Drop a step to fill the IAHR bucket: Understanding Privilege and Equity in the Water Sector
Convened by IAHR’s DEI task force, EPD Committee, EcoENet, and the Local Organising Committee.
This session is open to all attendees and aims to offer a supportive and inclusive space towards a more equitable, innovative, and effective water research and practice.
Description:
The Ecohydraulics community brings together diverse expertise in fluvial and coastal hydraulics, eco-bio-morphodynamics, aquatic ecosystems, habitat modelling and water management. Yet, like many technical fields, water sciences continue to face persistent challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across research teams, fieldwork practices, education, and professional experiences.
Building on the DEI session introduced at River Flow 2026 in Thessaloniki, the IAHR DEI and EPD Committees, along with EcoENet and the ISE 2026 Conference Organisers, invite all attendees to engage in a participatory and reflective event that deepens this ongoing dialogue. Using guided walking activities (inspired by the Privilege Walk method), the session will create space for participants to explore how personal backgrounds, institutional structures, and professional cultures influence access, opportunity, and belonging in ecohydraulics.
Participants will collectively examine who is mostly represented, whose knowledge and perspectives are valued, and how power and decision-making shape outcomes for water systems and the communities connected to them. The event is designed to help participants see structural and cultural barriers, reflect on their own professional contexts, and identify ways to actively overcome exclusionary practices in their working environment.
Moving beyond reflection, the event links to professional practice. Topics include inclusive approaches to fieldwork and laboratory environments, collaboration across cultures and geographies, engagement with local communities, and equitable career development within the water sector. Through this, we aim to facilitate peer exchange across career stages and the development of diversity, equity and inclusion concepts.
Who is this session for? For everyone, at any career stage – whether you are new to DEI conversations or have been actively engaged in such work for some time. It is designed for researchers, practitioners, leaders, students, and organizers who want to better understand how inclusive practices strengthen our professional community.
Participants are especially welcome to attend along with their children.
Day/Time: Monday (17.08.2026): 17:30 – 18:30
Location: SwissTech Convention Center, Salle 1 – Garden 4A
We are looking forward to seeing you in the session.