Participation in Conferences

18-21 April 2005:  The Palestinian project team was invited to the International Conference on Promoting Community-driven Conservation and Sustainable Use of Dry land Agro biodiversity in Syria to present the results obtained from the analysis of Land Cover and above ground biomass changes.  The presented paper demonstrated the use of medium-high spatial resolution satellite data in monitoring biomass changes in the Dead Sea Basin.

19-23 March 2005: Khaldoun Rishmawi was invited to participate in the Global land Cover network initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).  Rishmawi presented a sample of the Project Maps to the Participants.

5-8 December 2004: Clive Lipchin presented a paper entitled "Public Perceptions and Attitudes Towards the Declining Water Level of the Dead Sea Basin: A Multi-Cultural Analysis." The Paper was presented at the Palestinian and Israeli Environmental Narratives conference held at York University in Toronto.

10-14 Oct 2004: Clive Lipchin and Orthofer Rudolf were invited to the Second Israeli-Palestinian International Conference "Water for Life in the Middle East" organized by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI).  the conference was held in Antalya, Turkey.  Orthofer Rudolf presented a paper that summarizes some findings of a similar previous project on the Lower Jordan Valley. It shows that contrary to public perception the area is a very water-rich region with an availability of 1200 m3 drinking water per person per year. However this water is very unevenly distributed with respect to usage sectors, with respect to geographical areas, and with respect to social groups.

16-20 Aug 2004: The Dead Sea project team was asked to present the project to a workshop of the World Water Weeks held in Sweden. Project Coordinator, Orthofer Rudolf presented a Project Poster, One of the issues addressed in the poster is the fact that bringing in more water from the outside would possibly not be a long-term solution for a sustainable future, because a higher water availability will only stimulate a higher water demand.

14-15 Jun 2004: The  project team members were present at the MEDAQUA II - the INCO-MED Water Conference held in Amman, Jordan.  The project team presented four papers at the conference.  All papers are available for download from the Project Publications Website.

           The project team is currently carrying interviews with farmers to investigate the cropping patterns in the study area and the sustainability of the agricultural sector.  The results of the interviews will be available in late May 2005.

           The project team held 4 Focus group meetings in the Dead Sea region.  These focus group meetings targeted the farmers of the region, local and national NGOs, Universities, Regional councils and representatives of the relevant Governmental Organizations. Results from the Focus Group Meetings were instrumental in the Development of the project Scenarios.

           The project team carried out a questionnaire survey.  1,540 Dead Sea residents' opinions and perceptions as regards to the Declining Water level of the Dead Sea were surveyed.  The survey also collected essential socio-economic information on basic demographic and socio-economic indicators.  Some of the results of the survey are summarized in Lipchin et al, 2004.

           Five formal project meetings were held at approximately every six months time interval from the onset of the project.  Project meetings have been a very useful tool to review the progress achieved in the project, to discuss and agree upon future research activities.

           Nine regional project meetings were held.  Seven of which were held in the Study area and two were held outside the study area.  Regional meetings are essential for Work package coordinators to coordinate and guide the work of the tasks of each work package.  These are mostly technical meetings that have contributed enormously towards the progress achieved so far.

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