Knowledge sharing seminar on Urban Modelling and Monitoring in Turkey

We organised a thematic seminar on ‘Urban Modelling and Monitoring’ in collaboration with Hidrosaf Software and Sufen Project Companies with the support of Ekoton, Nivus, and CINK Companies. This seminar was conducted on November 21st 2012 in Ankara, Turkey and focussed on sharing solutions on the challenges faced in urban water management.

Over 85 participants from various institutions and private companies in Turkey attended this seminar. Some of the main contributors were from:

• The State Hydraulic Works
• Ministry of Water and Environment
• Water Board of Ankara City
• Ministry of Environment and Planning
• Ankara Municipality
• Middle East Technical University

Urban water management being a complex issue, the city planners and managers are facing many challenges. Improving urban water supply and sanitation, securing the quality and quantity of the supplied water for households and for industries, prevention and management of urban floods were among the few challenges they faced. Increasing urbanisation and climate change are factors that further accelerate these challenges.

Dr Evzen Zeman, Managing Director of DHI Czech Republic opened this seminar with a brief introduction of DHI and to aspects related to flooding of Urban Infrastructure. This was followed by a number of interesting presentations:

• Introduction to MIKE by DHI Software for urban waters as well as The Academy by DHI and our approaches related to software use and training. 
•  Deputy Director of General of Water Management of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, Mr. Huseyin Akbaş presented new approaches on water management concept in Turkey.
• Petr Ingeduld and Milan Suchanek of DHI shared information about urban modelling and monitoring issues with world wide applications.
• Export manager of NIVUS, Hugo Schamalz introduced NIVUS products and gave fruitful information about importance of precise and accurate monitoring.
• Area Sales Manager of CINK, Petr Konata, introduced highly efficient crossflow turbines and potential hydropower energy applications in urban water supply systems.

This seminar contributed in sharing our global knowledge about applied hydro informatics in urban infrastructure and the importance of validated data for modelling. Several software training seminar within urban water management and water resources management are planned for 2013 as well.

For further information on training courses and seminars planned in 2013, please refer to The Academy.