3rd International Symposium on Integrated Water Resources Management-Bochum

Bochum (382.087 inhabitants) is located in the centre of the Ruhr-Area in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, Central Europe

The Ruhr-University is located in the southeast of Bochum, closer to the Ruhr River than to the city centre.

The temperature and climate is moderate with wet winters and mild summers. The Symposium will take place during autumn, with day-time temperatures between 12 and 15 degrees celcius.

Nearest Large Cities

Gelsenkirchen	8 km
Essen	15 km
Wuppertal	25 km
Cologne	63 km
Düsseldorf	42 km
Dortmund	19 km

Bochum

The Ruhr area is the largest economic region in Europe. It is also a region with one of the highest concentrations of higher education institutions. Thirty years ago the region lived from coal mining. "Brains are in, brawn is pretty much out" aptly summarises the structural changes which have occurred over the last several years in this once industrial area.

Now the service industry and the knowledge economy have found its home here. One of the motors of this remarkable transformation is the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB), which became the first new university to be built in the Federal Republic in the 1960s. The steel and concrete campus is today one of Germany’s largest and most diversified educational facilities, attracting technology companies and students from the entire region and beyond.

Bochum has a surprisingly green side as well, and more than half of the city is covered in woods, fields and spacious parks. The charm of the “Arbeiterstadt” or “working class city” can still be found among the rusty industrial relics and in the smoky corner pubs. These days, though, if you want to visit a mine in Bochum, you have to go to German Mining Museum, the world’s most important mining museum.

With its wealth of culture and attractive recreational facilities, with the “Bermuda Triangle” (Bermuda-Dreieck) the most popular “in” meeting place in this part of the country, the Ruhr stadium arguably the “gem” among Germany’s socker grounds, and historical churches with rare treasures – Bochum is a lively city at the heart of the Ruhr.

With its many and varied cultural and leisure facilities, Bochum has evolved from a one-time centre of heavy industry to the“ cultural capital of the Ruhr”. The city’s theatre (Schauspielhaus) is one of the best of all German-speaking theatres. Starlight Express is not only the world’s fastest musical, but also the most successful with some ten million visitors.

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