Training Workshop - Water and Environmental Management
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Dates: 14th - 17th November 2017 
Location: Campus Veolia and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Local organisers: Muriel Chagniot, Sandrine Sourisseau, Emmanuel Soyeux, Nils Fauchon (Veolia) and Josette Garnier, Vincent Thieu (UPMC)
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 TW5 group photo  - visit of Veolia Research & Innovation

Summary of the workshop:

   The 5th C-CASCADES workshop was held on ‘Water and Environmental Management’, which was hosted by Veolia at Campus Veolia, Jouy-le-Moutier, and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) on the Jussieu Campus, Paris, France. 9 C-CASCADE ESRs attended along with 10 external participants.
   The training workshop first started with a tour of the laboratories at Veolia Research & Innovation (VERI) by Sandrine Sourisseau (Health & Environment Department Manager) and Emmanuel Soyeux (Expert Water Resources Management & Aquatic Environment), along with a few lectures on Veolia and what they do. This was the first time for some of us to see the industry side of research which was extremely interesting. After we completed the tour we were taken to a wastewater treatment plant, where Jean-Luc Willems (Director of International Relations) gave us a tour. For most of us, if not all, it was the first opportunity to see the vast amount of processes that go into waste water treatment and the complexity of it all. Following this we went back to the campus where Nicolas Lecuy (University Relations Manager) gave us a short presentation and a tour of Campus Veolia.
   The following day we visited the SEDIF’s drinking water plant where we had a presentation on Veolia Eau d’Ile-de-France (VEDIF) before being shown around by Noël Tanghe (VEDIF) and Christian Ravier (VEDIF). Just like the waste water plant, most of us were amazed by how many processes go into the cleaning of our drinking water and just how much water each person uses every day. After having our eyes opened by the two excursions we went to Campus Jussieu at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) Paris, where we were met by Esther Honikman (Evolution & Careers). She then did an excellent job in training us on how to create the perfect CV. Although some of us were unsure what our future may hold, we were still able to pick some vital advice for when we finally make the decision to either stay in academia or go in to the working world.
The following day Pierre Regnier (coordinator) summed up what the C-CASCADES project was and consisted of, which was then followed by each C-CASCADER giving a short presentation of the key findings so far. This gave everyone in the room an overview of the sort of data we were collecting and what each project focused on. Immediately following this, Veolia had a mini-conference where Emmanual Soyeux, Véronique Heim (Assistant Director for Technical Services, SEDIF), Cédric Feliers (VEDIF), Pierre Victoria (Director of Sustainable Development) and Muriel Chagniot (Sustainable Development Coordinator) spoke about the outlook of 15 years research and innovative programmes in relation to the framework of climate change, their carbon footprint along with carbon within the water treatment systems and its life cycle and finally, Veolia’s job diversity, sustainability development and climate programme. This gave everyone an overview on the work they have been conducting within Veolia in relation to climate change and as a company in general. With a busy morning behind us, over lunch we conducted a speed dating session, in which each student got to meet a professional/academic and were asked questions about their projects. Their performance was then assessed in terms of response, confidence as well as content. It was a good opportunity to mingle with those out of our immediate research area and exchange ideas. In the afternoon, we had a mini-conference from the French Environmental and Water Agencies where Lionel Guiseppin (Airparif), Fanny Colas (French Agency for Biodiversity), Thomas Eglin (French Environment and Management Agency) and Maylis Castaignet (Water Agency Seine-Normandie) focused on Paris and it’s pollution; how GHG production and storage function as indicators of lake ecosystems; climate change, energy and ecological transition and climate change adaptation measures for water resources. For those not based in France and Paris, this gave a full understanding of how the French system works and the sort of things they are implementing to prevent environmental events, such as flooding.
   On the final day, we were treated to a boat trip along the River Seine through Paris, sailing past some of the biggest monuments it had to hold (including the impressive iconic Eiffel Tower). Upon this voyage we were treated to 5 more presentations in another mini-conference: ‘The Seine as a long term ecological research case study’. Dominique Joly (CNRS, Ecology and Environment Institute), Nicolas Flipo (Mines Paritech), Nicolas Bacq (GIP-Seine Aval), Johnny Gasperi (Université Paris-Est) and Jean-Marie Mouchel (Metis Laboratory, UPMC) covered a range of topics including: infrastructure for research on the Environment and socio-ecological systems; the PIREN-Seine Programme; the Seine-Aval Programme; the OPUR Programme and the LTER case study which is longer term ecological study from land to ocean by the River Seine. It was an extremely interesting conference even with the distractions of Paris floating by.
   This was a slightly different training workshop/mini-conference compared to the others within the C-CASCADERS project. The diversity gave us a good insight into the world of the industry and helped us prepare for the very near future where we will have to start writing professional (or academic) CVs and interacting with those from a range of industries/disciplines. We socialized and discussed future possibilities and were able to enquire further in to the industry side of things. Along with all this, we got to show off our data and publications and show everyone how far we have progressed over the last two years of so.

