WASER ASSEMBLY, MOSCOW , 4.8.2007

President's Report

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the WASER Assembly. I feel that this must be seen as something of a milestone, as it is the first Assembly of our Association after its inauguration in Yichang , China , three years ago.

Nearly three years have now elapsed since the birth of our Association and I feel that we can be justifiably proud that, in its infancy, it has prospered and begun to grow into an active and successful organisation. We now have nearly 300 paid up members and with these representing more than 40 countries, covering all continents, they provide a truly international basis for a ‘world' Association. Equally, since one of the key aims of our Association is to promote interchange and collaboration between the many different disciplines working in the field of erosion and sedimentation, it is good to see that our members now embrace many different specialisms, including hydraulic engineering, hydrology, geomorphology, soil science, geochemistry, soil conservation, ecology, and estuarine and marine science. However, WASER is still very much in its infancy and we must continue to work hard to ensure that it achieves its full potential.

Looking back over the first three years of our new Association, I would like, first of all, to review some successes in its early development. We now have a comprehensive website, that has done much to raise the visibility of the Association, by providing information on both the Association and its activities and other sediment-related activities within the international arena. We also have a newsletter and since 2005 the International Journal of Sediment Research has become the official journal of WASER and takes the name of the Association around the world. The WASER prize for the best paper in IJSR also emphasises the commitment of our Association to the promotion of scientific research. Activities directed at younger scientists, and education and training have also been initiated and in 2005 WASER collaborated with IAHR-APD and IRTCES to organise a very successful Study Tour of the Three Gorges Project that attracted 27 participants and was able to provide some bursaries to assist young scientists to participate in the Study Tour.

The ISRS will, I hope, continue to be an important element of the programme of WASER activities. It represents our Triennial Symposium and it provides the venue for our Council meeting and for our Assembly. The Moscow Symposium has proved an outstanding success and we look forward to the 11 th ISRS to be held in three years time in Stellenbosch , South Africa . This will take the ISRS to sub-Saharan Africa for the first time and it will provide a valuable opportunity for WASER to strengthen its connections and involvement with this area of the world and with developing countries more generally.

WASER has not yet actively considered the possibility of itself organising other major meetings to complement the ISRS and it may be that with the programme of international meetings becoming increasingly congested, this should not be seen as a priority. However, it is important that WASER should continue to raise its profile and to promote cooperation with other international organisations and bodies working in the sediment field. With this in mind Zhaoyin Wang and myself and other Council members have endeavoured to involve WASER in a broad range of international meetings as a cosponsor. Meetings that WASER has cosponsored, or will cosponsor in the near future include:

•  The UNESCO ISI Workshop on Sediment Management in South and Southeast Asia, held in Bangkok , Thailand , April, 2006.

•  The second Sino-American Workshop on Advanced Computational Modelling in Hydrosciences and Engineering, held in Beijing , China , in November, 2006.

•  The Second International Conference on Estuaries & Coasts (ICEC-2006), held in Guangzhou City , China , November, 2006.

•  The International Bedload Surrogates Workshop, held in Minneapolis , USA , April 11-14, 2007.

•  The International Conference on Erosion and Torrent Control as a factor in Sustainable River Basin Management, to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, in September, 2007.

•  The 8 th International Conference on Hydro-Science and Engineering (ICHE, 2008), to be held in Nagoya , Japan in September 2008.

•  The International Conference on Green Hydropower to be held in India in 2009

I feel that it is important that we should continue to exploit such opportunities in the future and expand the scope of our collaboration with other organisations and agencies. Already links with UNESCO have been strengthened and WASER has been invited to join IWALC, the International Water Associations Liaison Committee. There is clearly scope to launch other new actions and the initial proposals made by John Gray and his colleagues for the WaSSIN (Watershed-scale Sediment Information Network), initiative, with which WASER would be closely linked, must be greatly welcomed. Plans are also being made to commence the production of white papers reviewing key themes and problems in the field of erosion and sedimentation,

Looking back over the past three years and the growth and development of our Association, I am conscious that we owe a great deal to the enthusiasm and support of our Secretary General, Zhaoyin Wang, and to the Secretariat within IRTCES, particularly Professors Shangfu Kuang, Chun-hong Hu and Xiaoying Liu. Professor Xiaoying Liu also serves as our Treasurer and the accounts that he produced for the Council meeting again emphasise the important support that we receive from IRTCES. Without this financial support we would be insolvent! As we move forward into the next three years of the Association's life, a new Council has been elected and I would like to take this opportunity to express the thanks of myself, the Vice-Presidents and other members of the new Council to the retiring members. These include, Ed Ongley, Erich Plate, K. Ranga Raju, Leo Van Rijn, Syunsuka Ikeda, Helmut Scheurlein, Marcelo Gavino Novilo and Bignan Lin. Particular thanks are due to Bignan Lin, since it was his enthusiasm, drive and guidance that provided the critical catalyst for the long but successful process of establishing WASER at the 9 th ISRS, three years ago. Special thanks are also due to Zhaoyin Wang, who stands down as Secretary General, for his major contribution to our Association both during the past three years and in the earlier stages of its formation. It is good that he has agreed to continue as an ordinary member of the Council. We warmly welcome Professor Qiyang Yu, from China , as our new Secretary General.

Des Walling, President of the World Association for Sedimentation and Erosion Research(WASER)

4.8.2007