Following an invitation by the Universidad de Santiago de Cali/Colombia, Dr Schütze gave a lecture on megacities and how they can combat climate change. Two dozens of students from different disciplines and universities followed this invitation on an early Saturday morning. Featuring some of the research projects currently carried out at ifak, Dr Schütze illustrated how the challenges on integrated water and resource management, resulting - among others - from climate change and population development, can be addressed by a close cooperation of various disciplines and in close cooperation of the different stakeholder groups. As a core element of this process, modelling of the system under consideration, can be seen. Modelling is a useful, if not necessary, element for visualisation of the relevant processes, for increasing the understanding of the often complex processes by the stakeholders and for a successful participative decision making process, carried by the ownership of all the stakeholders involved. ifak is currently working on a number of projects in this topic area; applications include Germany, Israel, Colombia, Rwanda and Vietnam.
