Short Description: The International Conference on Water and Flood Management (ICWFM-2023) was effectively coordinated and ended between the dates of 14th October and 16th October 2023.

Date: March 25, 2024

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The Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has organized a three-day long conference from 14 – 16 October 2023, titled, ‘International Conference on Water and Flood Management (ICWFM) – 2023’. The venue of this year’s ICWFM was the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) International Conference Center (CICC), Dhaka, Bangladesh (Address: Chameli House, 17 Topkhana Road, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh). This is the first ICWFM after the COVID-19 pandemic physically arranged, whereas ICWFM-2021, the immediate previous version of this conference was held online using the ZOOM platform.

The financial contributors of ICWFM-2023 were the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), and Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). ICWFM-2023 was organized in partnership with the BUET-Japan Institute of Disaster Prevention and Urban Safety (BUET-JIDPUS), Department of Civil Engineering, BUET (CE, BUET), Department of Urban and Regional Planning, BUET (URP, BUET), Department of Water Resources Engineering, BUET (WRE, BUET), International Training Network Center (ITN-BUET), Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage System (Dhaka WASA), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), River Research Institute (RRI), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), and Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO).

In this conference, we received a total of 350 extended abstracts, out of which 286 were selected by a team of reviewers. Following the registration procedure, the number of selected for presentation is further cut to 217, and these are systematically organized based on the thematic categories through 27 sessions.

Distribution of finally selected papers for the presentation in the conference in each theme is shown in the table below:

Abstract Themes	Number of Extended Abstracts (ICWFM-2023)	(For Comparison) Number of Abstracts (ICWFM-2021)
Ecosystems and Environment	29	24
Flood and Drainage	32	60
Hydrometeorological Hazards and Risk	45	30
Rivers, Coasts, Estuaries and Deltas	36	34
Water and Livelihood Security	45	49
Water Infrastructure and Resilient Development	20	18
Water Governance	10	02
Total	217	217

 

The country wise detailed numbers of the invited extended abstracts to present in the conference are presented below:

Country of Author(s)	No. of Extended Abstracts
Bangladesh	200
International	17
China	1
Guyana	1
India	6
Japan	2
Nepal	1
Netherlands	2
Sri Lanka	3
United States of America (USA)	1
Total	217

 

In the inauguration ceremony on 14 October 2023, Mr. Zaheed Farooque, MP, Hon’ble State Minister, Ministry of Water Resources, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, was the Chief Guest but for some unavoidable circumstances he could not attend the ceremony. The special guests were Mr. Nazmul Ahsan, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and Mr. S. M. Shahidul Islam, Director General, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). The ceremony’s welcoming address were delivered by Professor Dr. Md. Munsur Rahman, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of ICWFM-2023. Professor Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam, Director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET, presented the vote of thanks.

Besides panel and special sessions there were three keynote speeches. The details are mentioned below:

 

Session Date	Title	Keynote Speaker	Designation
Day 01 (12.00 PM ~ 01.00 PM) (14-10-2023)	Resilience: Myth or Reality?	Dr Anisul Haque	Professor, Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET
Day 02 (10.50 AM ~ 11.50 AM) (15-10-2023)	From Locally Led Adaptation to Grand Delta Designs	Dr Chris Zevenbergen	Professor at the Water Engineering Department of IHE Delft and at the Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering of the TU Delft, The Netherlands
Day 03 (10.50 AM ~ 11.50 AM) (16-10-2023)	Observation and Future Projection of Precipitation	Dr Toru Terao	Professor, Kagawa University

 

There were in total five (05) panel sessions arranged on three different days. The details of the panel sessions are mentioned below:

Session Date	Panel Title	Organization
Day 01 (02.30 PM ~ 05.50 PM) (14-10-2023)	Salinity, Looking towards the Future: Transition Pathways in Water Management and Agriculture, addressing Salinity	Wageningen University & Research (WUR), CGIAR – Initiative on Asian Mega Deltas, and ICCCAD
Day 02 (09.00 AM ~ 10.30 AM) (15-10-2023)	Reactive O&M to Asset Management of Water Infrastructure in Bangladesh: Challenges, Root Causes and Way Forward	Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN), META-META
Day 02 (02.30 PM ~ 05.50 PM) (15-10-2023)	Enhancing Coastal Resilience Through Nature-Based Solutions	Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), IWFM-BUET, and UKAID
Day 02 (02.30 PM ~ 05.50 PM) (15-10-2023)	Panel Discussion and World Café on: Building WASH into IWRM	Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) and IRC
Day 03 (02.30 PM ~ 05.50 PM) (16-10-2023)	Specification for Basic Study on Planning Capacity Enhancement And Establishment of River Training Methodology in Bangladesh	JICA, BWDB, IWFM-BUET

 

A special session was arranged by the International Training Network Centre (ITN-BUET) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Day 03 (12.00 PM ~ 01.30 PM). The title of the session was ‘Building Climate Resilient WASH Systems Strategies for a Sustainable Future’.

The closing ceremony of ICWFM-2023 was held on October 16, 2023, in the same venue. The chief guest of the closing ceremony was Md Kamrul Hasan, ndc, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, Bangladesh, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The special guests were HE Matthijs Woudstra, Deputy Ambassador & Chargé d’affaires, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Bangladesh, Mr. Ichiguchi Tomohide, Chief Representative, Bangladesh Office of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr. Md. Zahirul Haque Khan, Executive Director, Institute of Water Modeling, Bangladesh, and Mr. Malik Fida A Khan, Executive Director (In Charge), Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). The guest of honor of the closing ceremony was Professor Dr. Abdul Jabbar Khan, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Dr. Ahmed Ishtiaque Amin Chowdhury, Associate Professor of the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) started the closing ceremony by delivering his speech as the organizing secretary of ICWFM-2023 secretariat. Professor Dr. Md. Munsur Rahman also delivered his speech as the chairman of this conference.

The closing ceremony was followed by a wonderful cultural program performed by young artists and performers from Engineering University School and College, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Twelve students and two teachers were present from that institution to perform and arrange the entire cultural program.