The establishment of a specialized committee under the title of "Historical Water Structures" was proposed for the first time in the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) by the Iranian National Committee on Large Dams (IRCOLD), and was approved in the eighty-ninth session of the Annual General Assembly in 2021 by a majority vote in the presence of 104 member countries. The chairmanship of this committee was assigned to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It is a great honor for Iran with its unique water historical heritage in the world to chair one of the ICOLD specialized committees for the first time in the 96-year history of ICOLD. This valuable achievement was obtained through the initiative by the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the ICOLD Board of Directors (the Chairman of the Executive Board of IRCOLD and the Dean of the Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering of SBU) and the follow-up by Dr. Ebrahimian, Head of the Department of Geotechnique and Transportation of the faculty and the secretary general of IRCOLD. Subsequently with the decision of the executive board of IRCOLD, Dr. Safi, Associate Dean for Research of the faculty, will chair this international specialized committee.
It is worth mentioning that the first meeting of this committee will be held in Marseille, France in June 2022. It is hoped that this valuable opportunity will pave the way for more credibility and success for SBU and our country in the national and international arenas.