Highlights: 25th ICID Congress and 74th International Executive Council Meeting, November 2023, Visakhapatnam (Vizag), India

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The 25th International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage and the 74th International Executive Council meeting was organized by the Indian National Committee of ICID (INCID) on the theme ‘Tackling Water Scarcity in Agriculture’ from 01-08 November 2023 in Vishakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, India.

The event was inaugurated on 2 November 2023 by the Hon’ble Minister Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, and Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Mr. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The grand opening ceremony was attended by distinguished dignitaries including Mr. Ambati Rambabu, Hon'ble Minister for Water Resources Development; Mr. Gudivada Amarnath, Hon'ble Minister for Industries, Infrastructure, Investment & Commerce, Information Technology; Mrs. Vidadala Rajini, Hon'ble Minister for Health, Family Welfare & Medical Education; Government of Andhra Pradesh; Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab, President ICID; Mr. Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) & Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (INCID); and Mr. Shashi Bhushan Kumar, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Government of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Kushvinder Vohra, Chairman, CWC & INCID emphasized on the importance of sustainable water management in the context of food and ecosystem security. Hon’ble Minister Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat highlighted the crucial role of international collaboration for the redressal of the issues and challenges of the water sector in the wake of climate change. The Hon’ble Chief Minister Mr. Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy shared his vision for various interventions required for water resources development and management in the State of Andhra Pradesh. President, ICID conveyed the leading role of ICID in promoting sustainable water management in the fields of irrigation, drainage, and flood management. The prestigious ICID Congress brought together a global congregation of around 1300 experts, researchers, and professionals which include 350 foreign delegates from 41 countries who are dedicated to addressing the challenges of water resource management, irrigation, and drainage.

25th ICID Congress & 74th IEC Meeting - Inaugural Function, Vizag, November 2023

25th ICID Congress and 74th IEC 2023, Newsletter - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
APCM-Press clippings-03-Nov-2023.pdf
Special Session on Farmers Empowerment Through Technology Innovations and Capacity Building
Events coverage in the News Papers
Hon'ble Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy urges world body to work for cost-effective transfer of water from one basin to another
Presentations:
- Welcome and Opening Remarks - President Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab
- Misunderstanding and Misconceptions in Irrigation Water Management - President Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab
- Climate Change as a Challenge to Water and Food Security - President Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab
Books Released during the Opening Ceremony of the 25th ICID Congress and 74th IEC Meeting released two publications on Historical Water Sustainability and Compendium: World Heritage Irrigation Structures (2014-2022)
ICID Social Media:

Newly Elected Office Bearers (2023-2026)

President

Vice Presidents

Dr. Marco Arcieri
(Italy)

Dr. Fuqiang Tian
(China)

Dr. Vadim Sokolov
(Uzbekistan)

Dr. Watchara Suiadee
(Thailand)

Hearty Congratulations!!!

WatSave Award 2023

WatSave Awards are annual awards that were instituted by ICID in 1997 to recognize and encourage the development of innovative ideas to facilitate robust and result-oriented technologies that could be implemented to save the usage of water for agricultural purposes. This year’s WatSave Award goes only in the Category of Technology. IRRISAT - A satellite Based Irrigation Advisory Service (Technology) by Prof. Guido D’Urso & Mr. Carlo De Michele (Italy)

IRRISAT is a satellite-based irrigation advisory service developed in Italy and operational since 2007 in the Campania region (Southern Italy); nowadays it has been used in Australia (with name COALA). The service aims at providing farms and managers of water resources with real time information on crop water needs. Irrigation needs are estimated using high resolution data from Earth observation satellites and meteorological gridded data (including 5-days forecast) by using the FAO 56 “direct” calculation method. Data are aggregated at various spatial scales (from field or irrigation unit to district or river basin scale) and temporal scales (real time, historical series). Information is distributed in near-real time to the users (farmers and/or water agencies) by using ICTs, namely web-mapping applications. Several water user associations in Italy are using IRRISAT for supporting their everyday management of irrigation distribution, as well as for detecting non-authorized water withdrawals.

