At the end of January, the Water in the Landscape Training Centre was established at Mendel University in Brno. Its aim is to promote innovative approaches in water management education. This week, the centre is organising Water Days, an event that takes place not only at MENDELU but also at other locations in Brno on the occasion of World Water Day, targeting secondary school students, teachers and the public. At the same time, it is organising a professional conference in Křtiny this week. Water in the Landscape was created as part of the transnational PoVE Water Scale-up project, which aims to educate professionals and the public about water management.
The education centre will teach sustainable water management to children, students, professionals and the general public, bringing together people and organisations interested in water management. Water in the Landscape goes beyond formal educational structures, engaging the professional public and government authorities. “The main activity is to create an educational and communication platform in the field of water management. The Centre will also be involved in the development of educational materials and the organisation of events related to water management. It will also be involved in research activities in the field or the creation of strategies in the areas of water management in the landscape,” explained Martin Klimanek, Vice-Rector for Strategy, Sustainability and Purposeful Activities, who is the chairman of the Water in the Landscape Training Centre.
The Water Days week will focus on education on the topic of water in forest, agricultural and urban landscapes. “This is an international event for the first time primarily aimed at secondary vocational schools and grammar schools, coordinated by the college. The programme will also include a panel discussion by experts from various disciplines focusing on the water cycle in the city, a water balance measurement workshop or a water quality measurement workshop,” said Michaela Menšíková, PoVE Water Scale-up Project Manager. The week ends with a family Water Day at the Lipka Jezírko site in Soběšice. Visitors will learn what a rain bed is good for and make a watering trough for insects and birds in workshops.
The PoVE Water Scale-up project aims to ensure that current and future water professionals have the right working attitude, knowledge and competences required by the rapidly changing water industry in the European Union. One of the main outputs of the project is the creation of five training centres that will act as regional skills ecosystems. One of them is the Water in the Landscape Vocational Training Centre at Mendel University in Brno.
The Water in the Landscape Centre was created as part of the international PoVE Water project, or its follow-up phase PoVE Scale Up, of which Mendel University in Brno is the coordinator for Central Europe. The starting point for the establishment of the association are the activities of the international project from the INTERREG Europe iWATERMAP programme and the S3 platform Water Smart Territories implemented by the CREA Hydro&Energy cluster and supported by the South Moravian Region.
Contact for further information: Michaela Menšíková, MSc., Ph.D., +420 771 125 473, michaela.mensikova@mendelu.cz, Department of Applied and Landscape Ecology, MENDELU University of Applied Sciences.