Jointly organized by AIT along with Tokyo Institute of Technology,
Japan, the event witnessed participation from Yangon Institute of
Technology, Myanmar; Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan; University of
Tokyo, Japan; and Beijing Normal University, China.
Participants were welcomed by Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Vice President
of Academic Affairs, AIT; and Dr. Chihiro Yoshimura, Tokyo Institute of
Technology. Prof. Kumar stated that AIT has a history of teaching and
research in water and water-related issues. The first academic program
offered by AIT was on water, and since then, AIT has been working on
issues related to water including agricultural water, coastal water,
urban water, extreme events and risk management. Dr. Yoshimura stated
that the issue of environmental flow and water resources management is
very important for Southeast Asia. He also appreciated AIT’s support in
organizing the symposium.
According to Dr. Sangam Shrestha, the symposium included three
technical sessions, which was followed by a meeting for the potential
cooperation in Asia in the field of environmental flow and water
resource management. The three technical sections in the symposium on
Hydrology and Flow regime, Environmental Flow, and Climate Change and
Hydrology were chaired by Dr. Oliver C. Saavedra V. of Tokyo Institute
of Technology, Dr. Sangam Shrestha of AIT, and Prof. Tsuyoshi Nicouchi
of Tokyo Institute of Technology respectively. Invited speakers
included Prof. Tao Sun of Beijing Normal University who delivered a
talk on “Environmental flow assessments in China”; Dr. Chihiro
Yoshimura who spoke on “Importance of flow regime and environmental
flow in rivers at global scale”; and Prof. Mukand Singh Babel who
delivered a talk on “Climate change impacts on water resources and
selected water use sectors: Case studies from Asia.”
