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Newswise Under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), NYU Tandon School of Engineering is co-organizing and hosting the inaugural Metropolitan Water Research & Innovation Workshop (WRI), an initiative of the Euro-North American Region (ENAR) of UNESCOsMegacities Alliance for Water and Climate(MAWaC).

TheNYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP)and NYC Department of Design and Construction (NYCDDC) via itsTown+Gownprogram serve as WRIs other co-organizers.

Taking place March 20 and 21 at NYU Tandon's Brooklyn campus, WRI brings together Tandon faculty, government officials, utility executives, researchers and NGOs from New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, and London.

Workshop participants are exploring inter-city collaboration in the development, demonstration and early-deployment monitoring of solutions to climate-related water challenges faced by megacities in North America and Europe. MAWaC promotes experience-sharing and innovation in climate adaptation for sustainable and resilient water ecosystems in some of the worlds biggest cities.

NYU Tandon, with its emphasis on urban research with NYC infrastructure agencies and its global network of international collaborations with the world megacities, is particularly well positioned to support the development of innovative urban climate resiliency solutions and accelerate their deployment monitoring for facing the existential challenges of metropolitan ecosystems sustainability and the ever-growing effects of the climate change crisis, said MAWaC-ENAR Acting SecretaryIlan Juran, NYU Tandon Professor (retired 2021) and former head of the Civil and Urban Engineering Department. The inter-city WRI collaboration among the ENAR megacities will mutually support NYU Tandons current research programs and aligns well with the goals of MAWaC.

Sustainability is one of NYU Tandons seven foundational Areas of Excellence that structure its interdisciplinary research and define its institutional priorities.

MAWaCs mission is in lockstep with that of NYU Tandon, and its a privilege to join together on this important workshop, said Jelena Kovaevi, Dean of NYU Tandon. We launched theSustainability Engineering Initiativelast year, for example, to create an atmosphere in which our researchers and educators collaborate on engineering solutions to the pressing challenges of climate change and environmental contamination. Working with Professor Juran and the MAWaC provides another way to move those efforts forward.

Workshop participants are attending sessions with distinguished experts from around the world, including NYU Tandon professors:

NYCDCCs Town+Gown, a WRI co-organizer, is a NYC university-community partnership program, which was contractually established to bring together academics and practitioners with city agencies, and to accelerate project financing for research tailored to the agencies. It originated in the 1990s with Jurans support and currently involves 15 universities.

Terri Matthews, Director of Town+Gown, is sharing a report at WRI summarizing the more-than-40 current water-related research programs of universities in the program. The report highlights the academic capacity to efficiently leverage resources and engage multi-disciplinary expertise in response to climate-adaptation challenges of NYC agencies.

Other participants in WRI include executives and technical experts from NYCDEP and NYCDDC, along with their peers from theMetropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago,Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,London Office of the Mayor, Urban Planning Department of theCity of Paris,theU.S. Department of Energyand many other organizations. Also attending are faculty and researchers from leading universities in the megacities involved, including NYU, Stanford, UCLA, Imperial College of London, University of Paris Est and Creteil (U-PEC), the School of Engineering of the City of Paris, University of Chicago, and Northwestern.

WRI is supported by NGOs including the ParisARCEAU-IdFAssociation and theW-SMARTassociation of water and wastewater management utilities for sustainable water security. An official UNESCO-associated partner, W-SMART was co-founded in the aftermath of 9/11 by the Commissioner of NYCDEP and Juran as its executive director.

Since its inception by UNESCO in 2015, MAWaC has served as a platform for officials from the world's largest cities to collaborate and exchange ideas on managing water-related services, propose solutions, and obtain technical and financial support for programs and projects.

MAWaC operates globally through four regional initiatives, including the Euro-North American Region. According to Juran, the inaugural WRI is designed to serve as a blueprint for future MAWaC events in its other regions: Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa.

WRI is part ofNew York Water Week, a series of events supporting theUnited Nations 2023 Water Conferencetaking place at UN headquarters from March 22 to 24. The conference aims to promote international cooperation and collaboration to achieve theUN's Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

About the New York University Tandon School of EngineeringThe NYU Tandon School of Engineering is home to a community of renowned faculty and undergraduate and graduate students united in a mission to understand and create technology that powers cities, enables worldwide communication, fights climate change, and builds healthier, safer, and more equitable real and digital worlds. The schools culture centers on encouraging rigorous, interdisciplinary collaboration and research; fostering inclusivity, entrepreneurial thinking, and diverse perspectives; and creating innovative and accessible pathways for lifelong learning in STEM, from K12 to executive education and new advances in digital learning.

NYU Tandon dates back to 1854, the founding year of both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. Those institutions evolved independently before merging in 2014 to create what is now known as NYU Tandon. Located in the heart of Brooklyn, NYU Tandon is a vital part of NYU's New York campus and unparalleled global network. For more information, visitengineering.nyu.edu.

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NYU Tandon School of Engineering hosts inaugural Metropolitan Water Research & Innovation Workshop, a UNESCO initiative - Newswise