Date: 14 January 2026
Lecture Topic: River Danube, Niger and Mekong – Comparing the Sediment Status of Large Rivers

Speaker: Helmut Habersack
Affiliation: Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research (IWA-BOKU), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria

Speaker Profile: Professor Helmut Habersack currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Integrated River Research and Management and coordinates the UNESCO IHP World’s Large Rivers Initiative (WLRI). He is a Full Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Numerical Simulation in the Department of Water, Atmosphere and Environment at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria. Since 2019, Professor Habersack has served as Director of the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research and heads the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Advanced Methods in River Monitoring, Modelling and Engineering.
With over 30 years of research experience in hydrology, sediment transport, river engineering and morphology, river restoration, flood risk management, eco-hydraulics, hydropower, and navigation, he is a key organizer of multiple UNESCO-co-hosted international conferences titled "On the Status and Future of the World’s Large Rivers". He was awarded the Science2Business Award in 2015 and named Austrian of the Year 2023 (Science Category). Currently, he is coordinating the EU Horizon Europe Mission project DANUBE4all, with a budget of 8.5 million euros.

Lecture Overview: This lecture stems from the research vision of the UNESCO IHP World’s Large Rivers Initiative (WLRI). It aims to systematically assess the sediment transport status of global large rivers through unified, standardized, and reproducible methods, thereby deepening the overall understanding of the evolutionary processes, synergistic effects, and key challenges of large river basins.
Based on a multi-level analytical framework, the lecture selects the Danube, Niger, and Mekong rivers as typical cases to conduct the first comparable comprehensive assessment. The research shows that:
• The Danube has long been affected by flood control, navigation, and hydropower projects, with only about 10% of its river reaches remaining in a state of sediment balance;
• The Niger River is highly sensitive to runoff changes, and its discharge has not recovered to the pre-1970s level since 2001, with the impacts of climate change initially manifesting;
• Over the past 75 years, the Mekong River has exhibited an increase in dry season discharge (+7%) and a decrease in wet season discharge (–11%).
All three rivers share a common trend of a significant reduction in suspended sediment transported to deltas and the ocean, but their spatiotemporal characteristics differ markedly. The lecture concludes that future efforts urgently need to strengthen capacity building for systematic monitoring and comprehensive assessment in several key areas to support sustainable management decisions for large river basins.

Lecture Time:
Beijing Time: 21:00 on 14 January
UK Time: 13:00 on 14 January

Lecture Link: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/7a5b0ed3-8585-4128-b924-5af3c23ed1ca@cf264fc0-aeb8-449f-9054-82ce4454084b

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