The Dead Sea as a case study for restoration of saline or terminal lakes
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The Dead Sea is a unique and wonderful natural resource that combines world heritage, breathtaking views, and also provides a source of valuable minerals.
Historically and geologically, as well as zoologically and ecological wise, the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on earth, and the second saltiest, is
considered to be a Wonder of Nature. In the last three decades, a massive reduction of the Dead Sea water level is occurring, on the average about one meter per year.
The influence of this fast water level reduction on the hydrological and ecological processes along the Dead Sea shore is very interesting and important.
It also worth mentioning that the discharge into the Dead Sea comes from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, therefore its management is a transboundary issue.
A mega-project of constructing a Red Sea - Dead Sea canal is currently under feasibility study by the World Bank. The main objective of this workshop is to bring
together experts to discuss different topics related to the conditions along saline lakes in general and the Dead Sea in particular. Potential restoration approaches,
hydrological processes along saline-fresh water moving interfaces and eco-hydrological aspects will be discussed and explored.
Theme Organizers:
Dr. Noam Weisbrod
Zuckerberg Institute of Water Research, Desert Research Institutes, Israel
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Prof. Noam Weisbrod is a hydrogeologist and the head of the Department of Environmental Hydrology at Microbiology at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. His research is generally on contaminant hydrology and soil physics, focusing on fluxes across interfaces in heterogeneous subsurfaces and vadose zone hydrology. His work includes multi-scale experimental work, from pore scale to customized highly-controlled laboratory scale to field studies. In recent years, he has published much on fracture flow, colloidal transport and gas fluxes across the earth-atmosphere boundary. His field studies are in various locations including the Dead Sea shore, the Coastal aquifer and the Negev desert in Israel as well as in Peru, Africa and in the US.
Dr. Clive Lipkin
Director of Research, Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel
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Clive serves as the director of the Arava Institute's Department for Environmental Policy and Research where he oversees research projects, workshops and conferences that focus on transboundary environmental problems facing Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. His specialty is in water resources management and policy. He has been involved in a number of regional projects over the years such as on assessing impacts on the declining water level of the Dead Sea. This project was conducted jointly with Palestinian and Jordanian partners and funded by the European Union. Currently, he is part of a research team working on the World Bank sponsored feasibility study of the Red Sea-Dead Sea conduit. He is conducting research on the environmental and social impact assessment of the proposed project.
He is also a member of the Arava Institute faculty where he teaches courses in sustainable development, water management, scientific research methodology and culture and environment interactions. Clive also serves as senior consultant for Arava Environmental Consulting & Technologies which is the for-profit arm of the Arava Institute. He specializes in corporate social environmental responsibility. Clive has served as senior editor on two books: "Integrated Water Resources Management in the Middle East", and "The Jordan River and Dead Sea Basin" both published by Springer Scientific Publishers of the Netherlands
Invited Guests:
Professor Berry Lyons
The Ohio State University
Title Of Abstract:
Long-Term Monitoring of Polar Desert Lakes, Antarctica: The Impact of Small Summer Temperature Variations
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Lyons and his research group currently conduct research on four specific topics: 1. the biogeochemistry of Antarctic terrestrial/aquatic ecosystems and how they response to climate change, 2. the interactions and rates of chemical weathering, erosion/sediment transport and carbon dynamics, especially in small, mountainous watersheds, 3. the impact of urbanization, suburbanization and agricultural activities on water quality, and 4. the geochemical dynamics of carbon in agricultural landscapes. He is a Fellow of GSA, AAAS and AGU. He recently stepped down as the lead investigator of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program, one of the two Antarctic LTER sites funded by the National Science Foundation. He is a US representative on the Geosciences Scientific Group of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), and a former Director of the Byrd Polar Research Center at OSU. He is an associate editor for CHEMICAL GEOLOGY and APPLIED GEOCHEMISTRY, and a member of AGU's Book Board.
Prof. Tenalem Ayenew
Addis Ababa University
Title of Abstract:
of the Ethiopian Rift: Challenges And Prospects For Conservation
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Prof. Tenalem Ayenew received his B.Sc. degree in Geology in 1987 from Addis Ababa University, a Post graduate Diploma in Hydrological Engineering in 1991 from UNESCO-IHE and an M.Sc. in Water Resources Surveying in 1993 from the International institute for Aerospace Survey and Geoinformation Sciences (ITC) in the Netherlands. Soon after graduation he joined the Department of Earth Sciences of Addis Ababa University. He received a PhD in Hydrogeology from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1998. Prof. Tenalem has published over seventy-five scientific papers in international journals and has authored a number of books. He has won prestigious international research grants from a number of institutions and foundations, such as: the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), Alexander Von Humboldt Humboldt Foundation, the African Young Scientists grant from STaRT, and was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bochum. Currently, he is coordinating research projects and consulting on national water resources and road development projects and environmental impact assessment studies across Africa. Prof. Tenalem's research interests include: applications of numerical models for hydrologic and hydrogeological system analysis, development of decision support tools for groundwater management, evaluation of the groundwater and surface waters links using isotope and hydrochemical techniques, effects of neotectonism and climate change on the Ethiopian lakes, assessment of the mechanism of fluoride enrichment and water pollution. He is also interested in the conservation of the fragile Ethiopian rift lakes and other endangered wetlands of Ethiopia.
Dr. David L. Naftz
United States Geological Survey
Title of Abstract:
Great Salt Lake, Utah: A Saline Lake Under Stress?
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Naftz has a B.Sc. degree in Geology from the University of Southern Colorado and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines. He has worked as a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey for 26 years on various projects in the Western United States including the biogeochemical cycling of mercury, selenium, and uranium, paleoenvironmental reconstruction using ice and lake cores, biogeochemistry of Great Salt Lake, and the application of passive technologies for groundwater and wetland remediation. Dave is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah and Utah State University and is the Water-Quality Specialist for the Utah Water Science Center. Naftz serves on the editorial board of Chemical Geology.
Dr. Galina Stulina
Interstate Coordination Water (SIC ICWC), Uzbekistan
Title of Abstract:
Concept of Work Development for Justification and Monitoring of Phytoreclamation on the Exposed Bed of the Aral Sea
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Dr Galina Stulina graduated from the Moscow State University biological-soil department in 1972 and gained a PhD from the same University in 1982. She has been dealing with the water sector for 30 years at the Central Asian Irrigation Research Institute. At present, as leading researcher, Dr. Stulina takes an active part in international research projects at SIC ICWC, Interstate Commission for Water Coordination (ICWC) in Central Asia, being the responsible scientist and manager in many of them. Projects such as "Integrated Water Recourse Management (IWRM) Fergana valley", WUFMAS and "Copernicus" were executed by her as chief of subproject and were oriented on applying water-conservation technologies, agricultural production monitoring, modeling of water consumption and increase of productivity of lands and water. Project "Addressing Water Scarcity and Drought in Central Asia Due to Climate Change" where she was project leader, studied issues relating to climate change and adaptation to them in the agriculture and water sector. This project permitted to define the direction for using climate change to increase efficiency of double crops and their impact on soils fertility. Finally the total scope of executed works was generated in a set of publications which presented a review of desertification and degraded lands in Central Asia.
During the last 5 years she has organized investigations in the ecologically unstable Aral Sea coast and dried bed of the Aral Sea that permitted preparation of a plan of priority works to combat the ecologically unstable zone in this area. Seven expeditions with German specialists on this new desert in conjunction with RS gave the ability to create a map of the changing landscape of the area of more than 2 mln/ha and to publish a book presenting this issue. She has successfully completed a NATO Fellowship, participated in many international conferences and has more than 50 scientific publications.
