Resilience to global change and anthropogenic stress (WBSR). To be fully completed, each region’s respective water Culture should also be taken into account.
Develop and implement systemic solutions as integrative management tools aims both to harmonise societal needs with biosphere potential and to consider problem-solving informed decisions.
This symposium and the associated advanced training course will be an important knowledge sharing and networking event related to the establishment of the African Regional Centre for Ecohydrology under the auspices of UNESCO in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two days of symposium lectures will be followed by a field trip to Asella, Oromia, Ethiopia on the 9th of November, to present the successful ecohydrological solutions implemented on site. The Advanced Training Course participants will be provided with practical training concerning development and application of ecohydrological biotechnologies, and will also be present for the symposium lectures and the field trip.
Participants and speakers
The symposium and training course event will gather researchers of environmental and sustainability sciences, engineers, practitioners, decision makers and funding institutions from around Africa and the rest of the world. We aim at inviting well recognised worldwide and experienced speakers and also scientific committee members from different countries, including leading professionals from African countries.
Symposium topics
- Agroecosystems sustainability and resilience
- Arid ecosystems and ecohydrological interventions
- Catchment scale ecohydrology and systemic solutions
- Climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience
- Climate resilient Green Economy for Africa
- Coastal ecosystems ecohydrology
- Cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge for ecohydrology implementation
- Ecohydrology of reservoirs and running waters
- Ecosystem biotechnologies and systemic solutions
- Hydropower and ecosystems harmonisation
- Integrated Water Resources Management
- Urban ecosystems and water for resilient cities
- Water resources quality and quantity
- Wetlands and riparian ecosystems
Advanced Training Course topics
- Ecohydrology concept, theory and its implementation for sustainability
- Biotechnologies for improvement of water quality in different types of catchments
- Catchment scale integrated water resources and land management for compensation and adaptation to climate change
- Integrative coastal zones management from catchment perspective
