Afternoon Plenaries
Each day there will be a plenary in the afternoon on the corresponding theme that aims to do the following:
- Reporting the outcomes of all sessions on that day
- Discussing and putting these results in perspective
- Synthesizing the outcomes of the day
Reporting outcomes and discussing results are expected to achieve through the panel discussion. The panel discussion is envisioned as a venue to report on outcomes and discuss results. The panel will be comprised of the leading session conveners and other experts representing academia, research and policy sectors.
Moderators of the afternoon plenaries are:
Day 1: Climate Change
János Bogárdi is senior fellow of the Center for Development Research of the University Bonn and senior advisor of the Global Water System Project (GWSP). Since 2004 he is professor for water resources management at the University of Bonn, Faculty of Agriculture. He was executive officer of the GWSP (2009-2012). He served till his retirement from the UN as director of the United Nations University (UNU) Institute for Environment and Human Security 2003-2009 and parallel as Vice Rector a. i. in Europe. He was Chief of Section in the Division of Water Science in UNESCO, Paris (1995-2003). He was professor of hydrology, hydraulics and quantitative water resources management at the Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands 1989-1995. He was associate professor for water resources management at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand 1985-1988. Between 1969 and 1985 he had several research and consulting appointments in several countries in Europe and in Africa. He graduated as Dipl.-Ing. (Civil engineering) at the University of Technology Budapest in 1969 He holds a doctorate in water resources engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from Karlsruhe University 1979 and three Dr. honoris causa distinctions from universities in Poland, Hungary and Russia.
Day 2: Urbanization
Bernhard Müller is the Director of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) in Dresden (Germany), and holds the Chair of Spatial Development at the Technische Universität Dresden. He is also currently the Director of the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School. Bernhard Müller’s research interests and expertise are in sustainable urban and regional development, and spatial planning as well as in issues of resilience and regional adaptation strategies.
Day 3: Population Growth and the Increasing Demand for Environmental Resources
Danka Thalmeinerova is a water and environmental expert who worked with the Slovak Ministry of Environment. Later, she was project manager for a Harvard University USAID project on environmental economics and policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). She also led a team for several EU and UNDP/GEF-funded projects in CEE on implementing the EU Water Framework Directive. Danka has been a university lecturer, and received her Ph.D. from the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. Currently, she is a Senior Knowledge Management Officer at the Global Water Partnership Organization, promoting and facilitating a culture of knowledge sharing and technical support across the GWP Network.
Concluding Talks
An important element of the afternoon plenary is the concluding talk. The aim of the concluding talk is to synthesize the major aspects emerging from the daily keynotes and related discussions, the outcome of the sessions and the panel discussion. To this end, the speaker for the concluding talk will have access to all presentations of the day before the conference. The concluding talk will (i) analyze the overall outcomes of the day, (ii) provide recommendations of action related to the thematic topic of the day and (iii) give an outlook.
Concluding talks will be given by:
Day 1: Climate Change
Rabi Mohtar is the holder of TEES Endowed Professor at Texas A&M University, College Station, USA. He is the Founding Executive Director of Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) a member of Qatar Foundation, Research and Development and the Founding Executive Director Strategic Projects at Qatar Foundation Research and Development. He was also the inaugural Director of the Global Engineering Programs at Purdue University, Indiana USA. He co-founded the Environmental and Ecological Engineering Division at Purdue University. Professor Mohtar’s research focused on conserving natural resources (including land, water, air, and biological resources) that face global challenges such as increasing food and water supplies for a growing population. He was a pioneer in developing a conceptual and modeling framework for the Water – Energy Food Nexus and linking science to policy. He developed environmental and natural resources conservation engineering programs that evaluate the environmental impacts of land use and water management; developed innovative soil and groundwater remediation technologies; applied numerical methods to biological engineering systems; characterized the soil water medium at the pedon, field, and watershed scales. He also designed and evaluated international sustainable water management programs that deal with population growth and water shortage conditions in arid climates. His research has resulted in improved methods for environmental and natural resources engineering, many of which have been adopted by other professionals and agencies internationally. He received numerous international research awards and honors including the Kishida International award for contributions to agricultural research and the distinguished alumni from the American University of Beirut, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences. He served on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on water security since 2009-11 (vice chair 2011), climate change agenda council 2011-present), board of governors of the World Water Council (2012-present), advisory board of the UNFCC momentum of change initiative (2012-present), advisory board of the President of the University of Alberta Water Initiative (2012-2014) among many other global leadership roles. Prof. Mohtar has published over 200 publications including peer-reviewed articles, refereed conference proceedings, books and book chapters.
Day 2: Urbanization
Stephen Curwell (BSc, MSc, RIBA) is Managing Director of Heys Environmental Consultants Ltd which undertakes research and consultancy work for Local Authorities on sustainable development and intelligent city issues. He recently retired as Professor of Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) from the University of Salford, Manchester, UK and where he was formerly Director of Design in the School of the Built Environment and head of the Urban Quality Research Centre. He has extensive research collaboration experience with over 350 research teams, city authorities and IST companies in the European Union. His areas of expertise include Building Environmental Quality Evaluation, City Related Sustainability Indicators, Sustainable Intelligent Cities, Urban Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Urban Regeneration. For the past 15 years Steve has led exploration of innovative ways of inclusive, consensus-based research over the complex problems of SUD and urban regeneration linking IT, low energy and new ways of e-working. He is the author or co-author of 80 publications; 6 books, 50+ research papers, 2 learning packages and 5 research web sites. This includes a prototype, Internet based, urban decision-support aid known as the BEQUEST Toolkit, the first to provide fully integrated approaches to SUD evaluation and the SURegen “regeneration workbench” a decision support aid to help address the complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity of the urban regeneration process and its outcomes. He is currently consultant to Manchester City Council for the EU project ODYSSEUS, which is aiming to produce an expert system for the management of urban energy systems.
Day 3: Population Growth and the Increasing Demand for Environmental Resources
Timothy O. Williams is Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). He holds a doctorate degree in Agricultural Economics from Oxford University, United Kingdom. His research interests cover microeconomic analysis of land, soil nutrient and water management practices of smallholder farmers as well as analysis of the impact of policies and institutions on natural resource management. His career has included agricultural policy advisory work to governments in Africa, the Caribbean and South Pacific. He was a past recipient of Robert S. McNamara Fellowship and Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship. From 2003-2006, he served on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environment Facility. He is currently conducting research to examine the water, food security and livelihoods impacts of large-scale land acquisitions in Africa. He is a Fellow of the Association of African Agricultural Economists.
