（本站讯）7月29日，国际泥沙研究培训中心成立25周年庆典在京隆重召开，莱茵河国际水文委员会主席、联合国教科文组织国际泥沙项目专家指导委员会主席斯皮瑞弗科致辞。
As chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Sediment Initiative it is a honor for me to provide a short speech related to the IRTCES Silver Jubilee.
First of all I congratulate IRTCES for the excellent work which has been done in the fields of training and education, in the exchange of knowledge, in consultation and in the worldwide cooperation with a large number of institutions involved in sediment issues. Because of the efforts of IRTCES many sediment related problems could be solved. This is very important due to the fact that erosion and sedimentation processes and management are increasingly important in all parts of the world. Erosion and sedimentation processes have significant socio-economic and environmental impacts.
The need to strengthen the awareness of the importance of sediment problems was also recognized by the member countries of UNESCO-International Hydrological Programme and as a result the International Sediment Initiative ISI has been set-up. The vision of ISI is the advancement of sustainable sediment management at global scale. In this context ISI focuses on economic, social and ecological aspects related to sedimentation. Main activities are: Global evaluation of erosion and sediment transport, case studies illustrating all features of sediment, review of global erosion and sediment-related research, capacity building for sustainable sediment management and networking.
ISI activities fit excellent with the objectives of IRTCES. To strengthen the cooperation between ISI and IRTCES, the secretariat of ISI has been implemented into IRTCES. I would like to thank the Chinese government, Dr. Hu and especially Dr. Liu Cheng for the perfect support given by IRTCES to ISI.
With this thank I would like to finish and wish all the best for the future of IRTCES.
