EWRI's "Conference tour de North America"

EWRI's presence was felt throughout the country and into Canada this summer as members from all over attended EWRI's summer conferences. As a whole these conferences were overwhelming successes. The first of six conferences, Water Resources Planning & Management, was held in Roanoke, Virginia. Top water planners and managers discussed controversial issues currently facing their industry. The conference focused on extreme water conditions and analysis of water distribution systems which impact surrounding ecosystems.

The Conference on Energy, Climate, Environment and Water Issues and Opportunities for Irrigation and Drainage held in San Luis Obispo, California, was rated a triumph and was a joint effort of USCID and EWRI. The conference was informally rated by attendees as one of the most vibrant and technically stimulating that they have attended primarily due to the wide mix of activities and topics. The plenary session included insightful presentations on treating energy conservation in a manner similar to treating non-point pollution, and the challenges of global warming. An enthusiastic panel discussion of the causes and solutions of California's energy crisis was provided by Dennis Wichelns, Robert Nees and Raymond Hart.

Joint Conference on Integrated Trans-Boundary Water Management, held in Traverse City, Michigan, was a collaborative effort of EWRI and the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR). At this conference attendees explored topics of cultural integration, trans-boundary water reserves, water quality, climate change and security concerns. This conference also focused on international water concerns and attendees heard from International Boundary and Water Commissioners from both the U.S. and Mexico.

The 2002 Joint Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and EWRI of the American Society of Civil Engineering International Conference on Environmental Engineering, An International Perspective on Environmental Engineering, was held in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. In spite of the difficulties of travel in the wake of September 11, 172 delegates from Canada, the United States and seven other countries participated in the conference. The keynote address delivered by Gerry Galloway of the International Joint Commission (IJC), focused on the 93-year history of the IJC in cooperatively dealing with Canadian-US trans-boundary environmental issues. The technical sessions for the conference included 112 full length papers covering a full range of current topics in environmental engineering. The papers presented at the conference were published as a CD and are available from Richard G. Zytner, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1 (rzytner@uoguelph.ca).

The Hydraulic Measurements and Experimental Methods Conference was held in Estes Park, Colorado, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. More than 200 people attended and experts from more than 20 countries convened for this specialty conference. Three concurrent tracks focused on the subjects of: Acoustic Profiler Measurements; Experimental Methods; and Environmental Measurements and Innovative Hydraulic Measurements. Exhibitors displayed state-of-the-art hydraulic measurement instrumentation and equipment. The collaboration of EWRI and IAHR resulted in substantial international participation that helped make the conference such a success.

Conference Co-Chairs Eric Strecker and Wayne Huber brought together a truly international group to discuss "Global Solutions for Urban Drainage" in Portland, Oregon. The 9th International Conference on Urban Drainage attracted more than 650 professionals and students from over 35 countries around the globe, and provided a forum to exchange ideas about the urban water environment. Conference highlights included talks by the Portland City Commissioner, and Portland's Manager of Planning for Environmental Services, as well as talks by Shoichi Fujita of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and Hans Brombach of Fluid-Technik GmbH in Germany. There were also 60 technical sessions, poster sessions and a well-attended Exposition Hall.