CIGR Newsletter No 38

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Prof. O. Kitani, President of CIGR, injured in a robbery

Prof. Kitani, CIGR's new President since January 1, was victim of a robbery with violence mid January. He was taken to hospital where he was kept for surgery and further care. After about 2 weeks in hospital he was able to return home to recover. At the end of February he has recovered almost completely and will continue his duties as President of CIGR. We wish him a full and speedy recovery and success in his new position.

XIIIth World Congress of CIGR, Rabat, Morocco

The XIIIth World Congress of CIGR in co-operation with EurAgEng, ASAE, AAAE and SEASAE will be held in Rabat, Morocco on 2-6 February 1998. A full programme can be found elsewhere in this issue.

ANAFID, The Moroccan Association which organises this congress is continuing its preparations for this congress with great enthusiasm. 4,000 copies of the first announcement were sent out, 700 of which were disseminated at the EurAgEng conference. Copies were also sent to all National Societies of Agricultural Engineering.

At the ASAE meeting in Phoenix, Arizona a CIGR booth was installed in collaboration with ASAE and with the aid of Prof. Stout, Incoming President and Dr. Chèze, Chairman of Section III of CIGR, to whom I am very grateful for their efforts to promote the forthcoming congress in Morocco.

A number of pre-registrations, originating from 17 countries, have already been received at the Secretariat of ANAFID.

We hope for a large attendance as a result of the co-ordinated efforts from the Regional and National Associations and of the Governmental bodies.

These efforts and support will be very welcome in view of the high capital layout viz. for simultaneous translation of all sessions. This will be of particular interest to promote the active participation of the French-speaking Developing Countries.

ANAFID will also solicit the support of the French Association AFGR, presided by Mr Souty, in order to obtain financial support from the French Government.

ANAFID is also very grateful to CIGR's President Prof. Kitani for his mediation with the World Bank in Washington in order to try to obtain financial aid to invite participants from Developing Countries.

ANAFID has selected the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rabat as location, this hotel offers all facilities for a successful congress.

The organisers from ANAFID.

EurAgEng Special Interest Group on Soil and Water

Report on the 3rd Meeting

The EurAgEng Special Interest Group on Soil and Water held its third meeting in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday 24 September, during the AgEng '96 Conference on Agricultural Engineering.

The meeting was chaired by Prof. D. De Wrachien of the State University of Milan, and as secretary acted Prof. N. Romano of the University of Naples.

The meeting was attended by some 30 participants from 12 different countries.

After the welcoming speech of the Chairman - who reviewed progress made since the second meeting (Rome, September 1995) and underlined the strategies, the goals and the scope of the Group - the meeting, abiding by an EurAgEng Council's bidding, had as its highlight a key-note report on “Modelling water flow and solute transport in heterogeneous soils: A review of recent approaches” delivered by Prof. J. Feyen of the Institute for Land and Water Management of the Catholic University of Leuven and correspondent for Flanders, Belgium within the network of the Group. The lecture was an exhaustive review of the so-called mechanistic based models with particular emphasis on modelling field-scale water flow and solute transport using deterministic and stochastic approaches and on the effects of micro - and macro - heterogeneity of the soil structure on water and solute flow.

The outcomes of the session are summarised as follows.

1. Membership, Network of Correspondents and Web Server

1.1 The Chairman informed that according to the 1996 issue of the EurAgEng Members' Directory, about 300 members announced formally their interest in the Group's activities

1.2 A network of 17 correspondents from 16 countries had been set up, with the aim of:

The Chairman received reports from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and United Kingdom. The goal of this task is to come to an updated inventory of the key-issues, concerning the soil and water area, which are investigated at European level, along with the financial and human resources involved to the end of optimising the whole process and obtaining a better synergistic co-ordination of all the activities related to this field of knowledge.

  1. Prof. D. De Wrachien announced that Prof. F. Sevila, EurAgEng SIGs Co-ordinator, had prepared a new version of the EurAgEng page on the Web, hosted at ENSAM in Montpellier (France), containing information on the structure and the activities of the Group. The WWW address is:

http://www.ensam.inra.fr/bio-engineering/eurageng/

2. Co-operation with other Organisations

On the occasion of the second meeting, it was agreed that the Group, through its Chairman, had to look for collaboration with other international organisations, impinging upon themes related to soil and water, with the aim of

In this endeavour collaborations have been set up with the following frameworks:

2.1 Representatives within the Group's network

To assure continuity in the desired collaboration, Prof. Giuliana Trisorio-Liuzzi, Vice President of CIHEAM and Dr. Andreas Muller, member of the IAHR Council, were proposed as official representatives of the two above-mentioned Organisations for the SIG on Soil and Water.

