The call is now open for the INSPIRE Conference 2012.
23 - 27 June, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey

The theme of this year's edition is "Sharing environmental information, sharing innovation".
With the introduction of the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2, the policy landscape for sharing environmental information has changed drastically. The Commission Communication on the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS 2008) and follow-up activities at national and European levels have further helped to cultivate a new vision for a coordinated framework for the implementation and monitoring of environmental policies. The governance, content, and supporting technologies are the three pillars with which this vision can be consolidated and implemented.

The aim of this year's INSPIRE Conference is therefore to look at how innovations in these three areas have further shaped the landscape of sharing environmental information. The technical program will feature keynote addresses, workshops, panels in addition to presentations  and posters. The call for contributions reflects the three pillars: Governance, Content and Technologies. In particular, as 2012 is the European Year for Water, we are interested in receiving submissions relating to Water (Water Framework Directive, Plan Bleu, EEA Water Watch, Blue Carbon…)

The full list of topics is available on the Conference website: https://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2012

The call is now open for the 2nd SUSTAINABLE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
22 - 25 April, 2013 Hilton Dalaman, Sarigerme, TURKEY

Key issues covered by the conference are:

• Good watershed management practices:Examples from various countries including climate change challenges and trans-boundary problems
• Decision support tools:Monitoring, GIS, data / information management, indicators, ecological economics, cost/benefit analysis, decision making models, legislation and policies, participatory methods / water user partnerships
• Models:Integrated watershed model applications for watershed management

For more information, visit the conference website: https://www.igemportal.org/?Dil=1&SID=689

The enviroGRIDS training workshop series "Bringing GEOSS Services into Practice" aims at teaching how to install, configure and deploy a set of open source software to publish and share spatial data and metadata through the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) using OGC web services & ISO standards.

GEOSS has been created as an international voluntary effort that connects geospatial and Earth Observation and information infrastructures, acting as a gateway between producers of environmental data and end users. The aim of GEOSS is to enhance the relevance of Earth observations and to offer public access to comprehensive, near-real time data, information and analyses of the environment.

The training workshop will cover interoperabilit y, hands-on experience with web portals, information access, open source software and spatial data sharing through web services and the GEOSS registries.

A detailed program will soon be posted on this page.

Date

Friday, 23rd of September 2011, 9:00 – 17:00, Turkey, Istanbul.

Venue

İTÜ Ayazağa Kampüsü – Istanbul Technical University Ayazaga Campus

Süleyman Demirel Kültür Merkezi - Suleyman Demirel Cultural Center

Maslak / 34469 İstanbul   https://www.sdkm.itu.edu.tr

Registration and participants

Please register before the 7th of September 2011 by contacting organizers in Turkey via email: Dr. Filiz BEKTAS BALCIK ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Assist. Prof. Dr. Cigdem GOKSEL ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Registration is open to enviroGRIDS partners, technical experts & institutions from Turkey and other countries of the Black Sea region, that could benefit from an implementation of GEOSS. The workshop will be held in English.

The workshop is free of charge.

Participants will be required to bring their laptops to the training workshop (with at least Windows XP installed).

Please download the flyer of the workshop:

Flyer - Bringing GEOSS services into practice - Istanbul, 23 Sept. 2011

A short courseon  Environment and Global Change: Uncertainty & risk assessment is given by UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands, May 2-15

OBJECTIVES

The objective of the course is to get introduced to tools for risk assessment with regard to global change.

1. Get introduction to uncertainty and risk principles, tools and methodologies

2. Learn about climate change and impact studies on the environment

3. Get experience with climate change downscaling techniques and ensemble modelling

The course looks at impacts on the water resources considering floods and droughts, using a hydrological model using SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and a hydrodynamic model.

TARGET GROUP

The course is designed for young and mid-level professionals who are involved in water management or research, and/or who want to learn about risk assessment for climate change.

COURSE CONTENTS

Climate change and its impact on hydrology, Prof. S. Uhlenbrook (UNESCO-IHE)

Introduction to the effects of climate variability on the hydrology.

Spatial Modelling using PCRaster (Willem van Deursen)

Introduction to spatial modelling using PCRaster software. The PCRaster Environmental Modelling language is a computer language for construction of iterative spatio-temporal environmental models. It runs in the PCRaster interactive raster GIS environment that supports immediate pre- or post-modelling visualisation of spatio-temporal data.

Land use change modelling, Prof. Peter Verburg (University Amesterdam, Netherlands)

Introduction to land use modelling in relation to water modelling and management; Modelling scenarios of land use change and theid impacts and feedbacks on the hydrological system; Hands-on training for the tool CLUE.

Downscaling of climate change scenarios, Dr. Y. Xuan, PhD (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands)

Introduction to the concept of downscaling, general downscaling methods used to fit GCM data into catchment modelling in studying climate change impacts on local scale.

Uncertainty and climate, Dr. A. van Griensven, PhD (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands)

Introduction to uncertainty analysis methods such as Monte-Carlo sampling. Bayesian averaging and model ensembles. Exercises on the Nzoia river basin using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and SWAT-CUP (auto-calibration and uncertainty).

Probabilistic risk assessment, Dr. G. Di Baldassarre, PhD (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands)

The concepts of vulnerability, hazard, risk. Description of the most common sources of uncertainty and variability in the risk assessment process. Deterministic and probabilistic risk assessment. Example applications of probabilistic approaches for assessing risk.

COURSE FEE

The course fee is 1500 Euro.

PREREQUISITES

A masters or bachelors degree in engineering or science with some knowledge in basic hydraulics, basic hydrology and basic statistics.

MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION

For more information on the course please contact Dr. ir. Ann van Griensven ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for questions related to the contents or Ms. Claudia Brakel ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for the practical aspects or have a look at the website.

https://www.unesco-ihe.org/education/short_courses/regular_short_courses/

Deadline of registration : April 15, 2011