Keynote speakers
Laurent Mouvet
Laurent Mouvet is the recently elected President of the Swiss Committee on Dams. He has served in ICOLD technical committees and is a lecturer at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is currently CEO of Hydro Operation International SA, a Swiss-based independent consultancy company offering services in the field of hydropower plant rehabilitation, operation and maintenance. Laurent Mouvet chairs the expert committee on the Grand Inga project, the world’s largest hydropower scheme. As such, he will deliver an inspiring keynote lecture on “Hydro projects in a changing environment”.
Brett Sanders
Brett Sanders is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His group is interested in model efficiency for the simulation of hydrodynamics and water quality in rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters. His keynote lecture, "Co-development of coastal flood models: making the leap from expert analysis to decision-support", will unveil new findings of a major ongoing project, FloodRISE, which aims at evaluating the potential of parcel-scale geospatial data to enhance flood-resilience of urbanized coastal areas. The project supports the co-development of flood knowledge and tools with community stakeholders and multidisciplinary experts, planners, economics, hydrologists and engineers.
Pangiotis Balabanis
Panagiotis Balabanis is a Deputy Head of Unit with the European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. He has been involved in the definition and implementation of successive research programs in the field of environment and sustainable development. In his keynote lecture, he will shed light on upcoming "Challenges and opportunities for research and technological innovation in the water sector throughout Europe". This keynote will offer the IAHR community a unique chance for reflecting on its possible contributions towards achieving major EU and global water-related objectives, as well as positioning Europe as a leader in water-related innovative solutions. Hydro-environment research and engineering is also a cornerstone for supporting a range of other EU policies, initiatives and commitments.