Minutes
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Minutes |
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Minutes of the Meetings of
the General Assembly and the Board of Management of the
1. Agenda The General Assembly (GA) of the European Water Resources Association was held in Lemesos (Cyprus), Hotel Elias Beach on Wednesday the 25th of June 2009, 16:00. Firstly the participants of the General Assembly elected the chairman of the Assembly. Mr. N. Tsiourtis (ex-vice president of EWRA) was elected as chairman.
The agenda of the GA was as follows: 1. Account of activities of EC during the past term in Office 2. Preparation of EWRA’s participation in the Copenhagen Summit (Keynote Speech: Prof. N. Dalezios, expert on climate change) 3. Reorganisation of EWRA / Amendments in the Statutes (Introduction: Prof. R. Maia) 4. New initiatives (Working groups, Services) (Introduction: Dr. B. Charalambous, Organising Committee of the 7th EWRA Conference) 5. New journals and publications (Introduction: Prof. A. Cancelliere) 6. Evaluation of scientific research (Introduction: Prof. G. Tsakiris) 7. Next Symposium (2011) and Conference (2013) venues (Introduction: Prof. S. Christodoulou, Host of the 7th EWRA Conference) 8. Elections of the new EC 9. Other items
2. EWRA EC 2010-2013 During the General Assembly of the European Water Resources Association held in Lemesos/Cyprus on the 25th of June 2009 a new Executive Committee was elected for a 4-year term in office January 2010 – December 2013. The new EC is as follows: - G. Tsakiris (Greece), President - R. Maia (Portugal), Vice President - B. Charalambous (Cyprus), Secretary General - A. Cancelliere (Italy), Treasurer - S. Hamilton (UK), Coordinator of Activities
The main items discussed during the GA in Lemesos and confirmed during the EC meeting in Lemesos (June 2009) and Athens (Sept. 2009) are briefly presented below:
3. Amendments in the Statutes – New Structure of EWRA i) GA confirmed the change in the Statutes proposed in a previous GA in Chania Crete for expanding the term in Office of each EC from 3 to 4 years in order to coincide with the International Conferences of EWRA held every 4 years. ii) The structure of EWRA is returned to its initial form with individual members from all European Countries and Associate members from all the other countries of the world. EWRA is governed by a 5-member Executive Committee and the General Assembly which is held every 2 years.
4. EWRA Working Groups After the agreement obtained in the General Assembly in Lemesos (June 2009), the Executive Committee met in Athens on the 28th August 2009. One of the major issues discussed in that meeting was to propose the first 5 Permanent Working Groups of EWRA. The following Working Groups are finally proposed: • Water System Efficiency • Energy and Technology • Climate Change, Extreme Events and Water Security • Water Quality, Desalination and Non-conventional Water Resources • Water Resources Management (Legislation-Best Practices)
The members of EWRA are invited to propose suitable candidates for the above working groups for the period 2010 and 2013. Each group will consist of at least 5 members with one of them acting as the chairman. One member of each group will be also member of the EC of EWRA. The deadline for candidates will be the end of June 2010. Interested members of EWRA can communicate with the Secretary General Bambos Charalambous for any issue related to the Permanent Working Groups of EWRA.
Lemesos – Cyprus, 25 June 2009
The Executive Committee
Minutes of the Meetings of
the General Assembly and the Board of Management of the
The General Assembly of EWRA took place at the Arsenali Building in Chania (Crete) on Friday 15 June 2007. The GA was organized in the framework of EWRA Symposium “Water Resources Management: New Approaches and Technologies” which took place in the same venue 14 – 16 June 2007. The GA was the second (a week before chorum was not achieved) from two dates scheduled so for the GA could decide legally irrespective of the number of the present members. Forty two EWRA members participated in the GA. From the Executive Committee of EWRA the following members participated: G. Tsakiris, B. Barraque, R. Maia, G. Sechi. The GA was chaired by G. Tsakiris and B. Barraque (president and vice-president of EWRA, respectively). The topics discussed and the decisions taken after a long debate are as follow:
1. Organization of the next conference a. Venue The venue of the next conference will remain in the Balkans. Among the 3 venues proposed and discussed in detail (namely Sofia (Bulgaria), Belgrade (Serbia) and Bucurest (Romania)). Bucurest seemed to be preferred in case there will be strong support from possible local organizations. Sofia remains as an alternative venue.
b. Date The date of the Conference was decided to be Spring/Summer 2009.
The President was given the approval to investigate further all the matters of the conference organization in cooperation with the Executive Committee.
