Date: January 17, 2023
IPWE 2023
Main Website Link: https://ipwe2023.info/
IPWE-2023 Conference at Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Environmental & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE-EWRI), in partnership with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET-IWFM), is pleased to organize the 11th IPWE Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during 4 – 6 January 2023 in Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka. The centerpiece of the Conference is a hybrid summit/round table conference held both in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Reston, Virginia, and was also broadcasted online.
This Conference created a platform for professionals to share knowledge, network, and gain perspective on water resource issues unique to the conference destination. This conference provided a wide variety of technical presentations on water resources and the environment, high-caliber keynote speakers, social networking and cultural events, and the opportunity to interact with colleagues on an international level. The Conference focused on water resources, and the environment and included plenary and technical sessions with topics of interest for both developed and developing countries. The program design encouraged broad participation by a wide variety of water/environmental professionals, including engineers, scientists, planners, and legislative and academic professionals around the globe.
A total of 145 papers were selected to present at the Conference by participants from 13 countries, including Bangladesh, USA, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Canada, Nepal, Switzerland, Thailand, Germany, the Netherlands, China, and Vienna. The general themes of the technical presentations included Impacts of Climate Change, Flood Risk and Resiliency, Surface Water Hydrology, Water Sustainability, Coastal Dynamics and Modelling, Water Supply, and Treatment, Information System for Water Resources, Sustainable Development, Health Impact of Climate Change. In addition to 24 technical sessions, there were four keynote sessions on a) FlexMat for Bank Protection by Mr. David Maclean, CEO, 7SEAS Group, Australia, b) Water Resources Management – Identifying Challenges by Dr. Kamal Laksiri, F.ASCE, Governor, ASCE Region 10, Sri Lanka, c) Nuclear Energy and the Environment by Prof. Dr. Chaitanyamoy Ganguly, India, and d) Flash Floods by Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Holzbecher, Germany.
High Level Conference Delegations meeting with honorable Vice-Chancellor, BUET
A high-level delegation from the United States consisting of Professor Dr. Shirley E. Clark, President-Elect, EWRI and Brian Parsons, Managing Director, EWRI led by Maria C. Lehman, President, ASCE as well Dr. Shaheed Hossain, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh visited BUET on the 3rd January, 2023. The delegation team met with faculty members of the Department of Civil Engineering and members of ASCE Student Chapter of BUET. They also paid a short visit to the civil engineering labs, and academic and research facilities of the department. followed by a press briefing and ice-breaking session held at the Council Building, BUET. Representatives of a number of printed and electronic media were present at the event.
The delegation team met with Prof. Dr. Satya Prasad Majumder, Vice-Chancellor of BUET, and Prof. Abdul Jabbar Khan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of BUET. Prof. Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam, Director, IWFM, and Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rezaur Rahman, Conference Co-Chair, IPWE-2023 as well as Dr. Sufian Khondker, Conference Chair, IPWE-2023, were also present at the meeting. The team discussed advancing collaboration between BUET and ASCE to promote academic research and student activity. They also discussed the role of IWFM in advancing research and its contribution to Bangladesh’s water sector. The team agreed upon co-producing a letter of commitment for further strengthening the ASCE-BUET collaboration.
Inaugural Session
The inaugural session was held at the Grand Ball Room of Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka on the January 4th, 2023. Around 400 people were present, including authors, participants, keynote speakers, session chairs, and delegates from home and abroad. Dr. Sufian Khondker, Conference Chair, delivered the welcome speech at the very beginning of the inaugural/plenary session. A keynote “Resiliency in the Time of Climate Change” was delivered by Maria C. Lehman, President, ASCE. The audience was addressed by the Chief Guest H.E. Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina MP, Government of Bangladesh. She delivered an excellent speech (WATCH THE FULL SPEECH HERE) at the event. The gathering was addressed by Prof. Dr. Satya Prasad Majumder, Vice-Chancellor, BUET as well as the ASCE delegation. The Inaugural session was concluded with a vote of thanks by Prof Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam, Director of IWFM, BUET.
The plenary session was followed by a keynote speech on “Flex Mat” by Mr. David Maclean, CEO, 7SEAS Group, Australia. Mr. Md. Tajul Islam, Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives chaired the session.
