IWRA Webinar on Sustainability of Engineered Rivers in Arid Lands: Challenge and Response

Invitation – New IWRA Webinar on
Sustainability of Engineered Rivers in Arid Lands: Challenge and Response
Wednesday, September 23rd 2020
From 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm CET

Click here to register for free!

IWRA’s next webinar will introduce participants to major river systems that typically originate in mountains and flow through arid or semi-arid climates downstream.    For millennia, spring floods have deposited fertile soil here, which together with diversions from the rivers’ flows have enabled extensive irrigated agriculture.  These downstream areas form the backbone of regional economies and world food production. Engineering works in these river systems, notably reservoirs built over the last 120 years, have increased year-round water supply for food production and for growing cities. Yet today, climate change, reservoir sedimentation, depletion of groundwater and reduced environmental flows challenge the sustainability of these river systems. This webinar addresses the above concerns and looks at possible responses.

The theme of this webinar was that of a multiyear project, Sustainability of Engineered Rivers in Arid Lands (SERIDAS), introduced in Water International by Aysegül Kibaroglu, Jurgen Schmandt and George Ward in the article entitled “Engineered Rivers in Arid Lands: Searching for Sustainability in Theory and Practice” (42.3, 241-253).  The full results of the project will appear shortly in a book published by Cambridge University Press.

Participation is free and open to all.  Audience questions are encouraged.

Topics

• Engineered Rivers in Arid Regions: Challenge and Response
• The Global Climate Change and Engineered Rivers
• The Depletion of Groundwater and Preserving Environmental Flows
• Tensions and Dynamics in the Nile River Basin
• Challenges and Responses in the Murray-Darling Basin

Moderator: James E. Nickum, Editor-in-Chief, Water International

Distinguished Panellists

• Daniel Connell, Professor, Australia National University
• Stephanie Glenn, Program Director, Hydrology and Watersheds, Houston Advanced Research Center
• Muhammad Khalifa, Research Associate, TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences
• Aysegül Kibaroglu, Chair, Dept. of Political Science and International Relations, MEF University
• Gerald R. North, University Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M
• Lars Ribbe, Professor, TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences
• Jurgen Schmandt, Professor Emeritus, University of Texas

Presented by: Scott McKenzie, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia

Click here to register for free!

IWRA Webinars constitute an additional resource designed to help our members, academics, dedicated practitioners, and policy professionals further explore these and other timely themes engaging in fruitful discussions, also aligned with the international water agenda and in close collaboration with key partners.