The participants agreed to that proposal.

The Chairman - who was elected official member of the two ICID WGs and permanent observer of the Board of the 1st Section of CIGR - in reciprocity, suggested to designate

as official representatives of their Organisations, with the faculty of nominating a deputy, within the Group's network.

The participants backed up the Chairman's suggestion.

2.2 Activities

The Chairman described progress on the enterprises carried out in co-operation with the following frameworks:

3. International meeting

The Group is involved in the co-sponsorship and/or organisation of the following meetings:

3.1 International Workshop on “The Use of Water in Sustainable Agriculture” organised by the “Advanced Technical School of Agricultural Engineering (ETSIA) of the University of Castilla-La Mancha in co-operation with:

to be held in Albacete (Spain) in June 1996.

Main topics:

Conveners: Prof. F. Martin de Santa Olalla & Prof. H.N. Van Lier

Prof. D. De Wrachien informed that:

3.2 International Workshop on “Sustainable Irrigation in Areas of Water Scarcity and Drought” organised by the ICID WG. on Sustainable Crops and Water Use, in co-operation, among other frameworks, with CIGR Section I “Land and Water Use”, to be held in Oxford (U.K.) in September 1997.

Main topics:

Conveners: Prof. J.M. de Jager & Prof. L. Vermes

Prof. D. De Wrachien informed that the EurAgEng Executive Board (Madrid, 22 September 1996) agreed on the SIG on Soil and Water co-sponsorship of the meeting. It was agreed that to strengthen the desired collaboration between ICID and EurAgEng, the Chairman and some members of the Group should join the Scientific Committee of the Workshop.

3.3 International Conference on “Water Management, Salinity and Pollution Control towards Sustainable Irrigation in the Mediterranean Region” organised by CIHEAM - Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari - and by the Section Soil and Water of the Italian Society of Agricultural Engineering (AIIA) in co-operation, among other frameworks, with:

to be held in Valenzano (Italy) in September 1997

Main topics:

Convener: Prof. A Hardy

Prof. D. De Wrachien mentioned that:

3.4 XIII World Congress on Agricultural Engineering organised by CIGR in co-operation with: ASAE, EurAgEng, AAAE to be held in Rabat (Morocco) in February 1998.

Main topics of the Section I: Land and Water Use:

Convener: Prof. A. Bekkali

Prof. D. De Wrachien informed that the Chairman of the SIG has been asked to join the Scientific Committee of the Section I of the Congress (Board of Section I, held in Gödöllö on September 5, 1996)

The Chairman brought to the members' attention that the main topic: '2a Design and rehabilitation for irrigation water conveying structures' was classified among the subjects of Section II: Structures, Equipment and Environment.

He felt that the theme should be withdrawn and discussed in the context of Section I, since, to the end of a correct, efficient and cost-effective design, construction and rehabilitation of the works suitable for irrigation water conveyance the hydrologic and hydraulic goals, aims and strategies are as important, or more so, than those related to the statics of the structures and the resistance of the building materials. To back his thesis D. De Wrachien pointed out that the subject in question falls, respectively, under the heading “Hydrology” of the AGU Transactions and the Soil and Water Section of the ASAE homonymous magazine . Moreover ICID devoted a whole Working Body to the theme (the special WG on “Construction, Rehabilitation and Modernisation of Irrigation Projects”). The Group agreed and asked the Chairman to do his best to move the theme into the main topics of Section I.

3.5 International Workshop on “Sustainable Tillage Systems” organised by CIGR and ASAE, to be held in Orlando (USA) in July 1998.

Main topics:

Convener: Prof. W. Coates

Prof. D. De Wrachien related on a correspondence between himself and the correspondent Prof. U. Perdok, concerning feasible topics and the possibility of the co-sponsorship of the meeting.

The Chairman informed that the EurAgEng Executive Board (Madrid, 22 September 1996) agreed on the SIG on Soil and Water co-sponsorship of the workshop.

It was agreed that, to assure continuity in ASAE-EurAgEng co-operation, both the Chairman and Prof Perdok should join the Scientific Committee.

