A seminar by Prof. Daniel Pete Loucks, Emeritus Professor at Cornell University

Monday, July 15 at 2.30PM in Aula Castigliano, Campus Leonardo, Politecnico di Milano

Abstract: This talk will offer some thoughts regarding the current needs, challenges and opportunities in water quality monitoring, modelling and management. Many needs are highlighted by major pollution events that continue to persist and have not yet been successfully managed. Opportunities mostly focus on improving model applicability or ease of implementation. Challenges seem in most cases to be related to insufficient data for model calibration and validation. This in turn reflects on the challenges of maintaining long term monitoring and knowing what to monitor even before such data are deemed needed. Data useful for developing and validating large scale water quality models are often only sparsely available if at all. This applies in particular for emerging pollutants (e.g. plastics, chemicals, drugs), and especially in most developing countries. Monitoring and modelling water quality at the global scale is important to identify and predict robust hot spot regions of severe water quality degradation, to better understand future (global) changes in response to management actions, and to quantify indicators and linkages among SDGs. For many pollutants, and especially at large scales, water quality modelling is still in its infancy. These are needed to enable meaningful water quality assessments and inform policies needed for water quality management and decision making.

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Short Bio: Daniel P. Loucks, Emeritus Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Professor at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University in the United States, has been actively involved in both the development and application of water resources systems models for over four decades. As a consultant to private, governmental and international organizations he has participated in regional water resources planning, development and management projects in Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern and Western Europe, and North and South America. Extended bio and contact.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment Programme) and the Government of the Republic of Serbia, with the support from the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, are convening a Ministerial Conference on Innovative Solutions to Pollution in South East and Southern Europe on 4-5 December 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia. The Conference will focus on the topic of pollution and explore innovative solutions to tackle it, emphasizing the numerous challenges and risks it poses to the region.

The Conference will bring together high-level governmental representatives from South East European and Southern European countries other interested members of the European Union, the European Union Commission, development agencies, international organizations, civil society, private sector and other relevant stakeholders.

The Conference is part of the implementation process of the 2017 United Nations Environment Assembly in which countries agreed to an ambitious vision entitled “Towards a Pollution-Free Planet”.

The Conference is also an important milestone for the 2019 Assembly that will take place in March 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya which will gather the international community around the identification of innovative solutions to environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production.

The insights and analysis presented in the framework of the Conference will provide a critical cornerstone for the discussion of a pollution-free environment for South East Europe and provide a strategic platform for the development of a joint approach and vision for South East European countries to be presented at the Fourth United Nations Environment Assembly.

Date and venue

The Ministerial Conference on “Innovative Solutions to Pollution in South East and Southern Europe” will take place on 4-5 December 2018. The venue for the Conference is Palace of Serbia in Belgrade, Serbia. The language of the Conference will be English. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided for Serbian.

Further readings (link)

Contacts for further information

The UN Environment Programme will serve as Secretariat of the Conference. In this regard interested stakeholders can contact Mr. Harald Egerer, Head of Office –

UN Environment – Vienna Programme
Office (harald.egerer@un.org) and
Mr. Filippo Montalbetti (filippo.montalbetti@un.org).

For Conference registration:
http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/node/41383