Skip to searchSkip to main content
Languages
Novatech

International Meetings & Workshops 

Monday, June 29


A day of meetings to exchange ideas and promote collaboration between scientists and practitioners
Organized as full-day or half-day events, the 12 meetings on Monday are open to all, with audiences more or less targeted (scientists and experts, professionals, local authorities, etc.), except for two meetings (RFATEP and Greenstorm partners).

Practical information
✅ Lunch is included for participants registered for full-day meetings and morning sessions.
🍹 The day will end with a cocktail reception from 6:00 pm, open to all participants.

 Full day sessions

RFATEP - Francophone Network of Territorial Stormwater Facilitators

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Organizers: GRAIE (Elodie Brelot, Axel Greub) and ADOPTA (Franck Degrasse, Geoffrey Houpe)
Target audience: FATEP network members and French-speaking stormwater facilitators
Language: French (note: there will be no translation offered at this workshop)


Objective: Identify the challenges of support and guidance in order to overcome barriers and resistance to change; share experiences related to awareness-raising and support through practical workshops; and jointly define working methods enabling real cross-sector collaboration that supports source control of stormwater in development projects.
Why participate: Are you a project officer, local authority staff member, or facilitator working in the associative sector, directly involved in or concerned with source control stormwater management? Join the RFATEP network and benefit from dynamic activities throughout the year.
DESCRIPTION

On the occasion of Novatech 2019, GRAIE and ADOPTA brought together territorial “Stormwater” facilitators for the first time to create a network and define the framework for this collaborative environment. Since then, the Francophone Network of Stormwater Facilitators and Technicians (RFATEP) has gathered a community of 250 facilitators and project officers engaged in integrated stormwater management. These territorial facilitators support the implementation of cross-sector public policies to deploy integrated stormwater management strategies, with the aim of adapting to climate change and increasing urban resilience. The network promotes the sharing of experiences and resources through national meetings, webinars, and continuous exchanges among members, notably through the “Expertises Territoires” collaborative platform developed by Cerema.

COOKETAL - Translating Climate Model Results for Urban Drainage Applications

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Organizers: Climate Change Adaptation Sub-Working Grou^p of Urban Rainfall, with support from H20'Lyon and OTHU (Lauren Cook, Vincent Pons, Thomas Einfalt, Flora Branger)
Target audience: Scientists and specialists / Language : English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)


Objective: Better inform the urban drainage community about the use of climate model outputs, while standardizing best practices associated with their use and encouraging knowledge transfer from the climate science community.
Why participate: This meeting will provide an overview of the different methodological approaches, guidelines, and practical techniques for using climate model results in urban drainage modelling.
DESCRIPTION

Climate change has immense consequences for urban drainage infrastructure and adaptation is necessary. However, there is little guidance in the urban drainage community on how to adapt and in particular, how to use output from climate models in our analyses for climate change adaptation. This hands-on workshop will provide a tutorial on using output from climate models in urban drainage models. 

We will first present the fundamentals of using climate data and the challenges for the urban drainage community, including the common mismatch in scale between the coarse outputs and the high spatial and temporal resolution data required for urban drainage applications. We will provide an overview of possible methods to obtain adequate climate projections.

We will then provide an overview of the available sources of climate data and an example of how to extract data for a particular location. We will discuss the need for downscaling and bias-correction and provide a hands-on tutorial of how to implement a basic downscaling/bias-correction technique. 


The workshop will close with a discussion on uncertainties and limitations of using downscaled climate data.

OPRA - Protection and restoration of urban biodiversity by enhancing treatment wetlands for combined sewer overflows

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Organizers: International research project OPRA (Coordinator: Katharina Tondera)
Target audience: Open to all participants involved in combined sewer overflow treatment
Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)

Objective: Stimulate exchanges on combined sewer overflow treatment practices across the European Union and the opportunity to join a stakeholder committee to follow and support the progress of the OPRA project.
Why participate: A chance to share your experience on combined sewer overflow treatment and/or discover the practices of other water professionals.
DESCRIPTION
The revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD) requires EU Member States to significantly reduce untreated discharges from combined sewer overflows (CSOs). Currently, there are limited options for comprehensively reducing both pollutant loads and peak hydraulic loads from CSOs in urban areas. The most comprehensive treatment currently available is provided by Stormwater Treatment Wetlands (STWs) for CSOs. However, their space requirements, legislative barriers, and limited understanding of their functions restrict their large-scale implementation in many regions. Reducing their overall footprint and quantifying their co-benefits for urban biodiversity is therefore a crucial step toward protecting surface waters.

