Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand jointly with Beijing Normal University (BNU), Hefei University of Technology (HFUT) and Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) have organized the 3rd AIT-BNU Virtual Workshop on “Climate Change, Water Resources and Ecosystems: Challenges and Opportunities” on Wednesday, 22 September 2021.
In his opening remarks, Prof. Hongguang Cheng, Dean, College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, appreciated AIT-BNU’s collaboration in successfully organizing multiple events and thanked all the participants for sharing their research works. Dr. Eden Y. Woon, President, Asian Institute of Technology, welcomed all the participants and mentioned how multiple stresses such as climate change and land-use change were impacting the water resources and ecosystem and emphasized the importance of identifying the challenges and opportunities in the context of these stresses to formulate resilient solutions.
The main objective of this workshop was to create a platform to review and present the advanced methodologies, current progress and challenges, future opportunities in water-ecosystems management under climate change. For this, the workshop consisted of 28 presentations allocated into four technical sessions, namely Modelling changing climate relating to the hydrological cycle (Session A-1); Climate extremes and impacts on water resources and ecosystem (Session B-1); Interactions of water resource and ecosystem (Session A-2) and Risk assessment of ecosystem degradation in a changing environment (Session B-2).
The closing sessions consisted of a panel discussion where Prof. Yuliang Zhou, College of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology (HFUT) and Prof. Jin Wu, Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) reviewed multiple approaches, challenges and opportunities discussed during the technical sessions in the context of climate change and its impact in water resources and ecosystems. On behalf of the organizing committee, Prof. Sangam Shrestha, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), extended sincere thanks to all the presenters and the workshop participants for providing valuable inputs. The virtual workshop was attended by more than 90 participants from different government departments, universities, and research and international organizations.
