IDA recently completed a rigorous strategic planning process that lays out a roadmap for the next five years. Presented to our Board of Directors in late October, the plan included a thorough analysis of our current position and more importantly, our vision for the Association and how to get there.
One of the clear findings is that IDA is about much more than desalination. We are also an organization that includes water reuse in both our mission and in our activities, as desalination technologies play a key part in treating wastewater for reuse.
Historically, IDA has shined the spotlight more on pure desalination than reuse. That is now changing.
While desalination is IDA’s foundation, advanced water reuse is about to become a far more prominent aspect of IDA. Not only are desalination technologies used in water reuse programs, but the market for industrial applications of desalination, which include water treatment as well as wastewater recycling and reuse programs, continues to exhibit strong growth.
Consider these numbers: Industrial applications for desalination grew to 10·3 million cubic meters per day (m3d−1) for 2014, up from 5–9 million m3d−1 during 2006–2009. Industries using desalination as a primary process and/or desalination technologies for recycle and reuse include power generation, oil and gas, mining and metals, refining and chemicals, electronics, and food and beverage, plus a host of other industries such as manufacturing.
The bottom line is that water reuse is an important and exciting market, one in which we already play a role, and one that we can do more to serve.
To that end, by the time this issue of the IDA Journal goes to press, we will have announced IDA’s first conference dedicated to advanced water reuse, to be held in Nice, France on September 26–27, 2016. In addition, IDA recently worked with the leading global news source Bloomberg BNA to help organize a webinar on desalination and industrial water reuse. Three of our Directors and Officers presented a thorough overview and analysis for participants who represented leading companies and agencies throughout North America.
We hope that this focus on advanced water reuse will also be reflected in more articles related to this field in the pages of the IDA Journal.
Speaking of articles, we are in the process of expanding the Editorial Advisory Board of the IDA Journal. Our overall goal is to continue to publish technically relevant, peer-reviewed articles that bridge the gap between academia and industry; we also plan to apply for ISI Science Citation Index listing within the next two years.
To be successful, we need to increase the number of high-impact articles that we publish while retaining our industry focus. We believe that this objective will be more readily achieved by broadening participation in the Editorial Advisory Board with a solid mixture of respected academic and industrial representatives who fully participate in the journals’ development by commissioning two to three research papers or rapid communications per year. Of course, the Editorial Advisory Board members will also support the Editor-in-Chief by refereeing approximately three papers each year and suggesting appropriate referees when needed.
If you are interested in submitting your resume for consideration, we invite you to send your curriculum vitae and a summary of your area of expertise to me at [email protected]. As always, your comments and feedback are always welcome.
Patricia A. Burke ([email protected]) is the IDA Secretary General and an officer on IDA’s Board of Directors. She was one of IDA’s founding members and has been actively involved in the association and its predecessors since 1973.