The project therefore focuses on the impact of treatment wetlands on biodiversity in urban environments, while mitigating peak pollutant and hydraulic loads from CSOs. The objective is to determine how STWs can reduce the degradation of aquatic organisms caused by CSO discharges and how their large-scale application can help meet the requirements of the UWWTD, while contributing to biodiversity protection and enhancement.


The consortium consists of three research groups from higher education and research institutions in three countries, a non-profit organization, a provider of essential urban services, and an SME. The project will combine several approaches:
  • Assessment of aquatic fauna based on traditional biomonitoring and innovative measurements of mitochondrial performance in macro-invertebrates
  • Behavioral and physiological experiments on organisms and their offspring exposed to treated and untreated CSO waters
  • A complementary study on the improvement of riparian biodiversity

The results of the biodiversity assessment will be integrated into a holistic and integrated model that considers runoff-sewer systems, treatment wetland performance, receiving waters, and biodiversity as an additional co-benefit. This will enable direct knowledge transfer to urban planners and other stakeholders and support multi-criteria evaluation.

Program:

  • Presentation of the OPRA project
  • Feedback on CSO treatment practices in different European countries
  • Identification of needs regarding CSO treatment challenges
  • Information on the next steps of the project and partner engagement


  Morning only sessions

France-Brazil - Urban Hydrology: North-South dialogue

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Organizers: UNESCO Working Group on Urban Water and Human Settlement in Latin America and the Caribbean (Nilo Nascimento) 
Target audience: Open to all
Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)


Objective: Foster exchanges on urban water management in different environmental and socio-economic contexts and identify opportunities for cooperation.
Why participate: Share experiences and knowledge about urban water management in different contexts and learn about innovative initiatives and lessons learned.
DESCRIPTION

This working group was established as part of a regional strategic action plan based on scientific and technical expertise and the sharing of information and best practices. Its aim is to strengthen and consolidate integrated urban water management in Latin American and Caribbean countries.


Meeting program:

  • Nature-based solutions in urban drainage: lessons learned from design, implementation, and monitoring
  • Regulation and financing of urban water
  • Exchanges on upcoming steps

GreenStorm - Project Partners Meeting

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Organizers: GreenStorm project (Marie-Christine Gromaire - ENPC/LEESU, Jérémie Sage - CEREMA)
Target audience: GreenStorm project partners only
Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)


Objective: Bring together the partners of the GreenStorm project.
DESCRIPTION

Five European countries are involved in the GreenStorm project through:
  • 7 universities / research laboratories: École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (France), Cerema (France), Université Gustave Eiffel (France), University of Genoa (Italy), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Agricultural University of Athens (Greece), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden)
  • 6 urban public authorities:City of Copenhagen, City of Athens, City of Genoa, City of Paris, CD93, City of Östersund
  • 1 SME partner: Koordinat (Denmark) 

URBAN M2O - "Water Wise" cities: which water quality data do we need to tackle urban pollution?

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Organizers: URBAN M2O - EU Horizon project (Luca Vezzaro - Technical University of Denmark - DTU)
Target audience: Open to all
Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)

Objective: Discuss the water quality data required by urban water managers, present future water management scenarios aimed at reducing pollution emissions from urban areas, and map the current level of digital maturity of European cities.
Why participate: This session will give you the opportunity to follow the latest developments in water quality monitoring and modeling tools, to better understand water quality in urban environments. Your experiences and needs will directly influence the progress of the URBAN M2O project and help provide future water professionals with relevant and appropriate tools.
DESCRIPTION
The URBAN M2O project aims to provide turnkey and flexible solutions for water quality monitoring in urban areas, enabling the implementation of actions to reduce pollution and facilitating the transition toward “Water Wise” cities. To be effective, these solutions must be adapted to the needs of urban water managers (water utilities, environmental authorities, practitioners).


The meeting will combine presentations of results and practical activities in order to actively involve participants. The discussions will directly contribute to the development activities of the URBAN M2O project, particularly regarding new sensors, models, and data management systems. Participants will also have the opportunity to follow the project results in the coming years.

