The 8th International Conference on Estuaries and Coasts (ICEC2024) was held in Québec City, Canada from August 26-30, 2024. About 150 participants attended the Conference. The ICEC2024 was organized by the Hydraulic and Environmental research Groups of INRS (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada) and Clarkson University (USA), sponsored by the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES), the World Association for Erosion and Sediment Research (WASER), and co-sponsored by Lasalle|NHC, Ocean Group, UBERTONE, AdapT, école de Technologie Supérieure, BGC Engineering, CM Québec, the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) and the government of Québec City.
The opening ceremony was held in the morning of August 27 and was chaired by Prof. Damien Pham Van Bang, Conference Chair of the ICEC2024. Welcome speeches were made by Prof. Pham, Prof. Hongwei Fang, representing IRTCES, and Ms. Vallières-Roland, deputy mayor of Québec City.
Opening Ceremony
The ICEC2024 main theme was “Resilient Estuaries and Coastal Zones under Global Challenges” with the following topics:
1. Saline intrusion and sea level rise: measurements, modelling and forecasting;
2. Waves, storm surges and tsunami: measurements, modelling, forecasting and warning systems;
3. Estuarine and coastal flows and their evolution by climate change;
4. Sediment transport and morphological change in estuaries and coastal zones;
5. Megacity developments under the threat of sea level rise and climate change;
6. Environment and ecosystem changes in estuaries and coastal zones;
7. Integrated coastal zone management for sustainable developments in the context of global change;
8. Impacts of watershed developments on estuaries and coastal zones;
9. Shoreline protection and beach nourishment;
10. Interactions between estuarine and coastal systems;
11. Resilient engineering solutions in estuaries and coastal zones.
The program included 5 keynote lectures, 71 oral presentations and 11 poster presentations in parallel sessions. The keynote speakers were:
- Prof. Hongwei Fang, Tsinghua University Provost, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
- Prof. Ioan Nistor, University of Ottawa, Canada
- Jack A. Puleo, University of Delaware, USA
- Prof. Nina Stark, University of Florida, USA
- Prof. Qing He, East China Normal University, China
Presentations at the conference
The closing ceremony was organized in the morning of August 29. Prof. Damien Pham Van Bang, chaired the closing ceremony and gave a brief overview for the Conference. Prof. Weiming Wu, the representative of the ICEC Permanent Secretariat, announced that the 9th ICEC will be held in Qinzhou, China in 2026, and the conference will be co-organized by the Department of Water Resources and Department of Transport of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Dr. Xiongchang Wang, Mayor of the Qinzhou Municipal People’s Government, made a presentation of the 9th ICEC to welcome all participants to meet again in Qinzhou, China in 2026. A promotion video was also showed to introduce the 9th ICEC and Qinzhou City.
Closing Ceremony
The ICEC is a triennial event initiated by the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES). Seven conferences have been held in Hangzhou (China), Guangzhou (China), Sendai (Japan), Hanoi (Vietnam), Muscat (Oman), Caen (France), and Shanghai (China) respectively, from 2003 to 2021. Thanks to the support from related international associations and active participation of experts and scholars worldwide, ICEC has attracted wide attention and become a renowned event of academic importance and global popularity.