10th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM10)

Marcelo Uriburu Quirno is a senior hydrologist at CONAE (Argentina’s space agency) and part-time Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires. He has around 30 years of experience as a hydrological engineer in operational hydrology (for a decade, as a forecaster and modeller in the Hydrological Warning System, Argentina) and in design hydrology for infrastructure projects. At CONAE, he has developed applications of L-band SAOCOM soil moisture for assimilation into hydrological models. He is currently Vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Hydrological Services (WMO) and co-lead of the Flood Pilot Projects, Working Group on Disasters (CEOS).

Marina Macedo currently works as an Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Itajubá, Brazil. As part of its responsibilities, Marina is a representative of the civil society and academy at the Rio Grande Watershed Committee, is a member of the Steering Committee of Digital Water Program of International Water Association, and an Associate Editor of Hydrological Sciences Journal. Marina holds a post-doctoral at Public and Environmental Health by the School of Public Health of University of Sao Paulo, a PhD and Master in Sanitation and Hydraulic Engineering by the São Carlos School of Engineering of University of Sao Paulo.

Mr. Joe Forbis, P.E. is the Water Management Integration Lead for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Joe is heavily involved in the Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) Program as the steering committee member who is responsible for guiding each project through successful implementation. Prior to serving in his current role, for six years Joe was the Chief of the Water Management Section at the Sacramento District, who oversees and coordinates the flood control operations of 45 flood control reservoirs in the states of California, Colorado, and Utah. Joe has a BS in Civil Engineering from California State University, Sacramento.

Yu-Jie WANG, who obtained his Ph.D in Geotechnical Engineering from The Hongkong Polytechnic University in 2001, currently serves as the director of the Division of International Cooperation at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR). He is also  members of ICOLD, ISRM, and ISSMGE, as well as vice presidents of both the Institute for IT and Application of Geotechnical Engineering and the Institute for Mathematical and Physical Simulation of Rock Mass under CSRME. Additionally, he sits on the editorial board of several academic journals..

His research interests encompass geohazard analysis and prevention, slope stability analysis, the application of geostatistics in geotechnical engineering, as well as the anchorage mechanism and long-term durability of pre-stressed anchors. To date, he has published over 150 academic papers and authored 6 books.

Dr. Qiuhong Tang is a professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His research interests include hydrological monitoring and forecasting, global change, and water management. He has published more than 100 journal papers. He is Associate Editor of Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water and Journal of Hydrometeorology. He is the lead editor of Terrestrial Water Cycle and Climate Change published by American Geophysical Union in 2016, and Climate Risk and Sustainable Water Management published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.

Dr. Mingfu Guan is now Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. His research has been directed towards finding out ways to build natural hazard resilience in the context of climate change. His research interests include flood modelling, urban and catchment hydrology, blue-green infrastructures and climate extremes. He obtained his PhD degree at the University of Leeds in 2014, and was awarded prestigious UK EPSRC Fellowship in 2017. He is a member of UK EPSRC peer-review college and International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research. He is Scientific Editor of Journal of Mountain Science."

I am a professional scientist and chartered engineer with experience in hydrology, hydrogeology and hydraulics. I have specific interests in catchment management, flood risk and water resources and I have experience working in many climates and countries. The common theme throughout my career has been the movement of water in natural and human-made environments and the interface between the two. I am particularly interested in how global flood risk management can respond to the twin challenges of a changing climate and changing society, while ensuring humans and the environment are an integral and respected part of that process

As Chief of Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation of UNESCO, Dr Anil Mishra provides science policy advice underpinned by scientific research findings to deal with climate and water related challenges to UNESCO Member States. Dr. Anil Mishra’s academic, professional, and managerial experiences in the field of hydrology, water resources and environment have spanned over 25 years and included a number of international research studies, initiating and leading thematic groups, coordinating center of excellencies, and supporting decision and policy making in the fields of hydrology, cryosphere, water resources and coupled human-environment systems across the globe.  Dr. Mishra has authored, co-authored numerous scientific publications, edited books, scientific reports and policy briefs and convened and co-convened conferences focusing on Climate Change Adaptation, Hydrological Extremes, Cryosphere, and Water Resources Management.

Dan Sandink is Director of Research at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. Dan has authored or co-authored more than ~60 technical reports and peer-reviewed articles on topics related to protecting Canadians and their property from the impacts of extreme rainfall/urban flooding, high wind, wildland-urban interface fire, and hail. Dan is currently ICLR’s manager of the PIEVC Program (www.pievc.ca), is Co-Chair of Canada’s national Infrastructure and Buildings Working Group, is a member of NRCan’s Adaptation Plenary, and served on the Built Environment Advisory Table for Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy.

