Successful UK-China Workshop on Water-Wise Cities and Smart Water Systems

The workshop, organised by Prof. Guangtao Fu (University of Exeter) and Prof. Xiaochang Wang (Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology), is jointly funded by the British Council and National Natural Science Foundation of China. The workshop was aimed at early career researchers from the two countries to enable networking and sharing of research findings, focusing on new methods and emerging technologies that can be used for design, planning and management of water-wise cities. Three world-leading researchers delivered keynote talks and acted as mentors for early career researchers:

• Professor David Butler FREng, Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter,
• Professor Nanqi Ren, Academician, Harbin Institute of Technology, and
• Professor Qiang He, Chongqing University.

Mr Paul Reiter, a former Executive Director of the International Water Association (IWA), also gave a keynote and participated the workshop. 

This workshop provided a platform for participants to discuss critical challenges and opportunities moving towards smart water systems and water-wise cities. Over 40 academics and researchers from many UK and China institutions including South China University of Science and Technology, Chongqing University, Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, Sheffield University, Newcastle University, Durham University, Conventry University, Cranfield University and Bath University attended the workshop and shared state-of-the-art research in novel technologies, concepts, tools for building smart water systems and cities.

The CWS members (Prof. David Buter, Prof. Guangtao Fu, Dr. Xu Wang, Dr. Chris Sweetapple, Dr. Peter Melville-Shreeve, Dr. Kate Baker, Dr. Fanlin Meng) presented the key outcomes from a number of previous and ongoing projects, including the EU FP7 SANITAS project, Safe &SuRe, BRIM, TWENTY 65, and Royal Society Newton International Fellowship and Industry Fellowship.