Between 3-7 June 2024, the AGREEMAR team attended the 8th European Congress “Water – Across Boundaries” of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR2024) in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference was organised by the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC).
The conference started on Monday, 3 June 2024 with a series of four side-events (called Master Classes). The AGREEMAR team contributed with one course on “Web-based numerical modelling of managed aquifer recharge applications”. The course was given by Dr. Jana Glass from TU Dresden, who introduced the main features of the groundwater modelling platform INOWAS.com. During the 3.5 hours course, the participants learned how to setup, calculate and visualise a numerical groundwater flow model and were able to run several simulation scenarios centred on the implementation of technical solutions for managed aquifer recharge (MAR). The application of the modelling platform for the optimisation of two MAR sites in Cyprus and Portugal was demonstrated by short presentations given by our AGREEMAR partners Dr. Constantinos F. Panagiotou from the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence in Cyprus and Marcel Horovitz from the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) in Portugal.
The conference programme then started on Tuesday, 4 June 2024 with an official ceremony and two keynote lectures. This year, the central topic of the conference was “Water – Across Boundaries” and the programme covered six themes: A. Aquifers, rivers, reservoirs and dams; B. Estuaries, coasts and ports; C. Urban water; D. Numerical and experimental methods; E. Climate change and risk mitigation; and F. Governance and water resources management. In total, the AGREEMAR partners contributed with nine oral presentations distributed in the themes A and F (for more details see the list of publications on our website). We have been also honoured by the invitation to moderated one session, which was jointly chaired on Tuesday afternoon by Dr. Teresa E. Leitão (LNEC) and Dr. Catalin Stefan (TUD). On Friday, 7 June, the conference included a series of technical visits to relevant sites in Portugal: Alqueva dam on the Guadiana river, the Águas Livres Aqueduct, and a visit to different facilities included in the Lisbon Drainage Master Plan.
We would like to convey our thanks to the conference organisers for their hospitality during the entire week, including the entire supporting team who did an excellent job in making all of us enjoy our stay in Lisbon.