Congratulations!

Best Paper Award 2023

The ICID Journal ‘Irrigation and Drainage’ is the flagship publication of ICID. The journal is a prestigious, peer-reviewed publication, publishing original papers on scientific, engineering, environmental and socio-economic issues associated with irrigation and drainage. It is a rich resource of reference to professionals, engineers, researchers, university professors, and students of irrigation, drainage, and agriculture disciplines. Its management is governed by an International Editorial Board (EB). ‘Best Paper Award ‘ was started in 2006 to recognize the outstanding papers contributed to ‘Irrigation and Drainage’, annually. During the 74th IEC Meeting, the Best Paper Award 2023 was presented to Wenpeng Xie, Masaomi Kimura, Yohei Asada, Toshiaki Iida, Naritaka Kubo from Japan for their outstanding paper entitled ‘The development of a hybrid model to forecast paddy water temperature as an alert system for high-temperature damage’.
Climate change has led to increasing global air temperatures. In the field of crop cultivation, long-term high temperatures (heatwaves) during the rice-growing season might increase the risk of high-temperature damage to rice, which might result in reductions to the yield and quality of rice. In this study, a hybrid forecast model consisting of a combined paddy field heat balance model and a meteorological forecast model is proposed for predicting 1-day-ahead water temperatures as an alert system for high-temperature damage to paddy fields, with resolution in terms of hours. The results show close agreement between the measured and predicted water temperatures, and the high-temperature alert accuracy was 88.5%. Additionally, the climate resilience of paddy fields was investigated by using the rising annual temperatures due to climate change. The observations indicate that while paddy fields are sensitive to the climate, their climate resilience can be improved through artificial measures. Farmers and managers of paddy fields can thus be made aware of the water temperatures of the paddy fields in advance to enable reasonable management of water resources and avoid high-temperature damages caused by extreme weather conditions.
Congratulations!

Best Performing National Committee Award 2023

The Best Performing National Committee Award (BPNCA) is presented triennially at every ICID Congress, with the main objective to recognize the contributions made by a National Committee to fulfill ICID’s mission and objectives. It is presented at every triennial Congress starting from the 18th ICID Congress (Montreal) in 2002. The performance of the award-winning National Committee is judged by a Panel of Judges based on the performance of the `Candidate National Committee’ during the 3-year period between the immediate past two consecutive Congresses. Iranian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (IRNCID) has won the 7th BPNC Award. The award was received by Dr. Narges Zohrabi from President Prof. Dr. Ragab Ragab on the occasion of the 74th IEC Meeting and 25th ICID Congress held in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), India November 2023.
Congratulations!

World Heritage Irrigation Structures (WHIS) Award 2023
ICID identifies, recognizes and maintains a record of World Heritage Irrigation Structures of archival value that are more than a century old and help understand the evolution of irrigation systems among civilizations across the world. This concept was mooted at the 63rd International Executive Council (IEC) Meeting held in Adelaide, Australia in 2012. The idea is to conserve these heritage structures for posterity on the lines of the world heritage sites recognized by UNESCO. Total nineteen Heritage Structures have been recognized by ICID in the year 2023.

Baini Weirs, Hongze Lake Irrigation System, Huoquan SpringIrrigation System, and Qimenyan Irrigation System, China (4 Nos.).
Balidiha Irrigation Project, Jayamangal Anicut, Prakasam Barrage (Old Krishna Anicut), and Srivaikuntam Anicut, India (4 Nos.).
Notog Weir, The Kepajaran Main Intake, and The Talang Barrage / Dam, Indonesia (3 Nos.).
The old regulator Al-Hussainya, Iraq (One).
Takebe Weir, Yamagata-goseki Irrigation System, Honjukuyousui Irrigation Canal, and Kitayama Irrigation System (Canal), Japan (4 Nos.).
Damnoen Saduak Canal, and Bang Nok Khwaek Lock, Thailand (2 Nos.)
Samran Canal, Turkey (One).