The 25th session of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO was held in Paris and online from April 26 – 29, 2022. A comprehensive report on the main achievements of the IHP-VIII was presented, and the draft operational implementation plan of the strategic plan of the 9th Phase of IHP (IHP-IX, 2022-2029) was discussed and adopted. The Council session also adopted the new guidelines framework for the IHP flagship initiatives, and an analysis of the current flagships and initiatives and new rules and procedures were put in place to manage IHP Flagship programmes. A set of eight thematic working groups were established by the Council, to track the effective implementation of the IHP Phase IX in the next 8 years. Prof. Cheng Liu from the IRTCES attended the meeting online.
Invited by Prof. Zhongbo Yu, the Chairperson of the IHP Council, Prof. Cheng Liu made a speech on behalf of the ISI Technical Secretariat on the Agenda item 4.3 - IHP flagships and Major Initiatives framework and their contribution to the implementation of IHP-IX. Prof. Liu presented activities of international cooperation and communication of the ISI in promoting the advancement of researches in erosion and sedimentation, specifically the ISI expert meeting on global sediment data, and two ISI online training workshops on sediment measurement and monitoring organized last year during COVID-19 Pandemic. He expressed that the ISI, decided through an ISI Advisory Group meeting, agreed and will comply to the new Framework for the Planning, Implementation and Monitoring of IHP Flagship Initiatives, and will continue to leverage its strengths to carry out activities for developing countries through technical conferences/seminars and training workshops, case studies on sustainable sediment management, and data sharing on erosion and sedimentation, in order to make significant contributions to the IHP-IX and the global sustainable sediment management. Prof. Yu highly appraised the contributions of IRTCES and ISI to the IHP and expressed appreciation on the support from the Chinese Government.
