Date: 11 September – 15 September 2022
Venue: Copenhagen, Denmark
The 2022 IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark, will engage stakeholders and key contacts within the conventional water sector and beyond. Held from 11-15 September, 2022, the event will bring together core water sector groups, such as those focused on urban water and urban water services, as well as participants from industry and agriculture, architects and urban planners, soil and groundwater experts and hydrologists, social scientists, the ICT sector, the financial sector, and others.
The Congress will report on the water sector progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The emphasis will be on SDG6, which is dedicated to water and sanitation. The event will also highlight and explore the interwoven relation of water with all 17 of the global SDGs.
For more information or to register, visit the event website.
AWP at the World Water Congress
Panel Workshop: How to operationalise integrated urban water management – a five-step guide
15 September 10:30 am – 12:00 pm , Room B3e
Conveners – Water Sensitives Cities Australia and the Australian Water Partnership
Integrated urban water management (IUWM) is being widely promoted as a way to address urgent water cycle challenges associated with flooding, sanitation, waterways and water security. As an early adopter, the Australian water sector has collated its insights, research and practice from the past decade into an Urban WaterGuide that outlines five key steps to implementing and operationalise IUWM. The workshop will introduce these steps and provide opportunities for discussion on how they might be applied in different geographies or scales.
The workshop will start with an overview of the Urban WaterGuide (linked below) and how the steps can be used for building sustainable and resilient cities. This will be followed by roundtable discussions using an example case to think through key steps including visioning, design and the enabling environment. A panel will reflect on the outputs from the roundtables and share their experiences on addressing the challenges, and approaches to progress towards resilience and sustainability.
Speakers:
- Michael Wilson – Group CEO of eWater
- Tony Wong – Water Sensitive Cities Australia
- Katharine Cross – AWP
- Louise Dudley – President, Australian Water Association
Urban WaterGuide Summary (PDF 2.2 MB)
Other AWP Engagements
Policy to practice dialogue for mainstreaming NbS in river-basin and cities
12 September 2022, 10.30-12.00, Room C0
Conveners: International Water Association and The Nature Conservancy
Scaling up nature-based solutions (NbS) requires closer linkages between policies and practice. In this workshop, successful NbS cases studies from different geographies and socio-economic contexts will support participants’ understanding of how practice can shape policies and vice versa.
Based on case studies from different geographies and social and economic contexts, this session aims to discuss how to create an enabling environment for mainstreaming NbS in urban and basin water management, considering the various implementation scales, the multiple stakeholders involved, and the technological solutions available.
Tony Wong with Water Sensitive Cities Australia and Katharine Cross, AWP will give a shared keynote presentation.
Visit the event website for more details on this session.
Earth Observation for Water Management – Building a Community of Practice
12 September 2022, 13:30-15:00 , Room B4a
How can the water sector share experiences and approaches developed on applying EO for managing water resources be implemented for different users?
Across various parts of the water sector preparing and adapting to risks in a planned manner is far more efficient than reacting to a major system failure. For this reason, having the tools and capability to predict and respond in advance to potential water quality and quantity risks can improve environmental performance while lowering costs. In this framework, there is great potential in the application of Earth Observation (EO) technologies in the water sector. Earth observation (EO) technology (which includes satellites) combined with modelling of highly complex, dynamic systems can provide monitoring and forecasting information for both water quality and quantity.
This session will be an opportunity to discuss how EO can be used across the water sector to inform decision-making, achieve regulatory compliance at low cost and improve the day-to-day performance of operations. The discussions will be informed by and contribute to the recently launched IWA community of practice (CoP) on EO for water management which has been set-up to explore and share information on the use of EO across different users in the water sector.
Katharine Cross from AWP will be co-chairing this workshop.
High-Level Summit on Partnerships for Smart Liveable Cities – Water as a Key to Action on Climate and the SDGs
12 September 2022, 10:30 – 17:15 , Room A2
The International Water Association is convening a High-Level Summit to escalate action. The result will be a powerful message to prompt cities to elevate water as they pursue their ambitions to create smart and secure liveable cities for all – cities that are climate safe and where citizens have access to sustainable water and sanitation services.
The Summit is organised by the International Water Association, Danish Water and Wastewater Association, the Municipality of Copenhagen, P4G and the Confederation of Danish Industry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment of Denmark and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
Ministers, mayors, politicians and policymakers will be among those participating in the Summit. The number of places will be limited.
Speakers include:
- Tony Wong – Water Sensitive Cities Australia
- Michael Wilson – Group CEO of eWater
Visit the event website for more details on this session.
Launch of Urban WaterGuide
13 September 2022, 12:15 – 12:45 , IWA Stand
Any city can face barriers in implementing integrated and inclusive approaches. These barriers include resistance to change, poverty and marginalisation, fragmented responsibilities, lack of legislative mandate, lack of experience in engaging the whole community and lack of funding. The Urban WaterGuide outlines how these barriers are being addressed in Australia, and by Australians working on international projects.
Inclusive collaboration is also fundamental to the success of integrated solutions and is included as a cross-cutting theme. In the Urban WaterGuide, inclusion is considered through a lens of gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI).
Speakers will include:
- Tony Wong – Water Sensitive Cities Australia
- Michael Wilson – Group CEO of eWater
- Tom Mollenkopf – International Water Association President
- Juliet Willetts, Institute for Sustainable Futures
Utility Leaders Forum
13 – 14 September 2022, Room A2
The Utility Leaders Forum will bring together over the course of two days some of the most prominent water utility leaders with the most impactful case studies to share experiences and knowledge. This will involve having open, interactive, and structured dialogue around some of the most critical issues facing utilities. Importantly, this will be structured in a format that will facilitate participation from all attendees.
The sessions will focus on:
- Integrated Urban Water Management and the New Societal Role of Utilities in Creating our Cities of the Future
- Accelerating Adoption of Innovation
- Evolving with Climate Change
- The Digital Utility
Exploring framework conditions for utilities to reduce GHG emissions
13 September, 13:30 – 15:00, Room B3c
The Paris Agreement requires all sectors contributing to greenhouse gas (GHG)-emissions reduction. Although the urban water sector is strongly vulnerable to impacts of climate change (CC) and therefore priority for adaptation, it also has to contribute to mitigation, as water and wastewater utilities (WWU) can generate a significant share of municipal GHG-emissions. However, implementation of effective mitigation measures depends as much on the enabling environment and political incentives as on availability of technical solutions.
This session aims to showcase good practices for incentivizing GHG-measurement and mitigation action in the water sector and enabling conditions for making actions visible at national/international climate policy and finance levels.
Katharine Cross from AWP will be moderating the panel discussion.