Exploring the frontiers of the possible – Adapting old water infrastructure systems to manage future problems

IVA’s Division III: The Built Environment welcomes you to this seminar on January 27th 2010 in Gothenburg

Date: Wednesday the 27th January, 2010, 10:00–17:00 incl. lunch.
Venue: Wallenstamsalen, Göteborg City Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Registration: No later than January 20th 2010.
More information: Contact Marika Thunberg, e-mail mt@iva.se, tel. 08-791 29 04.

Managing an excess of water is becoming increasingly challenging for many countries, including Sweden, due to climate changes and rising sea levels. The water infrastructure systems in most countries date from the first half of the last century and cannot handle the challenges at both the input and output ends of the system. Preserving and updating the integrity of the water infrastructure is thus essential both for continued economic development and prosperity as well as the avoidance of public health catastrophes associated with breakdowns in water infrastructure functions.

Present water infrastructures are experiencing stress both due to ageing and increased load. These two demands are often in conflict with each other and traditional methods of infrastructure management are increasingly being found inadequate. This seminar wants to highlight that modern methods of risk analysis and risk management coupled with new technologies provide new opportunities to address the water infrastructures problems. Prominent scientists and engineers from Sweden and abroad will show amongst others what we can learn from past disasters, what future dangers lie ahead and how visualisation of water infrastructure management will help decision-makers to safeguard our livelihoods.

The objective of the seminar is twofold; to explore the “frontiers of the possible” in water infrastructure risk management in order to find out how best to prevent overstressing and collapse of the water infrastructure, and to stimulate the creation of visualisation tools that will enable more integrated decision-making in water infrastructure management...

Programme (pdf)