News

World Water Day: UM contributes to accelerating change

[] - Published on in Environmental Issues and Social Responsibility, Science-Society

Every year since March 22, 1993, World Water Day has raised awareness of the importance of freshwater. In 2023, the focus is onaccelerating change to meet the UN's sixth sustainable development goal, namely, access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. Scientific research plays a major role in this change, and the University of Montpellier, one of the leading international players in water sciences, intends to play its part. This global day is an opportunity to (re)highlight the work of our researchers in formats suitable for the general public and to showcase our university's commitment to the water challenge.

On June 2, the University of Montpellier and the UNESCO Icireward center hosted the International Hydrological Science Assembly. On this occasion, Icireward and UM signed a partnership agreement with the UNESCO Chair "Water, Women and Decision-Making" and Felix Houphouet Boigny University in Abidjan. In 2023, just a few weeks after organizing the Water 4 Future Hackathon, which brought together more than 400 international students to tackle major water challenges, we are once again distinguishing ourselves in the global water science ecosystem.

A meeting in Montpellier echoing the United Nations gathering on water

As the United Nations gathers in New York from March 22 to 24, 2023, to take stock of the international community's actions on water issues, the UNESCO Icireward Center is organizing two events under the banner: "From New York to Montpellier: all mobilized for sustainable water":  

  • An awareness day for schoolchildren at the Corum to support younger generations in facing the challenges ahead.
  • A public conference entitled "Water resources: it's getting complicated!" will provide insights into the major challenges facing us, with an eclectic panel of scientific experts, elected officials, and managers. It will take place on March 24, 2023, at the Faculty of Law and Political Science.

Water, a major issue regularly featured in the UM's science and society magazine

"The management of water resources and aquatic ecosystems, which are vital to humans and their activities, is one of the major challenges facing humanity in the21st century..." With these words, Philippe Augé introduced the16th issue of the science and society magazine LUM, "Lumière sur l'eau" (February-May 2022), devoted entirely to water resource management. This theme also recurs in other issues of the magazine, with articles such as:

"At UM, science" ... water is also being disseminated via podcast

Water is also discussed in the podcast series "A l'UM la science" ( Science at UM), co-produced with Radio Divergence. This program gives our researchers a platform to discuss recent scientific publications. Examples include the following episodes:

Share knowledge with The Conversation

The University of Montpellier, a partner of the online media outlet The Conversation, enables its researchers to publish for the general public. They benefit from a very wide audience, with an average of more than 2 million page views each year. Among them:

Keywords: , ,