Oman to host 3rd International Symposium on Flash Floods

Around 100 experts from all over the world are expected to attend the three-day symposium at GUtech from December 5 -

Staff Reporter -

MUSCAT, Nov 14  -

The 3rd International Symposium on Flash Floods in Wadi Systems, focusing on theme ‘Disaster Risk Reduction and Water Harvesting in the Arab Region” will be held during December 5-7 at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech).

Flash floods, which are caused by extreme weather conditions, have created severe damages to the infrastructure and agriculture in recent years in many parts of the world including the Sultanate.

“Our international symposium aims at creating awareness about flash floods and increasing research in efficient flash flood forecasting through hydrological models that predict rainfall and runoff processes and simulate the flood routing,” said Prof Dr Ekkehard Holzbecher, Hydrologist at GUtech, who is heading the local organising committee of the symposium.

The symposium has been organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources (Oman), Water Resource Research Centre in Kyoto (Japan), the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GDRAI) of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University.

According to researchers, their occurrence is highly random. “Because of climate change, flash floods will occur more frequently in future. Therefore, there is an urgent need for further flash flood protection and risk reduction. In addition, the rain water can be harvested and used for agricultural purposes. This has been done in other parts of the world, like Africa,” said Prof Ekkehard Holzbecher.

In previous years, the symposium was held in Kyoto, Japan, and in Campus El Gouna, Egypt.

Around 100 experts from all over the world are expected to attend the symposium, that will also include a training workshop on “Flow and Sediment Transport Modelling in Rivers and Wadi System using TELEMAC 2D and 3D Numerical Codes”.

The International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), COMSOL, Hölscher Wasserbau GmbH, Al Bustan Construction and Gulf Lake are the silver sponsors of the symposium.