Dr. Wen Huei Chang, Senior Economist/ Technical Team Lead of the Institute for Water Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, visited the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) on December 12, 2014. IRTCES Deputy Directors Prof. Ning Duihu and Prof. Liu Guangquan welcomed and had a meeting with him. Dr. Chang introduced the purpose of the visit, and expressed that the collebrations between the International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM) and the IRTCES be strengthended under the frame of the Memorandum of Understranding between the Ministry of Water Resources, PR China and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be signed. Prof. Ning and Prof. Liu introduced IRTCES and it activities, and had discussion with the guest on substantive cooperation between two UNESCO Category II centers. IRTCES division chiefs Prof. Chen Jianguo, Prof. Liu Cheng and Prof. Liu Xiaoying participated in the meeting.

Dr. Chang is currently serving as enterprise technical team leader to direct programs and advise senior Corps leadership on matters relating to policy development, planning, program analysis, research and development of decision-support methods and models, water resources planning and transportation analysis, and performance-based budgeting for the agency. He manages several nationally significant projects, including the Corps’ Value to the Nation communications effort, which informs Americans of the many social, economic and environmental benefits of Corps’ programs. The ICIWaRM was established by the U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources (IWR) in 2007 in collaboration with U.S. institutions and organizations sharing an interest in the advancement of the science and practice of integrated water resources management (IWRM) around the globe. It was formalized as a UNESCO category II water center in October 2009 with the signing of an agreement between the U.S. Government and UNESCO.