Restoring water sources: practice, research & watershed management
Water is a vital resource in arid environments. Naturally, water is also the limiting resource for development and sustainability in most deserts throughout the world. The increasing desertification and climate change result in uncertainties in many arid and semi-arid zones, especially in respect to water resources. The main objective of this session is to bring together experts who deal with water problems in arid and semi-arid environments. Combination of leading scientists from the academia, decision makers and NGOs to focus together on water-related problems is expected to shed some light on water resource management in such environments. Improvement of water restoration, new methods and approaches for water-resources development, hydrological problems and case-studies from arid and semi-arid environments will be discussed.
Theme Organizers:
Dr. Noam Weisbrod
Zuckerberg Institute of Water Research, Desert Research Institutes, Israel
Show Biography
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.
Invited Guests:
Dr. Sharon Megdal
University of Arizona, United States
Title Of Abstract:
Quantifying and Funding Water for the Environment: How Researchers Assist Practitioners
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Prof. Sharon B. Megdal is Director of The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center and C.W. and Modene Neely Endowed Professor. She is Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science and serves as Director of The University of Arizona Water Sustainability Program, which is funded by the Technology Research Initiative Fund (TRIF). Her work focuses on state and regional water resources management and policy, on which she writes and frequently speaks, and places particular emphasis on how to achieve desired policy objectives in terms of institutional structures and possible changes to them. She authors a water policy column for the WRRC's bi-monthly newsletter. Current projects include a study of artificial recharge and municipal water planning and use in growing, arid regions. Dr. Megdal teaches the multi-disciplinary graduate course Arizona Water Policy. In November 2008 she was elected to a six-year term as a member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board of Directors, which oversees the Central Arizona Project. Dr. Megdal has served on numerous state boards and commissions, including the Arizona Corporation Commission and the Arizona State Transportation Board. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics from Princeton University.
Dr. David Mutekanga
Wildlife Conservation Society, Tanzania
Title of Abstract:
Restoring Water Sources: The Case Of The Great Ruaha River, Tanzania
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Dr. David R. Mutekanga holds a B.Sc Zoology, M.Sc. Zoology and a PhD in Environment Management from Makerere University, Uganda. He undertook post doctoral work at the United Nations University - Institute of Advanced Studies in Japan, examining the role of Education in Sustainable Development in Africa. His major research interests include sustainable development for local communities in Africa and the role of biodiversity in poverty alleviation and community enrichment. He has over 15 years of working experience with local and international NGOs mainly in the Eastern African countries. Currently, he is the Assistant Director and also in charge of the Interdisciplinary Research and Monitoring at the Wildlife Conservation Society - Ruaha Landscape Program, Tanzania, East Africa.
