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December 2006 Newsletter
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| IWC eBulletin |
December, 2006 |
Welcome to the December 2006 edition of the IWC eBulletin.
In this Issue
- Christmas message from the CEO
- Upcoming Masters launch
- Bob Pagan joins IWC
- Developments at the IWC node in South Africa
- Water top prioity in Human Development Report 2006
- Urban Water Report
- University of Queensland wins Carrick award for excellence
- Monash researchers develop porous pavements
- Flow of fluids on the agenda in WA
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Christmas message from the CEO
Welcome to the final edition for 2006 of the International WaterCentre’s quarterly newsletter.
It has been a tremendous year for the Centre in terms of international work and growth, and we finish 2006 on a high with the launch next week of our Masters of Integrated Water Management.
Personally, I would like to thank members of the IWC Board for their strong directorship again this year, and the staff of the Centre who have represented IWC in such a professional manner at home and abroad.
To all our friends and colleagues, we wish you a happy Christmas season and we look forward to staying in contact with you into 2007.
Mark Pascoe, CEO
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Upcoming Masters launch
On Friday 15th of December 2006, we will launch the International WaterCentre Masters Degree of Integrated Water Management.
Students will be able to enrol in the Masters Program in Brisbane from July 2007 and will graduate with a co-badged testamur from all four IWC partner universities.
Stay tuned for more information when we announce details of the Program next week.
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Bob Pagan joins IWC
IWC welcomes Bob Pagan, the new IWC Education and Training Manager, to the team. Bob is pictured here lecturing on eco-efficiency.
Formerly the Director of the UNEP Cleaner Production Working Group in the Food Industry and Senior Lecturer at The University of Queensland, Mr Pagan is a biochemical engineer with expertise in eco-efficiency of water and wastewater treatment, water use planning and management, and economic aspects of water and wastewater systems.
Bob has worked with a range of UN agencies, academic institutions and the private sector throughout Asia, Africa and Australia. At IWC, he is responsible for the coordination and delivery of the Master of Integrated Water Management Program and all education and training courses.
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Developments at the IWC node in South Africa
In combination with Monash South Africa campus in Johannesburg, IWC is making progress in establishing its node in South Africa. With the appointment of Dr Dina Burger as Research Director earlier this year, the South African node is now able to extend its work in education, research and training.
South Africa has a strong water sector with a modern and progressive policy and institutional framework as well as an active water research culture. There is clear need for education and training services, particularly in the areas of integrated water resources management, governance, institutional capacity and community, areas which Australia is a global leader.
The South Africa node will soon be advertising a position for a senior researcher in water. Interested persons should monitor the Monash and IWC websites.
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Water top prority in Human Development Report
The key finding of the Human Development Report 2006: Beyond scarcity - Power, poverty and the global water crisis, is that access to water and sanitation is a basic human right that must be met.
The HDR research states that everyone should have access to at least 20 litres of clean water every day, and that it should be free for the poor. It highlights the importance of water for creating opportunities for development and for enhancing human dignity.
Referring to the current crisis in water supply and sanitation as one of the greatest threats to human development in the 21st century, the report highlights the inequities in water distribution. Rather than being an issue of not enough water, there is a need for policies, institutions and practices that provide an equitable distribution of resources.
The Report calls for a Global Action Plan under G8 leadership to resolve the growing crisis that causes nearly two million child deaths every year.
The International WaterCentre supports the UNDP’s call for serious action towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in water supply and sanitation by 2015.
For more information visit: hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/
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Urban Water Report
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Australia with responsibility for water, Malcolm Turnbull MP, has released a comprehensive review of Australia's Urban Water situation, designed to stimulate debate and drive best practice water management.
The report, prepared by financial and economic consultants Marsden Jacob Associates for the Office of Water Resources, outlines the state of water supplies in our major cities.
It shows how in the face of climate uncertainty, water conservation and restrictions are no longer enough to cope with changes in future water supply shortfalls.
To read the full report, click here (Website)
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University of Queensland wins Carrick award for excellence
Associate Professor Paul Lant, and his colleagues, Dr Catherine Manathunga and
A/Prof. George Mellick from the University of Queensland have been awarded the Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching in the Postgraduate Education category for Research Student Virtual Portfolio (RSVP™).
Associate Professor Paul Lant has also been directing development of the IWC Masters Program and he is a member of the IWC Executive.
RSVP is an educational, career development package designed to develop research students’ graduate attributes and prepare them for future employment. RSVP™ provides a flexible, time-effective 4-step process for students and supervisors to implement tailored professional development strategies for research students.
RSVP™ has successfully been used in diverse disciplines across the University of Queensland and has recently been commercialised. The international licensing of RSVP™ took place in 2005 with the University of Sheffield in England. Collaborators at the University of Sheffield successfully applied for a grant from the Sheffield University Skills Training and Development Grant scheme to support the co-development of RSVP™ software.
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Monash researchers develop porous pavements
Two Monash researchers have been awarded a three-year, $90,000 Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to develop porous paving, to save precious rain water.
Dr Ana Deletic, from Monash's Faculty of Engineering and Dr Tim Fletcher, from the Department of Civil Engineering, have received federal funding to work with Victorian paving manufacturer Dymon Industries Pty Ltd and a Melbourne community environmental project, Ceres Incorporated, to test and refine porous pavement technology for use in Australia.
Porous paving -- bricks and slabs that allow rain water to seep through to the ground beneath -- has been a popular innovation in Europe for many years.
The Australian paving product Dr Fletcher and Dr Deletic are working to refine is called Permapave. It is formed from crushed rock that is combined with a binding agent and then set into a slab shape.
Dr Fletcher says Australia urgently needs to find ways to re-use stormwater runoff.
"With water demand in Australia approaching, and sometimes exceeding, limits of sustainability, there is a pressing need to find alternative water sources," he says.
"Replacing impervious areas with porous pavements will allow urban stormwater to be treated and harvested for re-use. Waterways will be protected from pollution, and the vast quantity of urban stormwater generated - which is actually equivalent to the total amount of reticulated water currently supplied in Australia - can be harvested to sustain cities."
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Flow of fluids on the agenda in WA
The University of Western Australia (UWA) hosted the Sixth International Symposium on Stratified Flows in December, the first time the conference has been held in the Southern hemisphere.
Convened by Professor Greg Ivey and hosted by the School of Environmental Systems Engineering, the conference looked at how the flow of fluids in the natural environment can be applied to a range of design and building problems.
The conference attracted international attendees from a range of disciplines including oceanography, atmospheric science, engineering and mathematics, with a common interest in the dynamics of density stratified flows.
The topics discussed included: the design of natural ventilation systems for heating and cooling in modern interconnected buildings, the factors influencing air pollution in mountainous terrain, the stirring of the ocean by giant eddies or vortices and the prediction of very large amplitude internal waves that occur on the Australian North West Shelf.
More information on the conference: www2.sese.uwa.edu.au/issf2006/
Photo caption: Model study of the mixing around a partially buried bottom pipeline due to a breaking internal wave.
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