On November 15, 2016, David Lerner, the fellow of royal society and Professor of Environment Engineering in University of Sheffield UK is invited to attend the 92^nd Lecture series of SUSTech and gives a lecture  “Cities and water: a career researching groundwater, rivers and catchment management” in Lecture Hall 110 of lynn library, which introduce the urban hydrology and share the research achievements on management and utilization of urban water resources. Professor Zheng Chunmiao, the dean of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering of SUSTech hosts the lecture.

Scene of Public Lecture

Professor David Lerner is the honorary professor of Department of Environmental Engineering in University of Sheffield UK. Earlier, he worked for water resource management department, geology and civil engineering department with his exploration and research widely spread in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Peru, Algeria and UK. Professor David Lerner is always committed to water resource model, irrigation hydrology, flood hydrology and erosion control and especially good at groundwater research and protection. At present, he is focusing on natural attenuation and model of urban groundwater pollutants as well as research of crushed rock hydrogeology.

In the lecture, Professor David Lerner firstly states the concepts of urban hydrology starting from urban rainfall path and urban water supply path, analyzes urban flood problems including river flood and earth surface flood and introduces water resources system composed of rainfall, groundwater and flowing rivers, as well as external water supply and water resource waste.

Later on, Professor David Lerner analyzes the relationship between these urban water resources and water quality as well as its influence. When the sewage is above the groundwater level and may leak pollutants, it may significantly influence the quality of water resources. Besides, the impact of nitrate on water quality can not be neglected as well. Fertilizer used for rural farming, urban septic tank, refuse landfill and other nitrate for housing construction can also exert the influence on our water quality. Finally, the bacteria, especially featuring deep penetration, which can not be neglected during our daily life, have generated considerable impact on our potable water. However, the formation of these pollution problems such as industrial pollution, precipitation in situ and misuse of drainage system is often closely related with our life.

In Professor David Lerner’s opinion, the most important point to govern urban water environment is to establish environmental awareness, work together with water resource administrators to co-govern our common water environment rather than just relying on the supervision and control of related authorities.

Finally, Professor David Lerner has patiently answered questions proposed by teachers and students of SUSTC in detail. And our students express their gratitude to his splendid lecture with their warm applauses.