CIGR Newsletter No 63
CIGR C o - S p o n s o r e d A c t i v i t i e s
9th International Drainage Workshop "Drainage for a Secure Environment and Food Supply"
Co-sponsored by CIGR-Section I and jointly organised by the ICID Working Group on Drainage (WG-DRG) and Alterra-ILRI, the 9th tri-annual International Drainage Workshop will be held from 10 to 13 September 2003 in the Jaarbeurs conference centre in Utrecht, Netherlands. Renowned organisations such as ICID and EurAgEng are overseeing the planning.
The organisers have taken an integrated approach to the workshop, combining preparatory internet discussion sessions with linkages to the 3rd World Water Forum activities and sessions, keynote speakers both on subjects of direct interest and on related topics, and papers from specialists throughout the world.
The WG-DRG would like to promote and stimulate interest in the best management practices from the point of view of agricultural production and environmental impact among a much wider group than the traditional group of drainage engineers and scientists. This workshop endeavours to stress the importance of drainage to the general public, politicians, planners and designers, and to organisations that formulate agricultural and IWRM policies.
The programme comprises plenary presentations (including keynotes, special topic presentations and summaries of discussions), concurrent discussion sessions, and, if sponsors can be found, luncheon and dinner speakers.
Four main topics and twenty-one subordinated subjects have been selected for discussion at the IDW9.
I. Innovative drainage technologies in agriculture
· Benefiting from the soil’s hydraulic properties
· Developments in drainage machinery and materials
· Water Table Management (WTM) or controlled drainage
· More crop per drop
· Operation & maintenance
· Rehabilitation of drainage systems
· Decision support systems, models for design
II. Drainage: a tool for integrated water resource management in agriculture
· Mitigation of adverse impacts; water quality control
· Physical, chemical and biological processes under shallow water tables
· Management of salinity at the field and basin scales
· Solute transport
· Role and future of wetlands
· Drainage and ecosystems
· Drainage in the water chain
III. Drainage institutions for participatory development
· Public/private partnerships
· User participation
· Drainage institutions
· Cost recovery
· Managerial aspects of integrated water management
IV. Capacity building in drainage
· Social and economic impacts
· Monitoring & evaluation
· Training for capacity building
· The role of NGO’s, governments, WB, FAO, etc.
The topics reflect requests for inputs on the technical and local level (Topics 1), the regional level (Topics 2 and 3) and the level of stakeholders’ involvement (Topic 4).
The participants will discuss materials, designs, management, environmental impacts, economics, and, most of all, relationships between the various disciplines. Abstracts have been placed on the IDW9 website for discussion at www.alterra-research.nl/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/ilri/ILRI/workshop/index.htm. Contributions will be made available to the participants on CD-ROM at registration in Utrecht.
Deadlines and dates:
Full text submission 31 July 2003
Registration fees are Euro 500; there is a remission of Euro 50 for members of ICID and EurAgEng and for participants from member countries. Registration fees for accompanying persons are Euro 150. For the early registration discount, funds should be received before 1 July.
For information and registration contact: IDW9 Workshop Secretariat; Alterra-ILRI; P.O. Box 47; 6700 AA Wageningen; The Netherlands. Phone: +31 317 49 55 49; Fax: +31 317 49 55 90; Email: drainage2003@ilri.agro.nl Internet: http://www.ilri.nl then select 9th International Drainage Workshop.
"Improved Irrigation Technologies and Methods: Research, Development
and Testing" Workshop
This workshop, co-sponsored by CIGR Section I, will be held on 18 and 19 September 2003 in Montpellier, France. A plenary session in the morning will address the state of the art and the perspectives of new technologies and methods in irrigation, considering improvements in irrigation equipment during the last decades as well as questions of irrigation equipment testing and standardisation. Two parallel sessions in the afternoon will deal with surface and with pressurised irrigation. The latter will deal with questions of sprinkler irrigation (solid sets and irrigation machines) and of drip irrigation.
As a complement to the workshop, a one-day technical tour will visit: Cemagref testing facilities in the laboratory at Aix-en Provence and in the field at Le Merle experimental farm (Salon de Provence) for raingun and sprinklers evaluation, BRL water meter testing facilities, Precision agriculture in a farm near Tarascon. Following the initiation of an international network of irrigation equipment testing laboratories, a meeting of delegates from the laboratories concerned will be held during the IEC.
Further information is available on the internet at http://afeid.montpellier.cemagref.fr/techws2003.htm or from Alain Vidal; European International Affairs Office; Cemagref; 361, rue Jean-Francois Breton - BP 5095; 34033 Montpellier Cedex 1 - France. Tel. +33 4 67 04 63 38; Fax: +33 4 67 63 57 95 or +33 1 40 96 61 42
Symposium
"25 Years of Assessment of Erosion"
This symposium will be held in Ghent, Belgium from 22 to 26 September 2003. Organised by the Department of Soil Management and Soil Care, Ghent University, it is co-sponsored by CIGR-Section I "Land and Water Engineering".
