Dear WASWAC
Councilors, Advisors, Regional Representatives, and all members,
Time does fly. It
is about time to say goodbye to 2021, and to welcome the arrival of 2022. With
the influence of COVID-19, international travel was still quite difficult, so
we had to continue staying online for association’s related affairs
communication. However, our efforts has been proven effective and efficient by
the great progress of WASWAC achieved this year. I am pleased to make a brief
summary here.
(1) International
Soil and Water Conservation Research (ISWCR), the WASWAC official journal, is
now a Q1 journal in all three categories of Water Resources, Soil Science, and
Environmental Sciences. Following the first impact factor (IF) of 3.770, ISWCR received
its second IF of 6.027 on June 30, 2021. Amongst the total of 98 journals in
the categories of Water Resources, ISWCR was ranked 6, which rises 3 place
compared to that in last year. In the categories of Soil Science and
Environmental Science, it is ranked as 4 out of 37 (Q1) and 45 out of 274 (Q1),
that rises 3 and 31 place compared to those in last year, respectively. This
great achievement was the honor of all members of the editorial board. Prof. Mark
Nearing and Prof. Tingwu Lei, the Editors in Chief of this journal have contributed
a lot to the progress of ISWCR, this is always appreciated. I would like to
take this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation for Prof. Mark
Nearing and Prof. Tingwu Lei. I am happy to have Prof. Dr. Pasquale Borrelli to
take over the helm of the journal, and believe a bright future is ahead
awaiting us.
(2) Memorandum of
Understanding between the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and
WASWAC was signed. To develop new knowledge, share experience, and distribute
knowledge and skill for the benefit of the whole world, under the brokering and
promoting of Prof. Jose Luis Rubio and Prof. Laura Bertha Reyes Sanchez, IUSS and
WASWAC signed the memorandum of understanding in March, 2021. Both parties
agreed to use their best effort to promote the formal cooperation by obtaining
the necessary support for envisaged activities. In September, based on the
proposal and first drafting of Prof. Jose Luis Rubio, WASWAC and IUSS accomplished a
position paper on the inter linkages of soil and climate change with the title
of “Protecting the soil is protecting the climate”. By the end of October 31,
2021, there are totally 62 organizations and 833 people actively co-signed this
position paper to express their supporting attitude towards the global
challenge of protecting the soil and the climate together. The document and signatures
of all participating organizations and people had been sent to the COP26 UN
Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow, calling more widely support to
protect our soil resources and thus enhance the resilience to climate change.
(3) The third
International Youth Forum on Soil and Water Conservation was held successfully
in Iran. To constantly motivate the young scientists to focus on research in
the soil and water conservation field, we held the third International Youth
Forum on Soil and Water Conservation (IYFSWC) on October 16-21, 2021, at the
Tarbiat Modares University, Noor City, Mazandaran Province, Iran. Affected by
the epidemic, we lost the chance to exchange face to face, but the hybrid form
of virtual and in-presence still provided lots of valuable information to all
the participants. A total number of 106 abstract/full papers were collected
globally, and a total of 140 participants including 50 in-presence and 90
online were persistently attended this forum. Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi, Prof. of
Department of Watershed Management Engineering, the Deputy President of WASWAC, and his team had
made a great deal of strenuous efforts to organize the forum.
(4) Released the WASWAC
Youth Outstanding Paper Award (DATUM) 2021. Following the application and evaluation,
the WASWAC Youth Outstanding Paper Award (DATUM) 2021 was released during the
Third International Youth Forum on Soil and Water Conservation. Totally 10
winners from 4 countries including Italy, Iran, Russia and China shared this
honor from 52 confirmed applicants. During the award ceremony, the president of
Beijing Datum Technology Development CO. LTD - the financial supporter of the
honorarium, expressed the gratitude to the WASWAC for providing exchange
platform for young scholars around the world. 10 invited award guests announced
the awardees and introduced the awarded paper’s highlights briefly. 10 awardees
expressed their gratitude and excitement in their acceptance speeches.
(5) The
International Forum on Land Degradation, Soil Conservation and Sustainable
Development, 2021 (LASOSU2021), was successfully held as an online conference
on August 21-23, 2021, under the supervision of WASWAC, Italian Association of
Agricultural Engineering (AIIA) and Soil Erosion Division of CSWCS (China). 241
participants from 19 countries in the field of soil and water conservation and
sustainable development had been involved in the online communication, a total
of 2263 participants were recorded in the VooV meeting, Innovation China, and
CNKI Online Lectures. The forum was organized by Dalian University of
Technology (China) and University of Padova (Italy). Thirteen other academic
institutes were involved in co-organizing the conference, e.g., the Institute
of Soil and Water Conservation of CAS & MWR (China), Beijing Normal
University (China), Xi'an University of Technology (China), Italian Association
for Soil and Water Bioengineering (Italy), etc.
(6) The WASWAC 8th
special publication, Global Degradation of Soil and Water Resources -- Regional
Assessment and Strategies, has been published by Science Press Beijing and
Springer. This book was organized by the WASAWAC, jointly compiled by
scientists of soil and water conservation around the world, financially
supported by China Book International. Valuable supports were also from
International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation
(IRTCES) and Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, NWAFU & CAS/MWR. The
editors-in-chief of the book are Rui Li, Ted L. Napier, Samir A. El-Swaify,
Mohamed Sabir, and Eduardo Rienzi. The purpose of the book is to address the
lack of recent state-of-the-art and state-of-the-science documentation of
global degradation issues.
Finally, I would
like to express my sincere thanks to all of you. Thank you for your great
contribution to the WASWAC in 2021. With the arriving of 2022, I wish all of
you and all your families a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Meantime,
I really hope that all of you and your family keep healthy and stay safe.
All the best,
Duihu Ning
The President of WASWAC
