The 13th International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS2016) was held at the University of Stuttgart, Germany on September 19-22, 2016. About 300 participants from over 51 countries and regions attended the Symposium. The Symposium was organized by the University of Stuttgart, sponsored by the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) and the World Association of Sedimentation and Erosion Research (WASER), and co-sponsored by UNESCO, UNESCO-IHP-ISI, IAHR, etc.

The opening ceremony was held in the morning of September 19 and was chaired by Prof. Silke Wieprecht, the Chairperson of the LOC. Six welcome speeches were made between musical frameworks provided by the Academic String Quartet of the University:

l  Welcome message from the ISRS 2016 LOC Prof. Dr.Ing. Silke Wieprecht (Chair of the LOC, Professor of Universität Stuttgart);

l  Welcome message from the University of Stuttgart Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfram Ressel (Rector of Universität Stuttgart);

l  Welcome message from the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector Baden-Württemberg given by Mdgt Peter Fuhrmann (Head of Department Water and Soil);

l  Welcome message from the City of Stuttgart given by Dr. HansWolf Zirkwitz (Head of Office for Environmental Protection)

l  Welcome message from WASER by Prof. Giampaolo Di Silvio (President of WASER, Professor of Universita di Padova, Italy)

l  Welcome message from IRTCES given by Prof. Guangquan Liu (IRTCES Deputy Director and WASER Secretary-General)

The ISRS2016 main theme was ‘Sediment on the Move - Innovative Management Strategies in Riverine Systems: From Old Problems to New Solutions’ with six main topics:

A. Integrated Sediment Management at the River Basin Scale

B. Sediment Transport

C. River Morphodynamics

D. Hydromorphology meets Ecology 

E. Reservoir Sustainability

F. Social, Economic and Political Aspects of Sediment Management

The programme also included a WISA workshop (Workshop on International Sediment Advancements) and five special sessions including:

SS 1 Hydropower and Sediment Management

SS 2 Navigation and River Morphology

SS 3 Innovative Measurement Techniques

SS 4 Sediment Transport in Fluvial, Estuarine and Coastal Environment

SS 5 Sustainable Land Management

Three Keynote presentations, six presentations in WISA, over 200 technical presentations in 5 parallel sessions, and poster presentations were delivered. The Keynote lectures were:  

l  Advances and challenges in mixed cohesive/noncohesive sediment transport research by Prof. Weiming Wu, Clarkson University (USA);

l  Form, function and physics by Prof. David M. Paterson, University of St Andrews (UK);

l  Local scour at hydraulic structures by Prof. Bruce W. Melville, The University of Auckland (New Zealand).

Two one-day technical tours and two local tours were arranged on September 21. The technical tours included visits to the hydraulic laboratory of the Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems; to the Schluchseewerk AG and its Säckingen Pumped Storage Power system, including the upper reservoir, the cavern powerhouse and the outlet area into the river Rhine; and to the Iffezheim barrage, a hydropower station with one of the largest fish passages in Europe, where participants were able to ride on a hopper barge to see the artificial sediment feeding.

The Symposium Proceedings were published by CRC Press/Balkema (Taylor & Francis Group) and contained   the Keynote papers and one-page abstracts of 185 technical papers. Full copies of the technical papers were provided on a flash disk included with the volume.  

The closing ceremony was organized on the afternoon of September 22. Prof. Zhao-Yin Wang, new President of WASER, made a speech on brief overview and recommendation of the ISRS2016. Prof. Guangquan Liu, the representative of the ISRS Permanent Secretariat, announced that the 14th ISRS will be held in Chengdu, China in 2019 by the Sichuan University. Prof. Liu took the symposium banner from Prof. S. Wieprecht, representative of the ISRS2016 LOC and handed it to Prof. Pengzhi Lin, representative of next host. Prof. Lin made a speech and showed video welcoming all participants to meet again in Chengdu in 2019.

Welcome speeches at the Opening Ceremony

(Prof. Wolfram Ressel; Prof. Giampaolo Di Silvio; Prof. Guangquan Liu and Prof. Silke Wieprecht)

  Keynote Presentations (Dr. Weiming Wu, Prof. David M. Paterson and Prof. Bruce W. Melville) and WISA plenary discussion

Technical tours

ISRS symposium banner hand over