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Dr. Schütze inaugurates the world-leading International Conference on Urban Drainage in Prague

From 10th to 15th September, the 14th International Conference on Urban Drainage has been held. This event, convened only once every three years, was hosted this time in Central Europe again – after Brazil in 2011 and Malaysia 2014. With more than 700 participants, including scientists, consulting engineers and representatives of water authorities and companies, this event was particularly well attended. Dr Schütze of ifak,  Chair of the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage, which is the committee resonsible for this event, inaugurated this event on Monday,11 September.

During the conference, Dr Schütze also introduced the keynote lecture of Prof. Gabriela Cembrano of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (Barcelona) on „Blue water, green and grey infrastructure – why control theory matters“. In his introductory words, Dr Schütze stressed the importance of control engineering also for the fields of sanitation engineering and urban planning, encouraging closer coopeeration between these disciplines – which is practiced for long time at ifak, being quite unique in this combination.

The Joint Committee prsented awards to two persons with particular merits within the field of urban drainage: Dr Jiri Marsalek of Environment Canada was awarded with the Career Award for his long-lasting contributions to the drainage community, including having acted as the (non-voting) secretary of the Joint Committee for 24 years. The words of thanks by Dr Schütze were followed by long applauses of the conference participants. The „Mid-term Career Award“ was given to Dr Jörg Rieckermann of the Swiss Federal Institut for Aquatic Resaerch  (EAWAG). The committee mentioned the comprehensiveness of his research work, including topics as diverse as groundwater as well as use of data from mobile phone networks as a source of rainfall information. Furthermore, Dr Rieckermann’s active involvement in the Central European Researchers‘  Simulation Group, shaped also by ifak, was mentioned.

Upon conclusion of this highly successful conference, Dr Schütze has handedover the chairmanship of the Joint Comittee to his successor, Dr. Jeroen Langeveld of Technical University of Delft.