Around twenty MSc and PhD students undertaking research on water attended the third annual IWSN Postgraduate Winter Seminar, which took place at the Watershed in Bristol on 1-2 February 2017.
The seminar kicked off with an excellent guest lecture by Professor Tapio Katko from Tampere University of Technology in Finland, who spoke eloquently about how water systems have tended to change over time, and about the institutional, management and policy issues around water and sanitation services.
The rest of the programme on the first day was filled with nine presentations by MSc and PhD students covering topics including the public right to fish, access to sanitation facilities in developing countries, and climate change adaptation in Chile.
The second day began with a lecture by Dr Claire Hoolohan from Manchester University which explored the use of mixed qualitative research methods to explore everyday water use and design innovative approaches for intervention. The attendees also enjoyed a lecture from Professor Nicolás Pineda of El Colegio de Sonora on the challenges of implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles in northern Mexico.
There were presentations from seven UWE postgraduates on day two, on topics ranging from GIS analysis of water availability in rural Tanzania, the water-food-energy nexus in Bristol, and river-fly monitoring for citizen-science led river management.
This event is the only one of its kind in the academic year, when students pursuing water research can come together with UWE faculty and special guests from the UK and abroad to present and discuss their research.