Water Quality Matters - An Interdisciplinary System Perspective Symposium
On April 15, 2025, Utrecht University will host the Water Quality Matters – An Interdisciplinary System Perspective symposium at the Victor J. Koningsberger building. This event, organized under the university’s Pathways to Sustainability strategic theme, will bring together scientists and stakeholders to address global water quality challenges from both scientific and policy perspectives. Through keynote speeches, thematic discussions, and panel sessions, participants will explore solutions for ensuring sufficient water of suitable quality for society and ecosystems. Registration for the symposium is now open.
A main challenge for the coming decades is how to provide sufficient water of suitable quality for society and ecosystems. Currently only a small percentage of the waters in the Netherlands meet the water quality objectives in line with the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), and many other countries across the world are facing challenges due to water quality issues. Water pollution challenges are prevalent in low-, middle-, and high-income countries but differ with respect to different types of pollutants. Climate change and increases in hydroclimatic extremes (e.g. droughts, rainstorms, floods) challenge water resources management in terms of both water quantity and water quality. At the same time, a growing population requires more water of suitable quality (e.g. for drinking water, food, energy, industrial production), and this increases the gap between supply and demand for clean water.
This symposium sheds light on water quality issues across the world and provides a broad water quality perspective and focuses on key challenges that we are facing nowadays of providing sufficient water of suitable quality for human use and ecosystems. It contributes to providing an overview of the water quality expertise that exists at different faculties of Utrecht University and to discussing how we can combine our expertise to strengthen our impact on water quality management and decision-making.
The symposium is open to scientists and stakeholders from various disciplines to discuss pressing water quality challenges from both scientific and policy perspectives.
Organizers:
- Prof. Dr. Michelle van Vliet (Faculty of Geosciences)
- Dr. Amir Raoof (Faculty of Geosciences)
- Dr. Milou Dingemans (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine/KWR)
- Dr. Florian Meirer (Faculty of Science)
- Prof. Dr. Herman Kasper Gilissen (Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance and Delta Climate Center)
The strategic theme of Utrecht University ‘Pathways to Sustainability’ aims to bring scientists from different disciplines together in studying pathways to a sustainable future. ‘Water, Climate and Future Deltas external link’, one of the thematic communities within this strategic theme, focuses on how deltas and their societies can transform into sustainable and resilient systems by studying contributing drivers, by predicting impacts and optimizing solutions. Delta regions are overall densely populated and are facing challenges of water quality unsuitability for human use (drinking water, irrigation water, industrial use) and nature, due to transport of pollutants from upstream parts of the river basin and due to increases in salinization, amplified due to sea level rise and drought.
Start date and time: 15 April 2025 - 09:00
End date and time: 15 April 2025 - 18:00
Location: Victor J. Koningsberger building, Utrecht University
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To register, Please fill out this form.
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