The World’s Large Rivers Conference is part of the UNESCO World’s Large Rivers Initiative and aims in providing a global forum for a wide-ranging discussion of key issues related to research on large rivers and to their effective and sustainable management, involving both scientists and decision makers especially from developing countries. Due to the ongoing Covid-19-pandemic, the 4th World’s Large Rivers Conference was held from 3rd to 6th of August 2021 as an online event – allowing attendees to participate virtually online. The conference was organized by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. The Main cooperation partner of this conference is UNESCO-IHP which supported the conference ideologically and financially by allowing 100 participants from developing countries to attend the conference virtually. Further international institutions which supported the conference ideologically included: International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), World Association for Sedimentation and Erosion Research (WASER), International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG), and International Society of Limnology (SIL).

The topics of the conference included: Hydrology, Hydraulics & Hydroclimatic Impact; sediment Transport & River Morphology; River Pollution, Ecology & Restoration; and Integrated River Basin Management. Special focus were given to presentations coming from different regions of the world and different scientific fields. Contributions from developing countries were especially welcomed.

Total 566 abstracts from 55 countries have been submitted. Of these, 144 were presented as oral presentations, 60 as poster presentations and 235 as supported participations. UNESCO’s support helped presenters from developing countries to present their research in all three of these categories. Besides this, 127 abstracts have been rejected due to lack of quality.

The presentations were given over four days in parallel online sessions covering all relevant conference topics. After each presentation, there was time for discussion. Deeper discussion took place in the virtual coffee rooms during the breaks and after the official conference programme.

Recordings of all oral presentations: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW4sTEBUJkj17aBRnB3LYXA

Documentation of all poster presentations: https://bokubox.boku.ac.at/index.php/#df649372c33fa660e1366b5bfbf50aef

WLRI Meeting: Discussion panel with exchange of ideas and knowledge; documented as video file: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnyNq03ytxc

Worlds Large Rivers Conference 2021 - Conference Report.pdf