The half-day session will be organized into three parts, each focusing on a different theme:
  • Discussion on data needs (water quality parameters to monitor, spatial and temporal resolution, intended use)
  • Co-creation of potential future water management scenarios, which can be explored using the modeling tools developed in the URBAN M2O project
  • Mapping the current state of water quality data sharing in urban areas across Europe

BGI Clinic - World Café: Co-Creating Solutions from Practical Experience

Schedule I 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Organizers : International working group on Blue-Green Infrastructures (iBGI) of the IWA / IAHR Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (JCUD) (Luis Sañudo, Peter Bach and Veljko Prodanovic)
Target audience: Open to all 
Language: English

Objective: Leverage the collective knowledge of the BGI community in a context of deep uncertainty (climate change, uncontrolled urbanization, etc.), move beyond the usual academic approach, and focus on gathering practical experiences from global experts facing real-world challenges, with the aim of creating a practice-based co-creation space. Global challenges and collaboration opportunities will be presented and discussed, leading to the creation of a unified database of international BGI practices (to be developed later as an online tool).
Why participate: An opportunity to take part in a participatory experience, discover key challenges in the field, exchange with international experts, and co-create solutions for the future. Bring your BGI project to compare it with experiences from other countries and climates, or come to gather ideas and new perspectives to enrich your local initiatives.
DESCRIPTION

A World Café workshop to co-create solutions based on practical experiences 

The workshop will follow a participatory action-research framework using the World Café method: several tables of 7–8 participants, each facilitated by a member of the iBGI working group. Each group will be assigned a theme or main topic related to a real-world challenge and will receive a concrete case study associated with a specific climate domain, based on the Köppen–Geiger climate classification. Facilitators will then develop a draft guide to address global challenges through a strongly practice-oriented and participatory approach. This guide will be published on the iBGI working group website to allow direct and operational knowledge transfer.

Call for contributions: your case study featured at the World Café!

The organizers will contact participants by email prior to the event. Four case studies from four climate zones will be selected from among the proposals and will be used to animate the Word Café.

  Afternoon only sessions

France-Brazil - Urban Hydrology: collaboration prospects

Schedule I 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Organizers: LEESU ENPC (Martin Seidl) and EHR UFMG (Priscilla Moura), within the framework of the CAPES-COFECUB 2026 program  
Target audience: Open to all (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)
Language: English


Objective: To exchange on scientific topics in urban hydrology between the two countries, highlighting both similarities and differences while considering their respective geographical and urban contexts; and to prepare potential joint research projects.
Why participate: Share experiences, build connections between related research projects, learn from one another, and initiate new collaborative initiatives such as researcher and student mobility, joint PhD supervision, co-authored publications, and a more effective collective exploration of existing funding instruments, such as CAPES (Brazil), ANR (France), and the European Water4All programme.
DESCRIPTION
The workshop will combine presentations of ongoing joint projects, focusing not only on scientific outcomes but also on project development processes and the challenges associated with conducting research across multiple countries.

Eurydice prospective workshop - Envisioning Urban Water Management in 2075 in France and Europe

Schedule I 2:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Organizers: EURYDICE (Christine Gandouin, Jean-Pierre Tabuchi)
Target audience: Open to all
Language: French (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)

Objective: To reflect on the impacts of climate change, resource availability, and broader global change on the role and management of water in cities by the year 2075.
Why participate: Engaging in a diversity of perspectives on possible futures for urban water management helps broaden our understanding of the transformations that may occur in the coming decades. Developing narratives of future scenarios allows participants to immerse themselves in potential futures, engage stakeholders and colleagues, and prepare for emerging challenges. It also provides an opportunity to explore issues that are still underdeveloped today but will become critical for the cities of tomorrow.
DESCRIPTION
Eurydice is an association created in 1988 by specialists who were among the major players in French and international studies and research that led to the emergence of Urban Hydrology in France. Although the men and women who make up the association have changed since its creation, the objective has remained the same: engineers and academics from different educational and professional backgrounds, working independently, wishing to pool their ideas and expertise to help solve the water-related problems faced by urban stakeholders.

The workshop will build on work previously conducted by the Eurydice association. This foresight exercise consists of imagining possible futures for urban water management over the next fifty years, expressed through narrative scenarios. The session aims to share the insights gained from this work and discuss the key issues highlighted by these narratives, while potentially identifying additional challenges and opportunities.