The symposium will cover a wide range of topics. The following is a tentative list which is still subject to modifications:
· Climatic factors: rain erosivity, events, inclined rainfall, rainfall simulation
· Soil parameters: erodibility, roughness, sealing, soil management
· Topography: slope degree and length, short slopes, shape
· Vegetation and stone cover
· Scale of assessment: point, field, watershed, upscaling, mapping
· Infiltration, runoff, sediment transport
· Type of erosion: sheet, rill, gully, mass movement, tillage erosion, land levelling
· Modelling: empirical, conceptual, physical
· Non-point source pollution by erosion and runoff
Review papers on specific syntheses of assessment of parameters in the erosion process are welcome for consideration as keynote presentations. A scientific committee will select the papers and decide upon the way of presentation: oral (including review) or poster presentations.
For a first orientation and for downloadable registration forms, please consult the symposium web site at http://soilman.rug.ac.be/symposium_erosion/
For further information please contact the Symposium office "25 years of Assessment of Erosion", p/a ir. Greet Oltenfreiter, Dept. Soil Management & Soil Care, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tel: +32 9 2646066; Fax: +32 9 2646247; E-mail: erosion@soilman.rug.ac.be
ITAFE’03: International Congress on
Information Technology in Agriculture,
Food and Environment
Co-sponsored by CIGR, among others, this congress will be held from 7 to 10 October 2003 in Izmir, Turkey. The topics are related to the design, development, use and management of Information and Communication Systems in and for agriculture and extension, agribusiness and food industry, agricultural policy and environment:
· Information and communication systems for the improvement of activities
· Decision support systems (DSS)
· GIS, GPS, RS application
· Precision farming
· Expert systems
· Database management systems (DBMS)
· E-Commerce
· Education and training
· Distance learning
· Strategy and management information systems
· Modelling and use of statistical analysis
· Simulation applications
· Biotechnology and bioinformatics
· Wireless communication
· Laboratory systems
· Automation in process control
· Quality control and standards
· Environment control systems
· Water management systems
· Data acquisition and signal processing
· Role of IT in rural development
· IT in developing countries
All accepted papers will be available in the proceedings during the congress. The official language of the congress will be English.
Dates and Deadlines:
Submission of full papers: 15 August 2003
Please send all correspondence to: ITAFE’03 Congress Secretariat, Ege University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Machinery, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, TURKEY. Tel./Fax : +90 2323427642 E-mail: itafe@agr.ege.edu.tr or itafe@ziraat.ege.edu.tr Further information, registration forms, etc., can be found at http://www.itafe.ege.edu.tr/
32nd International Symposium "Actual Tasks on Agricultural Engineering"
This symposium will be held from 23 to 27 February 2004, in Opatija, Croatia. Symposia of this series have been organised for over 30 years now. In addition to this tradition, the symposium has gained a lot of international standing due to sustained co-sponsoring by the CIGR, EurAgEng, and AAAE. The proceedings are covered by Current Contents Proceedings, Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings, CAB Agricultural Engineering Abstracts, InterDok and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts - Conference Papers Index since 1997.
The Symposium intends to present the latest scientific results on all aspects of research, design and development in the various disciplines of agricultural engineering.
The main topics to be covered are:
· Automation & emerging technologies
· Animal production technology
· Information technology
· Precision agriculture
· Post-harvest technology
· Power & machinery
· Rural development & communication
· Structures & environment
· Soil and water
The official languages of the symposium will be English and Croatian. Papers are welcome, preferably on the above-mentioned topics but also on other aspects of agricultural engineering. Each abstract (not exceeding 500 words) will be reviewed. Author instructions are available at http://www.agr.hr/aed/aed_propositions.htm.
The registration fee of 100 € (80 € for members of CIGR, EurAgEng, AAAE or AESEE) covers proceedings and farewell banquet. Only papers of authors who pay the registration fee will be published in the conference proceedings.
Important Dates and Deadlines:
Submission of abstract: 15 September 2003
Notification of paper acceptance: 1 October 2003
Submission of full paper: 15 December 2003
Registration deadline: 10 January 2004
For further information please check http://www.agr.hr/aed/aed_symposium.htm or contact Prof. Silvio Kosutic, Faculty of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering Department, Svetosimunska 25, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. Tel.: +385 1 2393819, Fax: +385 1 2315300 or +385 1 2393724, E-mail: skosutic@agr.hr
Energy Efficiency and Agricultural Engineering 2004
This conference will be held at "Angel Kunchev" University of Rousse, Bulgaria, from 3 to 5 June 2004. The Conference is organized by the Bulgarian National Society of Agricultural Engineers, with the support of CIGR Section IV, EurAgEng-Special Interest Group 23, the Union of Scientists, Rousse, and the Federation of the ScientificTechnical Unions, Rousse. The main topics are:
· Renewable Energy Sources
· Plant and Animal Production Engineering
· Land, Water and Agro-processing Engineering
· Information Technologies
· Advanced Technologies for Crop and Animal Production
· Other allied topics
The official languages of the Conference will be English and Russian.
For further information contact the Secretariat: Milena Popova, 8 Studentska str. "A.Kunchev" University of Rousse, Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Tel. 0035982-845536, 0035982-888 ext.665, 843, 442; Fax: 0035982-845 708; E-mail: mivanova@ecs.ru.acad.bg; mihailov@ru.acad.bg; vezirov@ru.acad.bg; http://octus.ru.acad.bg/baer/EE&AE-2004/conference.htm