Sessione "Lakescapes and water architecture"

Lakes, both natural and artificial (reservoirs) are vital and strategic resources for life on our planet. At the same time, they are also highly vulnerable to human activities, especially if they are not properly preserved and used in a sustainable manner. These natural resources and their ecosystems have defined borders, while at the same time also strongly influenced by where they are located. Although there is a geographic limit between a lake ecosystem and neighbouring ecosystems, lakes are heavily influenced by the substances entering them in their incoming waters. Moreover, lakes are very complex systems influenced by many different factors, major ones being the materials dissolved in their waters, the climate of the region, energy exchanges with the atmosphere, the soil and the variety of organisms inhabit them, all of which are influenced by, and also influence, the lake system itself. This complexity means that when a lake is studied on the basis of a single discipline, it can often lead to misleading conclusions, or even incorrect results. Thus, the continuing scope of this World Lake Conference is to again bring together experts in the field of lake environments and habitats, with the underlying goal of establishing a basis for developing multidisciplinary solutions to multidisciplinary issues. Further, although multidisciplinary is a keyword in regard to this conference, different approaches and point of views also must be taken into account to address complex lake issues. Therefore, we are inviting not only scientists, but also resource managers, politicians, and lake basin stakeholders and users to the conference. The interactions among this diverse audience will result in a wider discussion, with the goal of connect a top-down approach to a bottom-up perspective to solving complex lake basin issues. Moreover, this event also would likely have a strong influence on young generations of researchers, managers and lake users, launching different didactic experiences for children and graduate students, and teach them how to focus on world lake issues and how to connect with others in a worldwide study network.