Galicia is the Autonomous Community of the state with the highest representation in a meeting in which took part 350 scientists from around the world.
The Tribune is divided into eight Thematic Weeks in which environmental, energetic, social and economic issues related to water, will be discussed.
Fourteen Galician scientists will present at the Water Tribune their scientific research, cooperation projects and citizen initiatives
Fourteen Galician scientists and experts will take part from the next week on in the Water Tribune of Expo Zaragoza 2008, celebrated from this Saturday, 14th of June, under the theme “Water and Sustainable Development”. It is the meeting point of 350 scientists from around the world and Galicia is the autonomous community in the state with the highest representation, with a number of participants equal to that of countries like Russia, Colombia and Argelia.
In order to help refocus and improve existing systems in terms of water and sustainable development, the common knowledge will be presented in the Water Tribune, to deal with environmental, climatic and energetic challenges, in an innovative perspective. This meeting, which constitutes the nuclear scientific event of the Exposición Universal de Zaragoza, is divided in eight Thematic Weeks: “Water and earth”, “Water and city”, “Water for life”, “Water, unique resource”, “Supply and Sanitation Services”, “Climatic Change and Extreme Phenomena”, “Water Economy and Finances”, “Water and Society” and “Water and Energy”.
In each of these weeks a topic related to water and sustainable development will be addressed. Experts will intervene to share proven experiences and learnt lessons, explain results of investigations and make proposals and recommendations to new and innovative projects. In six of the eight weeks there will be a Galician presence.
Apart from the strictly scientific aspects, the Water Tribune will serve as a means to share transversal and unavoidable topics related to the environment and the sustainable development, such as the jurisdictional aspect, project management, economic affairs and social phenomena.
FOUR MEMBERS OF THE WATER ENGENEERING GROUP FROM UDC
The University of La Coruña is present in the Expo Zaragoza 2008 with four representatives, all of them members of the Water and Environment Engineering Group. This group works in all fields of the water cycle, such as supply, managament of hydric resources and sanitation or hydraulic infrastructures. Their presence in the thematic weeks will expose the singularities that, from many points of view, will affect Galicia.
Jerónimo Puertas and Jordi Delgado take part in the first Thematic Week, starting on Monday under the name “Water and earth”. The thematic aspects under which then presentation is organized are territorial management, forestation and irrigated agriculture. How water resources are handled will be a subject to be addressed, as a fundamental part of the organization of territory. Puertas will show the advances being made in Galicia regarding the possibilities of solving the river obstacles by fish wildlife, as well as the maintaining of ecological rivers, while Delgado will speak about the closure and restauration of mining sites.
Joaquín Suárez, member of the same UDC group, participates as an expert in the week “Water and sanitation” between the 15th and 18th of July. His intervention will focus on the handling of contamination and the drought in periods of rain. On another hand, Enrique Peña will take part in the week “Water for life”, which will happen between the 30th of June and the 3rd of July. He will present the experience in the project of technical, formative and research support applied to zones that are subject to the Same Hydrosanitary Program, in Tanzania. His intervention will focus on the three nuclear points of the project: the study of hydric resources in the District of Same, the planification for the supply and sanitation, and the diagnosis of the participation of women in projects related to water.
WATER FOR LIFE
Teachers from the University of Vigo will participate in the week “Water for life”, Benedicto Soto and Josefina Garrido. The first of them will present the results of a research on river modifications due to climatic change. This project intends to evaluate the role of forest vegetation in the modification of the hydrologic cycle, both in terms of mitigation of the rivers and the increase on summer drought, caused by the presence of fast-growing species.
Josefina Garrido, on the other hand, will be present at the Water Tribune to expose the results of a study on diversity of water invertebrates in stagnant waters. This project has the collaboration of the Council for Innovation and Indutry, which granted a 80.000 Euro help in 2006 at the Galician Plan of I+D+i.
Experts in ecology and energy from the University of Vigo
The University of Vigo also has three additional representatives. Cástor Guisande, member of the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology and himself an expert on aquatic ecology, will present during the week “Water and earth” the conclusions of the investigations done on the factors that provide the structure for the fish community in the Amazonas river.
The other professors from the University of Vigo that will be in Zaragoza are Pedro Antonio Araújo and José Antonio Cid. They will take part in the Thematic Week about energy to speak about the energetic usages of hydric resources.
SUSTAINABLE USAGES AND CLIMATIC CHANGE
Xan Neira, teacher of the Department of Agroforestry Engineering of the University of Santiago de Compostela, will intervene in the Water Tribune as an expert on ecological agriculture. He will speak about the sustainable usage of water in the agroecosystems, during the “Water and earth” week.” Neira will explain the results of a project that identifies ecologically-safe techniques for the optimization of the production, also demonstrating that the “focus on the agroecological aspects are economically viable since they minimize the costs with production while increasing the efficiency of the resources”.
Another representative of the USC will be Augusto Pérez Alberti, who will take part in the week about “Climatic change and extreme events” with a project under the International Polar Year. It is a study on “crionival formations in the subantarctic region” of Argentina. The purpose of this project is to get to know the connected forms of water to the earth in its solid state, know what its evolution was in the past and know how these formations will evolve in the future. The research, which started back in 2004, allowed experts to not only know the process of regression of glaciers, such as the Alvear Glacear, but also to be aware of the existence of frozen ground at a depth of 130 centimeters. According to Augusto Pérez, this data is important in the study of climatic changes.
THREE CITIZEN INITIATIVES IN “WATER AND SOCIETY”
In the Thematic Week “Water and society” will participate three Galician citizen initiatives in different fields. The Cofradía de Lira, represented by Emilio Louro, will show the results of the work done between 2003 and 2007 for the development of a marine reserve. The fishermen, in an internal and participative process, carried out the design, as well as the selection of size, localization and zonification on a basis of traditional knowledge. The reserve has more than 2000 hectares and is managed both by fisherman and the administration, in accordance with the idea of the Cofradía de Lira that the fisherman must be “the executor and keeper” of marine resources.
Rafael Fernández Beceiro will represent in the Water Tribune the neighbours from Esmelle, who, since 2003 have been voluntarily carrying out the recovery of the material and immaterial patrimony of this valley located in the municipality of Ferrol. The patrimony is highly connected with the water culture, since the valley is full of mills, laundries and fountains, which are being worked on in order to be recovered and kept functioning. The Xunta de Galicia, through the Galician Agency for Rural Development (AGADER), granted the execution of the project in 2005 as a Prize for Galician rural development. Nowadays, the Ministry of Vivienda, through the Spanish Habitat Committee, selected the Esmelle Project to take part in the VII international contest of Good Practices of the United Nations.
The third initiative that is part of the Week “Water and society” is the Project Ríos (Project Rivers). This project is an initiative from the Adega, for the “awareness, education and citizen participation in the defense of the Galician rivers”. Virginia Rodríguez will be the one in charge of explaining a project that is based on local inspections by voluntary people or groups. The project “Ríos” was created in Galicia in 2004, when ADEGA signed a collaboration contract with Habitats Assotiation, organization working in Catalunya since 1999 under this system, taking care of the rivers and ensuring the active participation of citizens.
