Participants from all over the world arrived in Perugia on the day before opening of the Conference. An

Transcription

1 Sunday, August 31 st Participants from all over the world arrived in Perugia on the day before opening of the Conference. An evening reception was organized at the 110 café of University of Perugia to welcome the delegates Photos: Light WLC15 advertisement posters appeared in the Perugia city center / Right: Welcome Reception Day1: Monday, September 1 st The Opening Ceremony was held at the Rector Hall of University of Perugia. The Ceremony was preceded by Ms. Paola Pigni, a former Italian World Record Holder & Munich Olympics Bronze Medalist in the Women's 1,500 m. A welcome address was made by Prof. Lucio Ubertini, the President of USMA, which was followed by opening remarks by invited guests from Italy and Japan, including the one by Governor Taizo Mikazuki of Shiga Prefecture, Japan, who touched on the 30 th anniversary of the World Lake Conference that started in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. After a traditional performance of flags and brass music by local students, Prof. András Szöllösi-Nagy, Rector of UNESCO-IHE, gave a plenary lecture briefing the audience on how water-related challenges have been discussed and tackled globally.

2 Photos from Opening Ceremony: Above: Ms. Paola Pigni, the Master of Ceremony Below:Invited guests on stage

3 Photos from Opening Ceremony: Above: Governor Taizo Mikazuki of Shiga Prefecture, Japan Below: Director General Hironori Hamanaka of ILEC, Japan

4 Photos from Opening Ceremony: Above: A traditional performance of flags and brass music Below: Prof. András Szöllösi-Nagy, Rector of UNESCO-IHE

5 In the afternoon, technical sessions and workshops were held in parallel at the Faculty of Low, University of Perugia, including a special side event, Local Policy Forum where speakers from environmental working groups and local fishermen s union from Lake Trasimeno exchanged their experiences with Japanese delegates from Lake Biwa citizen working groups, whose activities had a lot in common. Photos from Local Policy Forum:

6 Day2:Tuesday, September 2 nd International Policy Forum, chaired by Prof. András Szöllösi-Nagy from UNESCO-IHI, was held in the morning. Panelists from Europe, Asia, Africa and Americas discussed how the importance of lakes and lentic (standing or static) water systems should be addressed in the global water debates. Photos from International Policy Forum:

7 In other room, a special session on Lake Trasimeno was held where a dozen of case studies of this conference venue lake were presented. In the afternoon, a session titled as Lake Basin Heartware was held, which attracted many of participants and media as one of the core elements reflected in the Conference sub-theme, Balancing Ecosystem Integrity and Human Wellbeing. Photos from Technical Sessions: Above: MS6-4S Special Session - Lake Trasimeno Below: MS5-2 Lake Basin Heartware

8 Day 3:Wednesday, September 3 rd Two technical field trips were conducted. One was an excursion to Lake Trasimeno, which had both technical and cultural attractions, including a visit to a battle field where the Carthaginians under Hannibal defeated the Romans under the consul Gaius Flaminius. The other was to Marmore Waterfall in Terni, where visitors enjoyed a spectacular view of the longest manmade waterfall in Europe (165 m high), once made by the Old Romans for irrigation, now being used for hydro power. Photos from Technical Field Trips:

9 Day 4:Thursday, September 4 th The Conference continued to have diverse technical sessions including the one featured the Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM), at which session various global cases from all around the world, including the local site, Lake Trasimeno were presented. An open forum on Transboundary Waters Assessment Programme (TWAP) was also held on this day to present the result of TWAP questionnaire conducted during the Conference, as well as outcome of the TWAP Expert Group Meetings organized by ILEC in the last few years. Photos from Technical Sessions:

10 In the evening, the participants moved to Lake Corbara to attend the Banquet and Cultural Performance. During the Banquet, the Eighth Ibaraki Kasumigaura Prize was awarded by Ibaraki Prefectural Government, Japan to two winners from Indonesia and the Philippines, respectively, Photo from Banquet: Photo from Cultural Performance:

11 Day 5: Friday, September 5 th In the morning, Legal Workshop presented by the Faculty of Law, University of Perugia was organized and legal topics related to water management, including transboundary water issues were discussed. Photo from Legal Workshop: The Closing Ceremony was held in the afternoon to conclude the five day event, distributing the draft of Perugia Declaration that covered main discussions from the Conference. Constructive observations and opinions to draft were contributed from the floor. The final version of the Declaration that reflects the feedback from the participants is now available on the ILEC website. At the end of the Ceremony, an invitation to the Sixteenth World Lake Conference (WLC16) was made by Prof. Balthasar Kambuaya, Minister of Environment, Indonesia. The WLC16 is currently scheduled to take place in the year 2016 in Indonesia.

12 Photos from Closing Ceremony: