50 years of design and operation of large wastewater treatment plant conferences. A history of innovation and development

Large wastewater treatment plants (>50,000 population equivalents) treat more than 80% of the wastewater treated on a global scale, today it might be even >90%. They therefore provide the most relevant contribution to water protection from urban and industrial wastewater. This was already the case in 1971 when academics realised that progress in the scientific community alone will not succeed in a rapid transfer of research results to practitioners in design and operation of these plants. At the same time, it was recognised that urgent problems in practice are not recognised early enough by the globally networking scientific community. The most effective means of solving these problems was the creation of a new forum where experts from both sides meet. Scientists normally create their special conferences and workshops to enhance global co-operation in their specific field of research and development. This is reflected in the existence of many IWA Specialist Groups (SG) with global representation. The IWA Large Wastewater Treatment Plants (LWWTP) events and the formation of the LWWTP Specialist Group have been the first to take care of a complex technology for water protection, where specialists from most of other SGs can meet and discuss together with the practitioners designing and operating treatment plants. In fact, many new Specialist Groups had their origin in the workshop series starting in 1971 in Vienna taking care of many specific problems reported from practice. The managers and chief operators of large plants, usually only served by meetings of national professional associations, got a new opportunity for global exchange of knowledge and experience together with the global network of scientists and researchers.