The event is dedicated to exchange knowledge on Open Science for water management, more specifically innovations using Internet of Things, cloud computing and remote sensing. We aim to find out what expertise exist in Flanders and how it can be used within UNESCO-IHP related projects, activities and programmes.

The event also aims to exchange knowledge related to the IHP-IX: Strategic Plan of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme: Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environment, more specifically outcome 1.10 “Conducting and sharing of research on integrating citizen science in the hydrological discipline by the scientific community and other stakeholders supported, to improve understanding of the water cycle enabling science-based decision making.”

9:30 Registration

10:00 Welcoming (Ann van Griensven and Gert Verreet)

10:20 Water Secure World in a Changing Environment – UNESCO IHPs work on Citizen and Open Science (Koen Verbist, UNESCO Paris)

10:40 Be-Resilient: Citizen Science applications in UNESCOs Biosphere Reserves, South Africa (Prudentia Zikalala, UNESCO Johannesburg)

11:00 Levering new technologies for community-based hydrological monitoring. Experiences from Peru and Nepal (Wouter Buytaert, Imperial College, UK)

11:20 Platform for Sustainable Urban Development (Nahad Helmi, VUB)

11:40 Exploring the potential of low-cost rain sensors and citizen observations in an urban context (Boud Verbeiren, HYDRIA/VUB)

12:00 Earth observation satellite data in support of hydrological research: an introduction to the Terrascope platform (Lisa Landuyt, VITO)

 12:20-13:20 Lunch break

13:20 Innovative real-time sensing of flow dynamics in groundwater and sediments for drought resilience in the Romboutswerve (Stephen Andersen, iFLUX).

13:40 A long term, low-cost, water-quality monitoring system Green Infrastructure Mapping and Monitoring SaaS (Quentin Quevy, VUB)

14:00 Application of Open data science and Cloud computing in water management (Ivan Rocabado, HAEDES)

14:20 Building a river digital twin by combining the strenghts of IoT and modelling (Sacha Gobeyn, FLUVES)

14:40 Integration of local and indigenous knowledge for climate-resilient water resources management: lessons learned from the Bolivian Altiplano (Magali Garcia, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés)

15:00 Importance and Challenges of protecting Peatland, in collaboration with Belgium (Jean-Jacques BAMBUTA, Coordinator of Peatland Management Unit,; Ministry of Environment, Démocratic Republic of Congo)

15:30-16:00 Coffee

16:00-17:00 UNESCO-IHP Belgian committee meeting (Chairs: Ann van Griensven and Marnik Vanclooster)

16:00 UNESCO Chair of Open Water Science and Education (Ann van Griensven, VUB),

Platforms of the Open Water Network (James Chawanda, VUB)

 16:30 Belgian contributions to UNESCO-IHP IX programme"Science for a Water Secure World in a Changing Environmen": Wrap-up session (Gert Verreet, EWI)