On June 23, 2017, Slobodan P. Simonovic, Professor of the University of Western Ontario of Canada (UWO) and Chairman of the International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM), visited IWHR, having a talk on cooperative issues concerning the ICFM, and attended the Global Vision Forum. Vice President Liu Zhiping met with Prof. Simonovic. Chief Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering Cheng Xiaotao and related principals of the Division of International Cooperation and the Research Center for Flood and Drought Disaster Reduction were present at the meeting.
Liu Zhiping extended a warm welcome to Prof. Simonovic. He recalled the cooperative and exchange activities both sides had carried out since the signing of the international cooperative agreement in 2008, and also delivered thanks to Prof. Simonovic for his care, collaboration and support for the scientific research and academic development of IWHR. In addition, Prof. Simonovic’s new book, Floods in a Changing Climate: Risk Management, was translated by an IWHR expert team, marked another cooperation in real sense between both sides. To assist the Chairman, Executive Committee and Local Organizing Committee of ICFM and support its convening, IWHR was willing to provide necessary support to the Secretariat, and hoped to make a due contribution to the long-term development of ICFM and the academic progress in flood management, said Liu Zhiping.
Prof. Simonovic expressed thanks for the hospitable invitation and reception, admiration for the IWHR expert team’s efforts in translating his new book, and also his hope for having similar cooperation in future to push ahead exchange visits of scholars, joint training of postgraduates and project cooperation and for implementing the international cooperative agreement between IWHR and UWO. As ICFM Chairman, Prof. Simonovic also expressed his gratitude for proposing suggestions on the work of the Secretariat. Moreover, he presented specific ideas concerning technical support of the Secretariat from the perspectives of achievement sharing and expert resources, and hoped more efforts would be made in conference training, capacity building and young talent cultivation.
After the meeting, Prof. Simonovic attended the Global Vision Forum, a platform of IWHR for inviting world-class scholars and experts to give lectures, to make a report on Resilience -- A New Metric for the Assessment of Measures for Adaptation to Global Change. Focused on “resilience”, a new concept in risk management, and the thinking from risk to “resilience”, the report contained an introduction to the limitations of risk management, the concept of “resilience” and its quantification, and the quantitative implementation of “resilience”, listed cases of urban floods caused by climate change, operation of multi-functional reservoirs and urban infrastructure network system, pointed out “resilience” is a new pattern for coping with global change and sustainable development, and proposed the systematic approach for quantification of “resilience”.
Prof. Simonovic’s report aroused great interest among the audience, and they had heated discussions on the concept of resilience, distinction between risk and resilience, reflection of social management and adjustment, measures for maximizing resilience and other issues.
