The annual German Partner meeting of the WISDOM project was held at DLR in Oberpfaffenhofen from November 4th to 5th. Each of the ten German partner insitutions and companies has been represented. During the meeting each Work Package leader reported on the progress in his field; such as project management, knowledge management and institutional mapping of the Vietnamese Water Sector, Information System design, Hydrology and hydraulic modelling, water quality analyses, topographic mapping, vulnerability research and socio-economic research, data integration and capacity bulding. A lot of new synergy could be created among different research fields and institutions.

The three day WISDOM PhD Seminar gave all 14 WISDOM PhD students to present their intermediate research results, after having undertaken fieldwork in the Mekong Delta for half a year. PhD research addresses many science disciplines, such as hydrology, modelling, socio-economics, and water quality. The 8 Vietnamese and 6 European students stay in the Delta for at least another half year and will commence their work later at their supervising WISDOM partner institutes such as UNU; ZEF, GFZ and INRES. Special guests to the WISDOM PhD seminar was Dr. Bui van Quyen, Head of the MOST Southern Representative Office.

During several visits at Departments and Centres of MOST, MONRE and MARD the WISDOM project has been further promoted, and future cooperation potential with additional science institutes has been assessed. Furthermore, the Mekong River Commission, (MRC) branch office in Hanoi (VNMC, Vietnamese National Mekong Committee), the BMBF-MOST Water Office and northern counterparts of WISDOM Project partner institutes in the South were visited.

On 16th - 18th June 2008 the first First Knowledge Management Training Course took place in HCMC, Vietnam. This training course was organized by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Southern Institute of Social Sciences (SISS). As a first step towards capacity building within the WISDOM project, Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Evers presented new concepts and methodologies concerning knowledge management to the Vietnamese research community. The first day of the workshop mainly centered on contemporary theory and concepts of knowledge for development and knowledge management. Besides hearing further concepts on the second day the participants also had the opportunity to concretely apply what they had learnt so far by engaging in exercises on knowledge management, in which they were challenged with the question of how to build up a knowledge society.

End of May 2008, all the wp-leaders met together to discuss the current activities in the different work packages and the results of each group. WP 1000, Report from "Project Management", overall project development, news and update. WP 2000, Report on "Knowledge Management", latest developments/results and report Vietnam. WP 3000, Report on "System Design", latest developments/results. WP 4000, Report on "Water Resources, River System and Water related hazards" and report on Vietnam field campaign. WP 5000, Report on "Water Knowledge and Livelihoods" and report on Vietnam field campaign. WP 6000, Report on "Data Integration and Remote sensing". One focus of the discussion was the cooperation between WISDOM, IWRM and Sansed, data exchange, conceptual thoughts about the Information System, Financial Issues, planning of a common joint field campaign in 2009 and the WISDOM PhD Seminar.

On 18-19 March 2008 DLR organized a GPS training course for the WISDOM PhD scholars. The course was hosted by UNU-EHS in Bonn. In the theoretical and practical sessions of the two-day seminar the PhD scholars learnt to use GPS units and to process the acquired GPS data in a geographical information system. These skills will be necessary for the fieldwork which most of the PhD scholars will begin from April onwards. In addition, Prof. Dr. Evers presented first results of the research on knowledge clusters and knowledge hubs in the Mekong Delta.

Between January 19th and 22nd the Southern Institute for Water Ressources Research SIWRR, the German company Eomap and scientists of DLR undertook a field campaign on a boat on the Mekong River. Water samples for turbidity measurements were collected, spectral reflectance of water in different areas were measured for the calibration of remote sensing based water constituent derivation models and water constiuent modelling and analyses were discussed with the Vietnamese partners.

In September a delegation of six representatives from MOST and MONRE visited DLR. During talks the WISDOM project's work packages were presented. Furthermore, the idea of a first demonstration of the WISDOM Information System was discussed. The delegation members also received a tour via the DLR campus and social activities (Oktoberfest visit) rounded off the visit.