During a recently held mini-symposium in Delft (NL) on the 13th of February (2009), the analytical water accounting framework has been launched, along with examples from the Nile Basin. The main conclusion was that water consumption needs to be explicitly described by land use categories.

Remote sensing can play a paramount role in the standardization of the spatial data collection for large areas in an ensured surrounding. The presentations of this symposium are presented below. The presentations will be converted to scientific papers and be published as a special issue of an international journal.

 

The central theme of Prof. Bastiaanssen’s inaugural address at the Department of Water Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences was related to water accounting. He compared the workload and mentality of economic accountants with the challenges to describe the water resources conditions and the way to manage them.

Water accountants are needed to indicate the real problems in water management in a fair, professional and independent manner. This information should be available for stakeholders, the responsible managers and to donor organizations. He informed the TU leaders and students that he would like to educate the first generation of water accountants. According to the tradition of TU-Delft, the speech (“oration”) is provided in Dutch.