GreenStorm - Designing climate extreme resilient and socially embedded nature-based solutions for urban stormwater management

Schedule I 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Organizers: GreenStorm project (Marie-Christine Gromaire - ENPC/LEESU, Jérémie Sage - CEREMA)
Target audience: Open to all / Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)


Objective: To share insights developed within the European GreenStorm project regarding the resilience of Nature-Based Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) to climate extremes, particularly drought, and to discuss possible design strategies to enhance this resilience.
Why participate: Address key challenges related to water availability and plant development within sustainable urban drainage systems, and contribute to discussions on designing resilient SUDS in collaboration with scientists and practitioners.
DESCRIPTION

The GreenStorm project aims to develop nature-based solutions (NBS) for managing urban stormwater as a pathway for urban transition. The project places particular emphasis on climate change adaptation, the resilience of urban vegetation, and the associated societal benefits. One of the main issues addressed is the resilience of NBS to current and future climate extremes, while also considering questions related to their acceptability and large-scale deployment in cities.


During the session, reflections developed within the GreenStorm project will be presented. The discussion will also extend the analysis to a broader range of climatic and socio-technical contexts, addressing challenges and potential solutions. Part of the workshop will be dedicated to co-creating improved NBS designs based on a case study.

JCUD - Annual Meeting of the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage

Schedule I 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Organizers: IWA / IAHR Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (Manfred Kleidorfer, Alma Schellart)
Target audience: Open to all
Language: English (note: no translation will be offered at this meeting)


Objective: To review recent activities, ongoing initiatives, and future projects of the JCUD.
Why participate: Gain insight into scientific directions, methodological developments, and collaborative initiatives shaping international research in urban drainage.
DESCRIPTION
Established by the International Water Association (IWA) and the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), the Joint Committee on Urban Drainage (JCUD) serves as an international forum for researchers, engineers, and urban water managers working in the field of urban drainage. Its mission is to promote fundamental and applied research in urban drainage, considering meteorological, hydrological, hydraulic, water quality, and socio-economic aspects, and to foster innovative approaches worldwide.

The meeting programme will include:
  • Short presentations by committee members
  • Discussions on current and emerging topics in urban drainage
  • Brief presentations from candidate hosts for the 2030 International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD)

French Federation of Landscape Architects – From industrial to urban landscape at Carré de Soie: a guided exploration of water management

Schedule I 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Organizers: French Federation of Landscape Architects
Target audience: Open to all
Language: French (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)

Objective: To illustrate concretely how urban landscape design can integrate stormwater management solutions to enhance climate resilience and multifunctionality in public spaces.
Why participate: Discover innovative urban developments, exchange with experts, and enrich your professional practice with transferable ideas for your own projects.
DESCRIPTION
After an initial introduction at the Maison du Projet, through an exhibition (photos, posters and models), you will be invited to explore the Carré de Soie district in Vaulx-en-Velin during a guided site visit. 

This visit will provide an opportunity to examine the redevelopment of the former TASE factory into housing, a project designed to address contamination issues and stormwater management challenges, while also supporting the reappropriation of the site by residents, with a strong landscape focus. You will also walk along Boulevard des Droits de l’Homme, where public and private spaces are closely interwoven within an activity area. This will offer insight into the work carried out with developers to integrate on-site stormwater management strategies into private projects and ensure overall coherence.

Finally, the visit will highlight how the Carré de Soie project, completed in 2026, responds to local challenges by implementing a sustainable approach that combines landscape design with source control stormwater management.

Astee - Stormwater and Urban Planning Commission

Schedule I 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Organizers: ASTEE (Mathilde Silvert)
Target audience: Open to all
Language: French (note: no translation will be offered at this workshop)


Objective: To facilitate exchanges among a diverse range of stakeholders involved in stormwater management, including project owners, developers, urban planners, hydrologists, landscape architects, and infrastructure engineers.
Why particiate: Stay informed, share advice, and learn from practical feedback and experiences that can be applied within your own territory.
DESCRIPTION
Integrated and sustainable stormwater management lies at the crossroads of environmental transitions. Stormwater therefore needs to be managed as close as possible to where it falls, avoiding runoff concentration and promoting the multifunctionality of urban spaces. In this context, ASTEE created the Stormwater & Urban Development Commission in 2025 to better address challenges related to territorial planning, ecological transition, environmental vulnerability, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. 

The commission has established several working groups aimed at providing methodological and technical tools for professionals and facilitating the implementation of new regulatory frameworks. Commission members will meet at Novatech to discuss shared issues related to integrated stormwater management, including regulatory developments (DERU2), soil shrink–swell and flood risks, design of urban developments, common geostandards, soil pollution, and renewal of stormwater networks. These issues will be illustrated through two case studies from different territories.

All participants attending Novatech are invited to register for this meeting in order to exchange on shared challenges.