Dear WASER members,

As 2018 comes to an end, the Officers and Council Members of WASER would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing support for the Association and wish all members a happy and prosperous New Year for 2019.

2018 has been a busy year for WASER and I would like to summarize the various activities of the Association during the last year as follows:

1. WASER sponsored the 6th International Conference on Estuaries and Coasts (ICEC-2018) held in Caen, France from August 20-23, 2018. About 150 participants from more than 20 countries and regions around the world participated in the Conference. The Secretary General of WASER Prof. Guangquan Liu and the Executive Secretary General of WASER Prof. Cheng Liu delivered speeches on behalf of IRTCES and WASER, respectively, in the Opening Ceremony.

2. WASER co-sponsored the UNESCO-International Sediment Initiative (ISI) International Training Workshop on Integrated Sediment Management in River Basins held in Beijing, China from November 5-10, 2018. About 50 participants, including 20 women, attended the training workshop. WASER President Prof. Zhaoyin Wang and WASER past President Prof. Des. Walling attended the workshop as lecturers.

3. WASER co-sponsored the 13th International Conference on Hydroscience & Engineering held in Chongqing, China from June 18-22, 2018. WASER President Prof. Zhaoyin Wang was invited to attend the conference and delivered a Keynote Presentation.

4. WASER co-sponsored FRIEND 2018 - International Conference on African Large River Basin Hydrology that was held in Staoueli, Algeria from May 6-9, 2018. WASER Council member Prof. Hongwei Fang was invited to attend the conference and delivered a Keynote Presentation.

5. WASER sponsored a Round-Table Meeting of Leaders of Water-related International Organizations which was organized by the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) in Beijing on October 17, 2018. WASER President Prof. Zhaoyin Wang attended the meeting and signed the Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Development of Water on behalf of WASER.

6. In preparation for the 14th International Symposium on River Sedimentation, WASER President Prof. Zhaoyin Wang, Secretary General Prof. Guangquan Liu and Executive Secretary General Prof. Cheng Liu visited Sichuan University from September 16-19, 2018. They checked the Symposium venue, hotel and site of the technical visit, and undertook discussions with the Symposium host and Local Organization Committee.

7. The Impact Factor of the International Journal of Sediment Research, the WASER official journal, increased to 1.659 for 2017. In the past years, the Impact Factor of IJSR has been increasing year on year: 0.718 in 2013, 1.036 in 2014, 1.388 in 2015 and 1.494 in 2016.

8. The WASER Webpages have been regularly updated. The servers used for the website were upgraded by the IWHR Information Center in October 2018, because the existing servers were outdated. All information held on the website has been moved to the new servers. Some minor problems resulting from the move are being resolved.

Looking forward to 2019, the WASER Triennial Assembly and Symposium, the 14th International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS 2019), will be organized by Sichuan University in Chengdu, China from September 16-19, 2019. The Symposium theme will be “Integrated sediment management in rivers and coasts”. You may submit your abstracts and obtain other detailed information about ISRS 2019 by visiting the Symposium website at: http://www.isrs2019.cn/ .

WASER is co-sponsoring the International Conference on Silk-roads Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development which will be held in Beijing from May 11-12, 2019. WASER will organize a session on ‘Sediment Transportation and Geo-hazard Mitigation’ during this conference. 

The Officers and Council members of WASER will do their best to promote the Association and its activities during 2019, but your support for our Association will be very important in ensuring its continuing success.

The Officers and Council members of WASER would like to take this opportunity to express their sincere thanks to IRTCES for its very important support in hosting and sustaining the Secretariat of our Association over the past year.

Zhaoyin Wang, President of WASER

Prof. Des. Waling and Prof. Zhaoyin Wang participated in the UNESCO ISI International Training Workshop on Integrated Sediment Management in River Basins as lecturers.

Keynote presentation by Prof. Zhaoyin Wang at the 13th International Conference on Hydroscience & Engineering; Keynote presentation by Prof. Hongwei Fang at the FRIEND 2018 - International Conference on African Large River Basin Hydrology

Speeches by Prof. Guangquan Liu and Prof. Cheng Liu at the 6th International Conference on Estuaries and Coasts