4TH GLOBAQUA ANNUAL MEETING

GLOBAQUA will start February 1st its last year. It looks like that the last four years passed by quicker than the speed of light.

The last two years, 2017-2018 are being employed to integrate the results of the GLOBAQUA natural and social sciences research teams previously obtained. It is highly recommended to reach an agreement on the final message to the scientific community as well as to the environmental (water) managers. In this respect key factsheets integrating the fourteen work packages in four modules: Stressors, Receptors, Implications and Environmental Management are ready for distribution. Summarizing conclusions should help to achieve a better chemical and ecological quality objectives of water bodies as well as on their ecosystem functionality under multiple-stress situations. An improvement of the river basin management plans can be achieved by the so-called "GLOBAQUA system thinking" in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Keep GLOBAQUA factsheets in your radar!

The links between our sister projects MARS and SOLUTIONS are being expanded in the period 2017- 2018. In addition to the common conference held in Sesimbra, Portugal, in March 2017, GLOBAQUA and SOLUTIONS participated at the final MARS conference in Brussels on 16-17 January 2018. A common strategic agenda between these three projects was agreed and key policy recommendations for river basin managers under multiple-stressors, i.e. water scarcity and toxic chemicals was presented. The audience included scientists from all three projects and various stakeholders as well as EU officers invited on this occasion. GLOBAQUA will participate too at the SOLUTIONS final conference scheduled in Leipzig, Germany, 19-21 June.

GLOBAQUA forthcoming meetings and conferences are already being announced. In early October  our second executive meeting combined with a workshop will be held in Agadir, Morocco. Our final GLOBAQUA conference is expected to be held in Barcelona either early December 2018 or sometime in January 2019, it has not yet been decided. Will keep you posted on this!