Berlin - Germany

1. Background
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) provides financial support to organize three
International Alumni Summer Schools at German universities in 2009 (Transboundary Water
Management, Water and Energy – Integrated Management of Resources, and System
Solutions to Integrated Water Resource Management). The DAAD-Alumni Summer School
“Transboundary Water Management" will be held at Cologne University of Applied Sciences,
Institute for Technolgy in the Tropics (ITT) from March 22th to 28th, 2009 and in Berlin from
March 29th to April 4th where a special program is organized by DAAD for all three summer
schools in cooperation with the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) and the Federal Association of Companies in the Gas and Water Industries (figawa). A visit to the international trade fair “Wasser Berlin” (Water and Wastewater) is part of the program. Therefore the Summer School is scheduled for two weeks (22th March day of arrival, 4th April day of departure).
 

2. Topics
The main topics covered in the Summer School in Cologne are tools and approaches for the
assessment of international river basins and the relevance for integrated land and water
resources management including transboundary cooperation and conflict resolution.
Papers of participants and invited guests, as well as group discussions shall cover the
following specific topics:
• Case Studies on transboundary River Basins worldwide;
• Water User conflicts between upper and lower riparian parties and means to analyse
and overcome them;
• Examples of institutional set-ups for integrated, transboundary water management
• support of international organisations offered to solve transboundary conflicts
 

3. Program
The program consists of four major elements:
I) Oral presentations, posters and case study contributions presented by the participants
II) Presentations of institutions and projects with relevance to transboundary water management:
III) Team work on four selected river basins throughout the first week of the program.
The participants will be supplied with data on the assessment of river basins, will analyse conflicts, approaches and instruments for conflict resolution and ooprtunities for sharing benefits in transboundary river basins. The case studies are the river basins of:
• Mekong
• Danube
• Nile
• Brahmaputra
IV) Field Trips – in the first week there will be an excursion to Koblenz and the
International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPDR) combined with a
boat trip on the Rhine stretch which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Announcement