The year of 2016 will be passed soon and the new year of 2017 is about around the corner. Take this opportunity of saying goodbye to 2016 and welcoming the prosperous 2017, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all WASWAC councilors, advisors, and all members. Our association is becoming stronger and stronger with the support from all of you. Thanks!
During this year, WASWAC was developed as expected, everything was going smoothly. I am happy to summarize what we have done and what progresses we have achieved here.
1. The 3rd WASWAC World Conference was held in Belgrade, Serbia
The 3rd WASWAC World Conference was held under all member's support, during the period of Aug. 22-26, 2016. The theme of the conference was "New Challenges and Strategies of Soil and Water Conservation in the Changing World, Sustainable Management of Soil and Water Resources".
The three days conference provided an output of deep plenary sessions based on the topics focus on the following issues: new challenges to soil and water resources in condition of climate change, land degradation processes and mechanism, soil and water conservation measures benefits assessment, sustainable watershed management, social and economic aspects, and policies related to soil and water conservation.
During this conference, WASWAC also released the awards to those scientists who have made great contribution to the World in soil and water conservation related domains and those people who have made great contribution to WASWAC.
Take this occasion, the WASWAC Outstanding Youth Paper Award 2016 (DATUM) was also announced. After reviewed by researchers distributed in the world, 10 young scientists from 6 counties shared this great honor, the information could be found in the issue 8 of WASWAC HOT NEWS.
2. The WASWAC Council Meeting was Held
The WASWAC council meeting was held on Aug. 23. President Li Rui introduced the work of council and main progresses. Prof. Ning Duihu, the secretary-general of WASWAC, gave a summary report on structure building, member management, conference, communication, publicity, publication and financial status. This reports showed clearly that what have been done by the secretariat in the last three years and what will be done in the following three years.
In this conference, India was chosen to be the organizer of the Fourth WASWAC World Conference, which will be held in India in 2019.
All related arrangement made by this council meeting, will be released in the last issue of HOT NEWS in 2016, which will be released soon.
3. ISWCR started its new journey
As one of the most important flag of WASWAC, ISWCR has made great progress in 2016. After online in Elsevier, more authors have paid attention to our journal. The amount of manuscripts submission, hence increased to a great extent. The situation of shortage of manuscripts is gone. However, manuscripts with high level are still not enough, we hereby ask all of members to contribute your fresh and important achievements to our journal. We believe that our journal must be accessed a new height with the support from all members.
The editors-in-chief have been replaced by Prof. Mark Nearing and Prof. Lei Tingwu, the review board was also changed. Many thanks for the effort made by the members in editorial board of last session. A new and better future of our journal is awaiting us in the near future!
4. International training workshop was held successfully
The International Training Workshop on River Basin Management Strategies and Techniques for Soil and Water Conservation was held successfully in Beijing from October 9 to 15, 2016. As one of the sponsors, WASWAC played very important role for its holding. Prof. Li Rui, the president of WASWAC and Prof. Ning Duihu, the secretary-general of WASWAC were both invited to give lectures.
Twenty-six international participants from 11 countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam, and six domestic students from the three IRTCES Research Base participated in the one-week training.
The successful organization of this training workshop has broadened the scientific horizons of the participating scholars, enriched their knowledge base on water conservation, and established a basis for international collaborations in the relevant fields.
5. WASWAC HOT NEWS played the role of bridge between the secretariat and members
WASWAC Hot News, as the important platform, kept publishing each month to report WASWAC news, global environmental events, abstracts for relevant books and papers, job vacancies, meetings announcement, etc. It was sent to all members every month regularly. All issues can be downloaded in our website, where you need to input the username and password, please remember, they are both "waswac".
6. The members of WASWAC increased significantly
The size of WASWC members is becoming stronger with the registration of new members. In 2016, 94 persons were registered as individual members or life members. We welcome all people who want to make contribution to soil and water conservation, to join our association. The secretariat will provide all members' service more quickly and more efficiently.
In the year of 2017, we will continue to make efforts to WASWAC development. We are involved in important conference holding, such as the session in EGU2017, the 1st World Conference on Soil and Water Conservation under Global Change (CONSOWA), which will be held in April 23-28, 2017 in Vienna, Austria and in June 12-16, Lleida, Spain. Welcome all our members attend the conferences, we hope to see you there soon.
Finally, with the arrival of 2017, hope our all members all the joys of happiness throughout the prosperous New Year.