2. Extension of the term in Office of the EC Due to the delayed timing of the next Conference and the next GA of EWRA by one year, the Executive Committee term in office is also extended by one year (end of 2009).
3. Launching a new journal a) The third journal of EWRA was decided to be launched at the beginning of 2008. The journal will be called “Macroengineering and Environmental Governance”. The announcement of the journal will be made soon. b) Starting from this year “Water Resources Management” (Springer) will be published in 12 issues per year. The article submission rate has increased during the last couple of years reaching the rate of 1 submission per day. There is also an increasing request for special issues. c) The European Water will incorporate topics on environmental risk. The European Water will be available in both electronic and printed form.
4. Start of the EWRA - supported interuniversity course The interuniversity postgraduate course discussed during the EWRA GA in Menton 2005 will start its operation in September 2008. The title of the course leading to an MSc degree is “Macroengineering and Environmental Management”. The course will incorporate courses belonging to Engineering, Economics, Social Sciences giving emphasis to the large scale environmental processes and the sustainable development. The course will be taught in English and will last for at least 1 year. It will be organized jointly by the Agricultural University of Athens, the National Technical University of Athens and the University of Thessaly. Many Universities from European Mediterranean countries will also participate as co-organizers of the course.
5. Technical Committees The GA agreed with the proposal of Prof. Barraque for establishing Technical Committees for a number of topics. The number of committees and their obligations will be determined by the EC and will be announced soon.
6. EWRA as a European Umbrella of National Associations Once again it was stressed that the role of EWRA is the coordination of national water resources associations which exist in almost all European Countries. Therefore an attempt will be made by the EC to gather most of these national associations under the umbrella of EWRA.
7. Future Events Prof. Cancelliere reaffirmed the interest of Catania University to host one of the future events of EWRA. The GA agreed to discuss further the event and the date with the people from Catania University.
Chania – Crete, Friday 15 June 2007
The Chairmen G. Tsakiris B. Barraque
Minutes of the Meetings of the
General Assembly and the Board of Management of the
Chairman: An announcement was made through the internet for GA meeting on Friday 2 September 2005. This meeting is the second on and may decide legally, irrespective of the number of present members.
Report of the president: The president gives a short account of EWRA activities during the last term in office. EWRA (formerly ECOWARM) was established in 1986. Its name was changed to EWRA on the GA held on 14 September 1992. The last Executive Committee was elected during the GA on the 4th of September 2002. The main activities for the period of 2002-2005 are:
a) 5th International
Conference “Water Resources Management in the Era of Transition”,
b) Symposium “Water
resources management: risks and challenges for the 21st Century”,
c) Symposium “Risks
and Hazards in Coastal Areas”, d) 6th International Conference “Sharing a common vision of our water resources”, 7-10 September 2005, Menton, France.
Co-organisation of a number of other scientific events. Preparation of the European Iteruniversity Postgraduate course starting next October. Already 12 Universities participate in the preparation of this course which will be semi-internet, semi-classes. The course title is “Management of Natural Systems” having two options: a) Land and Water Management, and b) Environment, Development and Society. The establishment of the international journal of the Association “WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT”. The inflow of papers is about 150 per annum. The average acceptance percentage is 1/3. The number of issues per year was increased from 4 to 6. Also the number of pages per issue was increased from 80 to 100 pages. However this cannot last very long because of the increased number of papers which are submitted. Therefore we are increasing the number of issues per year from 6 to 9 from 2007. The journal is within ICI (international Citation Index) and it is accepted as a leading journal in the field. It is the fastest improving journal in terms of the impact factor (within 3 years its impact factor was increased 2.5 times now being 0.78). The preparation and commencement of a new publication of EWRA, the European Water, which specialises on interesting case studies and data presentation and analysis. It is published through the internet but from this year onwards it will be also published in a printed form. The Association also maintains a very popular site: ewra.net. Less official supporting EWRA activities is also WATERifo.gr.
Future activities: There are proposals for future events but those will be decided by the EC. For instance Conferences / Symposia in Sofia (April 2007), Italy, Volos and Crete.
Minutes of the Meetings of the
General Assembly and the Board of Management of the
Participants: At the beginning of the meeting 22 EWRA members were present. The number of participants was increased to 30 by the end of the meeting. Most of the participants were from the Greek Water Resources Management Association which is an institutional member of EWRA.
Chairmen:
Prof. Prinz (President of EWRA)
Topic 1: Formalia The President thanks Prof. Tsakiris for the preparatory work for this meeting and states, that a formal invitation was sent to EWRA members for a GA meeting on 28th August 2002. This meeting is the second one and may decide legally irrespective of the number of members present.
Topic 2: Report of the President The President gives a short summary of EWRA activities of recent years, starting with a “historical” review. The European Water Resources Association was initially established in Athens as ECOWARM during the International Symposium “Water Management for Agricultural Development”, Athens, 1986. The first interim council was comprised by Prof. J. Nemec (President), Prof. J. Kindler, Prof. M. Benedini, Prof. G. Tsakiris and Dr. Molnar. On September 14, 1992, during an international conference on Sustainable Irrigation in Loeven in Berlgium, its name was changed to European Water Resources Association.
ACTIVITIES: To achieve EWRA’s goals the following activities were carried out: (A) EWRA organised in collaboration with national associations the following conferences and symposia:
(B) Publishing of journals and newsletters An international and scientific and technical journal called „Water Resources Management“, is published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL, for EWRA. Editor is Prof. G. Tsakiris, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Water Resources Management is an international, multidisciplinary forum for the presentation of original papers for the exchange of knowledge and experience on the management of water resources. Six issues are published annually. The EWRA Newsletter „European Water“ was published irregularly under the supervision of the publication officer.
(C) For the purpose of offering the expert knowledge of EWRA members to private firms and public bodies, an expert data base was established by Mr. Nicos Tsiourtis for members who are interested to get engaged in international water related projects. The expert data base still needs to be put into operation.
(D) Dr. Maria Santos, the EWRA Secretary General, established an EWRA homepage in the Internet and was also the driving force behind the design of a very attractive EWRA poster.
(E) Meetings of EWRA members (“General Assembly meetings) in years without an EWRA conference were arranged annually, always in connection with international conferences in Europe or the Mediterranean (e.g. in Granada, Cairo, Lausanne)
LIAISON WITH INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS:To intensify the international collaboration between water related organisations and associations, the following memoranda of understanding for mutual benefit were signed with:
SERVICE TO EWRA MEMBERS: All members are intitled to the following benefits:
UMBRELLA FUNCTION: During the GA meeting in Copenhagen, a new move of EWRA to offer an „umbrella function“ for national / regional water resources associations was decided. National or regional water related associations should benefit from membership by
This new move could not be implemented as intended, as EWRA was not able to offer the services needed for the national or regional water related associations. In future the necessity for a merging of water related associations in Europe might arise.
EWRA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
(EC) MEMBERS:
President: Prof. Dr. Dieter Prinz, Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydraulic and Rural Engineering,, Karlsruhe University, Germany. Vice-President and Membership Coordinator: Mr. Nicos. X. Tsiourtis, Water Development Department, Nicosia, Cyprus Secretary General: Mr. E. Karalis, Consultant, Athens, Greece Publication Officer: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Janos J. Bogardi, UNESCO – IHP, Paris. Treasurer: Dr. Maria Santos, Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia, Lisbon, Portugal
The Executive Committee for the period 1997 to 2000 consisted of:
President: Prof. Dr. Dieter Prinz, Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydraulic and Rural Engineering,, Karlsruhe University, Germany. Vice-President and Membership Coordinator: Mr. Nicos. X. Tsiourtis, Water Development Department, Nicosia, Cyprus Secretary General: Dr. Maria Santos, Laboratoria Nacional de Engenharia, Lisbon, Portugal Publication Officer: Mr. Thorkild Thomsen, Environment and Energy Division, Dept. of Hydrometry & Water Resources, Roskilde, Denmark Treasurer:Prof. Dr.-Ing. Janos J. Bogardi, UNESCO – IHP, Paris.
Topic 3: Prospects and future activities of the Association
Decisions taken by majority of members:
Topic 4: Election of the new Executive Committee
Prof. G. Tsakiris stepped down leaving Prof. Prinz to convene the session. The following candidates were nominated by members / elected by majority of members:
Topic 5: 6th International EWRA Conference
Mr. Monget proposes the next EWRA Conference to be organized in Sophia Antipolis in Southern France. Further details still have to be elaborated.
Topic 6: Publicity and membership
Prof. Tsakiris, the newly elected President, promises a very powerful move to contact the various National Associations and to use especially the electronic media to make EWRA even better known in Europe. The new president thanks the past-president for his work during the two terms in office, expresses his hope for a successful new start. Prof. Prinz thanks the participants for their contribution.
Athens, 05.September 2002
Prof. Prinz Prof. Tsakiris (Past-President) President
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