There were several topics at the forefront of the Water Conference: the impacts of and response to droughts in the Alpine region, which is one of the priority topics of the work of the Water Platform of the Alpine Convention in the current biannual; Green infrastructure for an integrated and sustainable water management, where a link to the activities in the scope of EUSALP was made; and the topic of Common guidelines for the use of small hydropower in the Alpine region where an evaluation of the already existing document was presented. The presentations from the Conference will be available online shortly. The next Water Conference is foreseen in the next 2 years.
The 13th ForumAlpinum was organised under the slogan “Alpine Water – common good or source of conflicts?” focusing on alpine water resources, their use and management issues. Open issues of water use and management in the Alps were identified, target conflicts analyzed and relevance in a regional, national or international context assessed. Excursions to the River Lech showed the combined effort by water authorities, conservationists, engineers and scientists within the LIFE-Nature Project “Dynamic River Lech”.
The event was also an opportunity to highlight the open call for the Alpine Convention’s Young Academics Award, which invites young researchers of the Water topics in the Alps to submit their master theses and get a chance to win a prize.