| NBCBN-RE E-newsletter April 2009 | ||
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5th Regional Workshop on “Capacity Building in GIS and Modelling Applications in River Engineering” March 2009, Egypt The Nile Basin Capacity Building Network in collaboration with the Hydraulics Research Institute (HRI) of Egypt, the hosting institute of the NBCBN Egypt node and the GIS-Modelling research cluster, organized the “5th Regional Workshop on Capacity Building in GIS and Modelling Applications in River Engineering” in Egypt from 30th of March to 2nd of April 2009.
In the seminar day 5 presentations reflecting the application of GIS, remote sensing and modelling in the water resources management were delivered by experts from different institutions and running projects in the region. In addition, presentations by the group coordinators of the cluster and the local action research topics were also presented. The Cluster scientific advisors shared with the seminar participants their knowledge related to the state of the art in the seminar topic. In the workshop days the discussions focused mainly on the three cluster research topics:
The workshop report including the finding, conclusions and recommendations of the workshop will be published very soon on the NBCBN platform. |
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5th Regional Workshop on “Capacity Building in River Morphology”, Sudan, April 2009
In the seminar day a group of presentations reflecting the ongoing research in the field of river morphology and the state of the art in the topic were delivered by experts from different institutions and running projects. In addition, presentation by the group coordinators of the cluster and the local action research topics were also presented. The titles of these presentations are:
During the rest of the workshop, the main discussion points were related to the cluster research group’s progress and detailed work plans for finalisation of research tasks. The workshop outputs and recommendations will be reported and published soon on NBCBN website. |
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5th Regional workshop on “Capacity Building in Flood Management”, Kenya, April 2009 The 5th Regional Flood Management cluster workshop will be organized by the NBCBN-SEC with cooperation with Nairobi University the hosting institute of the NBCBN Kenya node and the flood management cluster in Kenya, at Sarova Panafric Hotel Nairobi, in the period from 20th to 23rd of April, 2009. The first day will be a Seminar on Flood Management, while the remaining days will be a working workshop for cluster members. The seminar part is considered as an opportunity for cluster members and experts in the field to exchange the knowledge on the recent projects and ongoing research activities in different organizations. The regional workshop part is considered to be an important activity of the network research cluster in the project second phase. The main objectives of the regional workshop are:
Regional Short Course on “Modelling Support to Hydraulic Engineering in River Basin Development”, 10-14 May, 2009 The NBCBN in collaboration with the Hydraulics Research Institute (HRI) of Egypt and the River Structures cluster hosted by Addis Ababa University of Ethiopia will organize a specialized 5 days training course on “Modelling Support to Hydraulic Engineering in River Basin Development”, to be held in Cairo , Egypt from 10th to 14th of May, 2009. The course will be organized as a response from the NBCBN to the needs reflected by Members of the River Structure Cluster as to build their capacities in the modelling issue particularly the use of physical modelling in simulating the design and function of the Hydraulic Structures.. In this course HRI is offering its physical modelling facilities and expertise in order to achieve the course main objectives which include the following:
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New design for the virtual meetings facilities at the NBCBN collaborative platform
The NBCBN Secretariat would like to encourage all network members to try the new design and come back with their comments that can enhance the platform design. On the other hand and while we are reaching the end of the on-going research phase, NBCBN Secretariat would like to encourage all research group members and scientific advisors to organize regular meetings using this facilities in order to effectively be able to evaluate their research progress and follow their work plan as agreed on during the regional workshops. |
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Overview on NBCBN Research Activities GIS and Modelling Research ClusterThe GIS-Modelling research cluster is one of 6 research cluster under the Nile Basin Capacity Building Network for River Engineering. The cluster is coordinated by Egypt node while 5 other Nile Basin countries are members. These include Sudan, D.R. Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. In Egypt, the cluster is coordinated by the Hydraulics research Institute and membership includes research and teaching institutions, government agencies, and consultants. Research Title: Hydrological and Environmental Aspects of Wetlands 
In this issue we would like to highlight the research activities of the first group under the GIS and Modelling Research Cluster The group started the research activities in October 2006. The group is coordinated by Dr. Hoda Soussa, Ain Shams University, hoda@nbcbn.com , Hsoussa@Yahoo.com , the group scientific advisors are Dr. Zoltan Vekerdy, ITC and Prof. Roland Price, UNESCO-IHE and the group composition is as follows:
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In the first day of this event a Seminar on "Advances in using GIS and Modelling in River Engineering and Water Resources Management" was organized, while the remaining three days were allocated for the regional meeting of the GIS and Modelling Cluster research teams. 
The workshop was organized in the period from 5th -7th of April, 2009, by the UNESCO Chair for Water Resources, Sudan, the hosting institution of Sudan Node and the River Morphology Research Cluster. The event was organized in collaboration with NBCBN –Secretariat office in Cairo, and was attended by Eng. Amel Azab representative of the NBCBN management team, and the scientific advisor of the research cluster, Dr. Alessandra Crosato from UNESCO-IHE, the Netherlands. The workshop program included one day seminar and two working days for the cluster discussions and presentations. Countries which participated in the workshop were: Burundi, Egypt, Kenya and Sudan. The opening ceremony was attended by the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Omdurman Islamic University who gave a speech on behalf of the University, which is supporting the activities of the UNESCO-Chair, and a group of professionals and experts in the field of river morphology from different institutions and Universities in Sudan. 
Based on the recommendations from number of network members, who used to organise meetings using the virtual meeting facilities available in the NBCBN collaborative platform, a new more friendly using design of this facilities was launched last week. The new design overcomes the problem arising from the low internet speed which slows down the refresh rate of the meeting rooms. Within the new design the group can create their own meeting room and still able to send private messages.