CONFERENCE HOST
The conference will be hosted and held at the University of Concepción, in Concepción, Chile. Concepción is the second largest city in Chile and is located near the mouth of the Biobío river, about 500 km south of Santiago. There are good air and rail connections to Santiago as well as to Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, the Atacama desert and neighboring Latin American countries.
The University of Concepción is the home of the EULA (Europe – Latin America) Center for Environmental Sciences and of a Civil Engineering Department, which are jointly involved in river research at the interface between hydraulics and aquatic ecology. Together with Austral University in Valdivia, the University of Concepción leads the multi-national Center for Patagonian Ecosystems Research (CIEP), located in Coyhaique, capital of the Chilean Patagonia.
Both EULA and CIEP have grown through national and international collaboration and a sub-theme within the conference will be education and research within a global context. The conference will feature activities organized by the emerging global student chapter network of IAHR.
Patagonia is currently one of the least disturbed areas in the world but is also subject to intense development pressures for aquaculture and hydropower generation. The Center for Patagonian Ecosystems Research (CIEP) will host a workshop exploring these issues and the integration of research, applied science and policy.
The multi-national CIEP center is dedicated to developing the fundamental and applied scientific research that is needed to guide development in a way that preserves the regional biodiversity, cultural integrity and quality of life in the region. The workshop will be jointly hosted by the Regional Government in Coyhaique, Patagonia, and will involve site tours of the full range of ecosystems and anthropogenic disturbances from the ice-fields and glaciers to the rivers, lakes, and fjords. The workshop will explore current research and initiate a dialogue on future steps and whether the ultimate objective of creating a model for sustainable growth can be achieved. Agency staff, university researchers and politicians will participate.
