Melbourne, 10 October 2012

The 15th International Riversymposium in Melbourne, Australia, featured the first-round final of the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge. Five bright Australian students competed in a poster presentation session, showcasing innovative ideas to enhance flood resilience in their country.

While all presented ideas will be taken forward for further development in the coming months, it was Kevin Loh (far left), Masters student in Integrated Water Management at the University of Queensland, who was announced winner by jury chair Frank Heemskerk (far right), Executive Board Member of Royal HaskoningDHV.

Kevin’s proposal for a smartphone app that would greatly expedite the handling of insurance claims after a flood event, reducing both psychological and economic damage, was judged to have great potential.

Kevin was invited to further develop his app in the Netherlands and was presented a return ticket, sponsored by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

(Winner Kevin Loh (middle) in front of his poster presentation together with Gregor van Essen (right), organizer of the Holland Water Challenge and Paul Hart (left) of RoyalHaskoningDHV.)

The Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge is a joint initiative with the International Water Centre in Brisbane (www.watercentre.org). Participating Dutch organisations are Van Oord, Royal HaskoningDHV, Fugro, Netherlands Embassy, Rabobank, KLM and HydroLogic.

More information: www.hollandwaterchallenge.nl/australia-2012-2013.