Summit/Round Table Session:
The first summit session was held at the Reston, VA, USA on January 4th, 2023 in person and was broadcast to Dhaka, Bangladesh. The topics at the Reston Summit were:
1. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) by Mr. Eric L. Bush, SES, Chief Planning and Policy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
2. Flood mitigation of the lower Mississippi River by Dr. Norma Jean Mattei, Professor, University of New Orleans, USA, 2017 ASCE President
3. Western mega-drought and impacts of climate change by Dr. Roger S. Pulwarty, Senior Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
The second summit/round table session was held on January 5th 2023 in Dhaka, Bangladesh in person, and was live broadcast to ASCE Headquarters in Reston, Virginia, USA. Reputed panelists from different countries had joined this round table session.
The topic included panel discussions on –
1. Bangladesh Delta Plan-2100 (BDP-2100) by Dr. Giasuddin Ahmed Choudhury, Deputy Team Leader, SIBDP-2100.
2. Padma Bridge Construction: Challenges and Solutions by Dr. Sufian Khondker.
3. Bangladesh in the Frontline of the Climate Change by Dr. Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus, BRAC University.
A major outcome of the IPWE-2023 conference is that ASCE President Dr. Maria Lehman, on behalf of ASCE, acknowledged the Padma Bridge as an enduring symbol of engineering progress and presented a plaque as a token of recognition from ASCE. Engr. Shafiqul Islam, Project Director of Padma Bridge Project, received the token on behalf of the H.E. Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina MP, Government of Bangladesh.
Paper summary and Theme Summary
Technical sessions were the heart of the IPWE-2023 conference. A total of 125 papers have been presented by 99 researchers from home and abroad in 24 technical sessions over the 3-day long conference. Presenters across the globe, including Bangladesh, United States of America, India, United Kingdom, Japan, Thailand, and Switzerland, attended the conference 11th International Perspective on Water Resources and Environment (IPWE-2023) accepted paper on the following themes –
1. Impacts of Climate Change
2. Health Impacts of Climate Change
3. Flood Risk & Resiliency
4. Surface Water Hydrology
5. Groundwater Hydrology
6. Coastal Dynamics and Modeling
7. Water Supply and Treatment
8. Comprehensive Water Resources Development
9. Educational Outreach
10. Information Systems for Water Resources
11. Water Sustainability
12. International Topics
Special Sessions
Two special sessions were held in parallel to the technical sessions during the conference,. The first special session was on the “Causes of Embankment Failure” organized by a Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) funded project conducted by the IWFM, BUET. Approximately, 50 guests and participants attended the session and joined the discussion after the session.
The second special session was on the “Sedimentation” that was co-organized by two research projects of the IWFM, BUET. The research projects, REACH and Living Deltas Hub (LDH) are funded by Department for International Development (DFID) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), United Kingdom (UK), respectively. Prof. Mashfiqus Salehin moderated this special session where more than 40 participants attended the interactive session. Representatives of government organizations such as, BWDB, WARPO, LGED, among others, were present at the session.
Closing session
After the successful IPWE 2023, the closing ceremony on the 6th of January 2023 started with the speech of Prof. Dr. Abdul Jabbar Khan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, BUET. Conference chair Dr. Sufian Khondker appreciated the organizing committee, volunteers, and all the members for their efforts to make this event a success. Maria Lehman, President of ASCE and Dr. Shirley Clark, President of EWRI, and Prof. Dr. Saiful Islam were present on the stage to hand over the certificates to the volunteers and the organizing committee. At the end of the ceremony, a cultural program was organized in which Sharmila Banerjee, an eminent and renowned dancer and choreographer of Bangladesh, performed, and the dance was presented by her troupe’ Nritya Nandan.’ It portrayed Bangladesh’s rich, colorful festivals and rich cultural diversity. The team also performed a dance recital, “Bangladesh- You Are My Pride,” portraying the rural lifestyle and the changing faces of nature in Bangladesh. The cultural ceremony ended with a spectacular concert by Bangla Band Miles in which they played some of their popular band songs.
