Hydrology Day is the annual meeting of the German hydrologists community, under the auspices of the German Hydrological Society (DHG), the German Association for Water Management, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) and the Technical Community for Hydrological Sciences in the DWA (FgHW). This year‘s Hydrology Day, held from 21 to 23 March at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Hochschule Bochum, focused on “Sustainable Water Management – Regional and Global Strategies”. Five sessions centred on the topics:
- Monitoring and analysis of hydrological extremes
- Water quality under global change
- AI in hydrology
- Future challenges in water governance
- Urban hydrology
ICWRGC was present with a booth and two posters, well connected with the booth of the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), where ICWRGC is located. Dr. Tunde Olarinoye introduced the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN), which was successfully transferred for permanent operation from TU Vienna to ICWRGC and BfG last year and went fully operational this year (https://ismn.earth/en/). On the second poster, Dr. Moritz Heinle showed results of the two previous data runs for UN SDG Indicator 6.3.2 and highlighted the third assessment, to be carried out this year and supported by the GEMS/Water Data Centre (http://portal.gemstat.org/) at ICWRGC and BfG. At the booth, attendees could learn more about the work and the services provided by ICWRGC and inspect the two global water databases, GEMStat, a global water quality database, and ISMN. In particular, this opportunity for a practical test of the databases was very well received. Together with BfG´s Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) and the Global Precipitation and Climatology Centre (GPCC) at the German Weather Service (DWD), Germany has a leading role in operational hydrology at the UN level.
Jointly with Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers (UNESCO water chair Univ. Bonn), Harald Köthe (Director ICWRGC) presented an impulse lecture on the just started UNESCO IHP IX Programme and made the case for increasing the visibility of the multifarious international research activities of the German hydrological community in the UNESCO IHPIX programme. There, the activities and results would receive more visibility and recognition for the water-related goals of the UN Agenda 2030. ICWRGC will inform the German water chairs and call for contributions regarding the outcome of the UN2023 Water Conference held parallel to the Hydrology Day.
