2015 International Waters Network Annual Report (original) (raw)
2015 was the first year of the International WaTERS Network. Activities for this initial year including establishing our network infrastructure; creating a web page, listserve, dropbox for sharing files, twitter, and even hosting a competition to design our logo (thanks to Max Goldin for the lovely logo!). The Network hosted its inaugural meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we held three days of workshops, brainstorming sessions, public forums, and networking dinners focusing on understanding issues such as rural-urban water issues, as well as key concepts such as resilience, and equity and governance challenges. The Network assembled international teams to start work on our online training modules and conducted a needs assessment to better understand how prospective audiences might use the modules to serve particular needs and learning tools. Finally, we conducted a competition and our first graduate fellows who are conducting timely and important field work in our case study sites (Lima, Peru; Bangalore, India and Cape Town, South Africa). Major Events and Activities First Network Meeting-University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) Our first Network meeting brought together more than 25 researchers representing our key institutional partners. Over 3 days, we held workshops, breakout sessions, public forums, and brainstorming events covering topics such as online pedagogical tools to improve student success, guidance to inform the development of our online training modules, an overview of resilience theory and practice, summaries and the key linkages between our case study sites (Lima, Cape Town, and Bangalore), and future Network directions and planning. Importantly, the event served as a networking tool to bring together researchers from around the world to meet each other (many for the first time) and discuss areas of common interest and future collaboration.