News in 2009

FutureWater Reports now available as paperback

Hardcopies of the FutureWater Reports that came out in 2008 and 2009 can now be ordered online on the Lulu publisher platform. The publications will be printed as paperback and sent to you. The price of the reports varies around 15 dollars, depending on the number of pages. FutureWater hopes that this option improves the...

FutureWater on the climate train to Copenhagen

Next Saturday, the national climate event “Beat The Heat Now” will take place in Utrecht, as a boot to the climate summit in Copenhagen. Climax of the event will be the departure of a special train from Utrecht station to the climate summit in Copenhagen with on board Minister Cramer, politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists and journalists....

New climate change impact project in Kenya

FutureWater has recently been awarded a new project by the SANET foundation in Western Kenya aiming at assessing the effects of climate change on the rice production systems of the Bunyala plains on the shores of Lake Victoria. A first field visit was conducted in September and currently a water resource management tool is developed....

Identifying future Food and Water Research Themes

The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has funded several major research programs on Integrated Water Resources Management and Global Change. Currently, BMBF is in the process to identify promising future research themes by analyzing the international water research and policy landscape and by taking stock of recent achievements. FutureWater was asked to provide...

Green Water Credits workshop in Kenya successfully to an end

Last month a workshop took place on the analysis tools for pilot operation of Green Water Credits in Kenya. The event was the start of several other collaborative and training activities. FutureWater organized the workshop for the local authorities in the Tana basin. The principles of the financial mechanism were discussed and the quantitative tools...

Evaluating evapotranspiration standards in the Netherlands

FutureWater is evaluating the possibilities to regionalize the Penman-Monteith reference evapotranspiration in the Netherlands. The current standard in the Netherlands is Makkink. However, the international standard is Penman-Monteith. FutureWater studies which measured variables are required for the use of Penman-Monteith at Dutch weather-related organizations. Furthermore, FutureWater investigates the possible spatial interpolation methods. More details, including...

Relating environmental conditions and Q fever

A research project will be conducted by FutureWater together with the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on the supposed relation between the human transmission of Q fever and the local environmental conditions. Infection with C. burnetii (Q fever) is likely to occur when a number of environmental conditions are met,...

Workshop in Kenya on tools for Green Water Credits

One main component of the Green Water Credits project is to evaluate the most appropriate and effective soil and water management options. Quantitative tools and methods are being developed by FutureWater and will be handed over to Kenyan counterparts. As a first start a training workshop will be organized the second week of September for...

Workshop: The Role of Earth Observation in Water Resource Management

FutureWater organized a workshop on “The Role of Earth Observation in Water Resource Management: Strengts of the Dutch water sector” at the Rotterdam Airport hotel on 20 May 2009 together with WaterWatch, TU Delft and NIVR. The workshop was organized in the framework of the ESAWAT project. In this informal workshop a select group of...

Developing a SWAP-GIS interface for the Flemish Environment Agency

FutureWater recently started to develop a SWAP-GIS interface for the Flemish Environment Agency. In this interesting project that is executed in collaboration with GIM tools are developed that enable the spatial set-up of the SWAP model for large areas. More details [in dutch] can be found here.

Further expansion of FutureWater team

Since January 2009 the FutureWater team is enforced by Dr. J.M. (Hanneke) Schuurmans. Hanneke recently received her PhD degree from Utrecht University and will focus on both Dutch and international projects.