written by Anna Canning

List of the participants:

1. Anna Canning (ESR1 - C-CASCADES) - KM Contros
2. Åsa Horgby (ESR2 - C-CASCADES) - EPFL
3. Anna Nydahl (ESR4 - C-CASCADES) - UU
4. Audrey Marescaux (ESR5 - C-CASCADES) - CNRS-IPSL
5. Marie-Sophie Maier (ESR6 - C-CASCADES) - ETHZ
6. Adam Hastie (ESR11 - C-CASCADES) - ULB
7. Philip Pika (ESR12 - C-CASCADES) - ULB
8. Andre Nakhavali (ESR13 - C-CASCADES) - UNEXE
9. Simon Bowring (ESR14 - C-CASCADES) - CNRS-IPSL
10. Ankit Agarwal - University of Postdam
11. Cordula Wittekind - Humboldt-Universität-Berlin
12. Maria Trujillo Gomez - Université de Lausanne
13. Omar Alaoui - CNRS-IPSL
14. Ali Iravani - Université Pierre et Marie Curie
15. Piero Morseletto - Vrije Universitet Amsterdam
16. Silvia Zaoli - EPFL
17. Tejshree Tiwari - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
18. Wim Joost van Hoeck - Utrecht University
19. Zun Yin - CNRS-IPSL

List of lecturers:

- Emmanuel Soyeux (Veolia Research & Innovation): Veolia Research & Innovation programs dedicated to water resources: outlook of 15 years of research and perspectives in the framework of climate change
- Véronique Heim (SEDIF) and Cédric Feliers (Veolia Eau d'Ile-de-France): Carbon in water resource and new water treatments, Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon footprint
- Pierre Victoria and Muriel Chagniot (Veolia): Presentation of Veolia’s job diversity, sustainable development and climate program
- Lionel Guiseppin (Airparif): The Greater Paris area observatory for air pollution: to monitor, to understand, to support
- Fanny Colas (IRSTEA): Greenhouse gas production, storage and emission as functional indicators of lake ecosystems
- Thomas Eglin (French Environment and Management Agency): C-Cascade, climate change, energy and ecological transition
- Maylis Castaignet (Water Agency Seine-Normandie): Climate change adaptation measures for water resources management
- Dominique Joly (CNRS): Infrastructure for research on the Environment and socio-ecological systems
- Nicolas Flipo (Mines PariTech): The PIREN-Seine Programme : an interdisciplinarity perspective on the Seine Basin from head waters to the entrance of its estuary, since 1989
- Nicolas Bacq (GIP-Seine Aval): The Seine-Aval Programme : a brother programme on the Seine Estuary to the Seine Bight, since 1993
- Johnny Gasperi (Universite Paris-Est): The OPUR programme: an observatory for urban pollution since 1994
- Jean-Marie Mouchel (UPMC): The Seine, from land-to-sea, a long term ecological research case study (LTER), labelled by the CNRS as “Zone Atelier Seine”