3.6 International Conference on Agricultural Engineering organised by EurAgEng, to be held in Oslo in August 1998.

Main topics of the Section C: Soil and Water Use:

Convener: Prof. E. Berge

Prof. D. De Wrachien related on a letter received by the CIGR President E. Berge, who asked the Chairman of the Group to join the Scientific Committee and to set up a team of referees for the management of the scientific aspect involved, concerning the Soil and Water area. The Group agreed with pleasure to that request and committed itself to support the Chairman to manage the above-mentioned activities.

3.7 The correspondent Prof. C. Sommer informed the members that the German Association of Agricultural Engineering will organise, in Braunschweig during the three-year period 1996-'99 and under the EurAgEng SIG on Soil and Water label, the following meetings:

The Chairman thanked Prof. C. Sommer and assured that as soon as he receives a more detailed programme of the events, he will ask the EurAgEng Executive Board for the SIG on Soil and Water co-sponsorship of the meetings.

4. National meetings

4.1 The Chairman reported on the outcome of a Conference on “Operation, Management and Maintenance of Large Irrigation Networks” held in Novara (Italy), on 6-7 June 1996. The meeting - organised by the Italian Society of Agricultural Engineering (Section I) and by the Land Reclamation and Irrigation Agency of Novara, with EurAgEng SIG on Soil and Water co-sponsorship - was chaired by Prof. Fassò, Vice President of ICID and was attended by more than 300 participants.

After the welcoming speech delivered by the Chairman of the SIG, thirteen speakers focused their lectures on the following topics:

During the meeting Prof A. Santini, Chairman of Section I of the Italian Society of Agricultural Engineering, presented a volume - issued on behalf of Prof. G. Tournon, Chairman of the Organising and Scientific Committee of the Conference - which collected the results of the latest researches carried out in this field of knowledge by the Italian Scientific Community.

4.2 Prof. D. De Wrachien related on a report received by the correspondent Dr. T. Chamen, who informed the Chairman that the Section Soil and Water of the British Association of Agricultural Engineering is organising two national meetings, falling under the interest of the Group:

The aims of the meetings are:

5. Forward Activity Programme

To better define a three-year rolling plan it was agreed that:

6. Forward Meeting Programme

Further activities will be discussed during the next meeting of the Group, which will be held in Oslo, in August 1998, within AgEng'98, the International Conference on Agricultural Engineering”.

Prof. Daniele De Wrachien Chairman EurAgEng SIG on Soil and Water

ICID - CAIRO Statement 22 September 1996

The International Congress on Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture held in Cairo with 900 participants from 64 countries of the world noted the important role that will have to be played by irrigated agriculture for feeding the increasing number of people on this globe. The challenge is that increase in food production and rural wealth will have to take place under conditions of less water and less public funds available for irrigation and drainage works. Food security which is also closely linked with water security will have to be achieved under conditions of natural variability in supply and climate change.

The environmental, technical, financial, economic and social aspects of sustainability of irrigation and drainage systems will require closer attention and continuous monitoring. For this purpose comprehensive information systems will have to be developed for all concerned areas.

Decentralisation in planning and management with involvement of the concerned communities will need to be promoted together with sound practices for cost recovery and good management by irrigation agencies. Agricultural productivity per unit of water will have to be progressively increased in order to be able to compete with other higher value uses of water.

The important role of women of the farming communities in the developing countries will have to be properly recognised and special programmes for enhancing their skills in land and water management and for participation in the operation of the irrigation and drainage systems will have to be pursued.

Increases in the effective irrigation area will have to be achieved through timely rehabilitation and modernisation of the irrigation and drainage systems, reclamation of waterlogged or salinised irrigated land and by opening of new lands to irrigation and drainage services through low cost techniques. Simultaneously, increased attention will also be necessary for the management of the upstream water sheds.

Plans for integrated development and management of surface and ground water resources will have to be implemented through basin wide institutions for securing proper consensus on allocation of water and for ensuring adequate share for meeting the requirements of irrigated agriculture.

Access of the poor farmers to productive resources like water will have to be improved through equity in distribution of water for alleviating rural poverty and for preserving the natural resource base.

Towards these goals ICID will develop its activities and promote throughout the world formulation of sound policies in the larger macro-economic and sociological context.

The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage will be pleased to provide you with further information on their programme. They can be contacted at the following address: ICID, 48 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021 India.
Fax.: +91 11 301 5962 E-mail: <icid@sirnetd.ernet.in>

 

Back To Currect Issue Index