The 1st International Seminar on Water Culture, co-hosted by IWHR and UNESCO, was successfully convened on November 18, with more than 300 water experts worldwide joining in an online-offline-combined manner.

With "Water and Civilization - Inheritance and Innovation of Water Culture" as its theme, the Seminar aims to echo the call of SDG 11.4, “Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage”, by gathering water culture experts around the world, to discover the great value in water culture, provoke thoughts on the relations between water and civilization and share innovative practices on social development based on water culture.

Distinguished guests from the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) of China, IWHR, UNESCO Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) Secretariat, and UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office attended the Seminar, underscoring the necessity to protect the world's water heritage, carry forward the splendid water cultures around the world, learn from the ancient wisdom in water governance for social development, and inspire and improve today’s human efforts for sustainable development.

The keynote speeches probed into the research, protection and inheritance of water culture and water history under various cultural backgrounds in different countries and regions, including:

• "Re-Aligning Water Culture to Address the Urgency of Climate Change" by Prof. David Groenfeldt, Director of the U.S. Water-Culture Institute;
• "Hydro-technologies in Greece during the Prehistoric times" by Prof. Andreas N. Angelakis, Member of European Academy of Sciences & Art;
• "Historical evolution of Yongding River and urban development of Beijing" by Prof. Lyu Juan, Director of IWHR Research Center on Flood and Drought Disaster Reduction;
• "Revival of the water-related old practices in the East Asian region to modern ecological practices" by Prof. Woo Hyo-seop from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology of South Korea;
• "Teaching Water and Culture: Indigenous Americans and Water Development" by Prof. David A. Pietz, UNESCO Chair in Environmental History of the University of Arizona, U.S.;
• "Water Culture: The Dynamic Mechanism and Current Innovation in Water Management" by Prof. Zheng Xiaoyun, Director of the China Institute of Yangtze River Culture Studies of Hubei University and former President of the International Water History Association (IWHA);
• "Water and Culture Efforts of UNESCO Beijing Office" by Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director of UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office.

The Seminar was organized by IWHR's Department of Water Resources History, which is the largest and most comprehensive research body in water culture and water history in China. The department has been long dedicated to the collection of water culture and history archives, the establishment of bibliographic databases of water resources history, the  protection of water resources heritage, the investigation and study on the ancient water works, as well as the research on floods, droughts and disaster history.

(Source: IWHR)