Capacity development
Table of contents
Together with our partners we strive to contribute to the development of human capacities worldwide and provide advanced training in different formats such as international summer schools, virtual and face-to-face workshops, training courses and online seminars.
International summer schools
As part of our first research project on managed aquifer recharge, the INOWAS group organised two international summer schools in 2016 and 2017 aiming to promote sustainable groundwater management techniques and practices. The summer schools were organised in Dresden with financial support provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). During the two-week long courses, participants from different countries were equipped with basic understanding of the benefits of managed aquifer recharge as an important component of sustainable water management.
Starting with 2021, the courses were continued by the Water Division of the Dresden University of Applied Sciences (HTWD) which organized another three annual summer schools in 2021, 2022 and 2023, to which the Research Group INOWAS contributed with lectures and exercises on web-based numerical groundwater modelling.
Project workshops
Well integrated in our research projects, various online and in-person workshops were co-organised over the past years in Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Guatemala, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal etc., enhanced by bi-lateral meetings and round-table discussions with key stakeholders from the water sector. The scope of the workshops was to assess the needs and interests of the targeted institutions in innovative solutions, as well as to introduce, discuss and validate the research methodologies and project results. Some examples of project workshops:
- Project Workshop on "Implementation of sustainable stormwater and groundwater management solutions in Astana city", event hosted by Nazarbayev University within the joint research project TERESA, 17 May 2023, Astana, Kazakhstan. More
- Project Workshop on "Nature-based solutions for water security", co-organised with Universidad Nacional Costa Rica within the joint research project GREAT, 10 August 2022, Heredia, Costa Rica. More
- Project Workshop on "Strengthening the research approach through replication workshops in Cyprus", co-organised with adelphi research gGmbH and University of Cyorus within the joint research project SMART-Control, 11-14 October 2021, Limassol, Cyprus. More
- Project Workshop on "Assessing the holistic impact of managed aquifer recharge on ecosystem services", co-organised in collaboration with the United Nations University, Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources within the joint research project DIGIRES, 12 April 2021, online. More
Training courses and online seminars
A series of training courses were provided on web-based planning of managed aquifer recharge schemes using model-based decision support tools such as the INOWAS modelling platform. The courses were organised as contributions to capacity development within our research projects but also per request, customized to the needs of the trainees. Some examples are listed below:
- Online Seminar on "Groundwater Restoration using Managed Aquifer Recharge", invited talk at the National Training Workshop organised by the Nigerian Institution of Water Engineers (NIWE), 27 April 2023, online. More
- Online Seminar on "Feasibility mapping of managed aquifer recharge applications" as part of the online seminar series "Groundwater in Mediterranean and Semi-Arid regions" co-organised by the Lebanon Chapter of the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the American University of Beirut (AUB), 17 March 2022, online. More
- Online Seminar Series: series of three online seminars held within the SMART-Control project between April - June 2022 on Initial Risk Assessment (Seminar #1 on 2 April 2022), Real-time monitoring (Seminar #2 on 3 May 2022) and Groundwater modelling and scenarios analysis (Seminar #3 on 7 Jun 2022). More
Side events at conferences
Besides the above, the INOWAS group co-organized a series of side-events at international conferences where we focused on the worldwide promotion of managed aquifer recharge solutions. Some examples of side events include:
- Open-Space Workshop "Innovative ideas for boosting nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation" co-organised at the 10th Water Research Horizon Conference on “Water Security and Food Security”, 18-19 June 2019, Hannover, Germany. Download report (PDF, 10.6 MB)
- Pre-Conference Workshop "Utilization of spatial analysis techniques for the identification of potential MAR areas: challenges and opportunities", co-organised at the 10th International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (ISMAR10), 20 May 2019, Madrid, Spain. Download report (PDF, 9.3 MB)
- Side-Event Workshop “Web-based modeling of managed aquifer recharge using the free INOWAS DSS platform” organised at the 16th Biennial Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (BSMAR16), 5-7 March 2018, San Diego, California, USA. More
- Open-Space Workshop "Bring it back to where you took it from!" co-organised in collaboration with GIZ Guatemala at the GIZ Symposium on Rural Development and Water (FATA2017), 5-7 July 2017, Bad Neunahr, Germany. More
- Side-Event Workshop "Global inventory of managed aquifer recharge applications" co-orgainsed at the 9th Intenational Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (ISMAR9), 20 June 2016, Mexico City, Mexico. More