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SonTek/YSI Forum Highlights

Global Water Issues

Multi-disciplined areas of hydrology were represented at SonTek/YSI's 2007

International Water Resources Forum, held

January 24-26 in Barcelona, Spain.

Nearly three dozen users of acoustic

Doppler technology discussed the chal- lenges facing their respective geographies, and in many cases, identified a common thread when it comes to finding the right technological "fit" when measuring water flow in complex and challenging outdoor conditions. The address of Keynote

Speaker and retired Senior Hydrologist for the UK Environment Agency, Dr. Reginald

Herschy, drew attention to what he has termed a "shocking state of affairs" in regards to the decline in world water resource monitoring. Dr. Herschy said a decline in the investment into

Hydrometric monitoring has left huge gaps in data collected in critical areas such as

Africa, China, Russia and India. "In fact, it is a shocking state of affairs when many countries are reported to be less able to assess their water resources than they were 20 years ago. And this is in spite of the fact that demand for water is rising more rapidly than at any time in history" said Herschy.

He also spoke on the topic of interna- tional water rights and the difficulties of managing transboundary rivers, especially where water scarcity is an issue for coun- tries located downstream. "Measurement of river flow to interna- tional standards in these circumstances is crucial to international agreements.

However it is clear that there are not suffi- cient streamflow stations to meet these demands" said Herschy.

On the topic of global warming, Herschy said without long term, reliable streamflow and rainfall benchmarks available, climate changes are difficult to quantify. A com- plete list of presentation topics can be found on SonTek/YSI's website at: www.sontek.com

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