Morocco Hosts UNESCO Open-Water Symposium 2019
The UNESCO will organize October 28-31 in Morocco’s capital city Rabat a symposium on the sustainable management of water resources, called the Open Water Symposium.
The symposium on water resource management responds to the problem of water stress faced by African and Middle Eastern countries.
The use of software to manage irrigation, wastewater treatment and reuse and several other water-related topics will form the backdrop to this four-day meeting.
The event aims to present and develop access to and use of free and/or open source software to broaden the openness of content, technology and processes; train the various actors in the water sector in software to improve water resources management, security and sustainable peace in the water sector; and expand access to information, knowledge and technology to support water resource management.
During the symposium, several specialists will showcase open and/or free software related to water resources management and will provide training to decision-makers, students, academics and other water stakeholders.
According the UNESCO, this “Open Water Symposium” is in line with the work of the Global Open Water Network, which aims at promoting “joint research, development & education on open source software and open data for integrated water resources management”.
Integrated modeling tools are becoming important tools for water resources management, but their use has been limited due to costly licenses and lack of data, especially in developing countries.
With the Global Open Water Network, the UNESCO endeavors to promote open source software and open data by offering training (e-learning and workshops), and cloud services providing easy access to and easy use of computer infrastructures, data and open source software for water resources applications.