Dr. Muste is Research Professor with IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering and Adjunct Professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at The University of Iowa. Dr. Muste’s main areas of research is environmental river hydraulics, experimental methods, and instrumentation. He has conducted extensive investigations on the capabilities of acoustic instrumentation to monitor normal and extreme flows. He is lead editor for a recent book on Experimental Hydraulics and author or co-author of more than 250 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and 75 technical reports. Dr Muste is hydrometry expert for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and World Meteorological Organization.

Assistant Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at Federal University of São Carlos - DECiv/UFSCar, São Carlos, Brazil. Dsc in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo (SHS - EESC / USP). International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM) Ad-Hoc Committee member. My main research interests are hydrological modeling, flood risk management, prediction in ungauged basins, and citizen science.

Dr. Nirupama Agrawal is a professor in York University's Disaster and Emergency Management. She has a PhD in water resources from Kyoto University and a master's in hydrology from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and she has over 35 years of professional experience. Her research interests include flood risk assessment and building resilience through community engagement and the use of geospatial and remote sensing technologies. Her contributions include teaching and mentoring students, peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals and book chapters, two books, an edited book, and three co-guest-edited Special Issues. Her textbook, "Natural Disasters and Risk Management in Canada," published by Springer, is used worldwide.

Mr. Cheng Xiaotao, professor, former director of Research Department of Water Hazards and former vice chief engineer of the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) where he has been a researcher from 1985 and retired in 2015. He completed his Ph.D. at DPRI of Kyoto University in 2003. He is now the Chief Editor of Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (CHES, IWHR & CHINCOLD), the director of the Urban Water Management Committee of CHES and member of Flood Risk Management Committee of IAHR. His research interests lie in the area of flood control and flood risk management, ranging from strategy planning, emergency response, flood simulation modeling, flood risk assessment, and urban flood prevention and water security systems, etc.

Kuniyoshi Takeuchi is Professor Emeritus of University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Japan where he taught hydrology and water resources for 30 years. He got BS, MS and Dr.Eng. from University of Tokyo and PhD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the founding director of International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management under the auspices of UNESCO (ICHARM), Tsukuba, Japan for 2006-2014. He served as Chairperson of Inter-Governmental Council of UNESCO IHP for 1998-2000 and President of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) for 2001-2005. He is a recipient of IAHS-UNESCO-WMO International Hydrology Prize 2012 and ICFM Lifetime Achievement Award 2023.

Gökçen Uysal is an associate professor at Eskisehir Technical University, Türkiye. He has been involved in several national (TÜBİTAK, BAP) and international (EUMETSAT H-SAF, COST) projects. He has conducted short- and long-term research activities in various countries (Netherlands, Germany, Canada). Currently, he is the secretary of IAHS International Committee of Water Resources Systems. His research areas are: (i) deterministic and probabilistic runoff predictions, (ii) real-time control of reservoir systems, (iii) optimization techniques, (iv) Decision Support Systems, (v) machine learning approaches, (vi) climate change, (vii) data assimilation through hydrological modeling, (viii) remote sensing applications and (ix) urban flood models.

Dr. Stefan Uhlenbrook’ s main expertise includes water management, hydrological processes and modelling across scales (i.e., floods and droughts), and the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus. He is a renown academic and has led/contributed to many projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and MENA. He is experienced on translating science-based knowledge to effective policies, strategies and services that contribute to environmental, economic and societal sustainability. Since September 2022, Stefan leads the Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere branch of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the UN Specialized Agency for Weather, Climate and Water. He is very exciting to contribute to the Organisation’s program and, among other things, strengthen the early warning systems for floods and droughts as well as water resources assessment and management worldwide. Previously, he served as director of water, food and ecosystems at IWMI (CGIAR, Sri Lanka), Coordinator of UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP, 2015-2019, Italy), and the Deputy Director/Rector and acting Director/Rector of UNESCO-IHE (now IHE-Delft, Netherlands, 2005-2015). He has been a professor at IHE-Delft (2005 onwards) and Delft University of Technology (2009-2020), The Netherlands. He did his PhD (1999) and habilitation (2003) at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Executive Director of International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of UNESCO, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo 

He has chaired the River Council of Japan since 2015 and led discussions on water-related disasters to advise the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan. Some of the prominent awards he has won recently include the following: "Award for Contribution to the IPCC NOBEL Peace Prize" from WMO and UNEP" in 2008, “Friendship Award” from the Government of China in 2019, and “AGU Ambassador Award” from the American Geophysical Union in 2022.

Ms. Marina BABIĆ-MLADENOVIĆ, Ph.D. is Civil Engineer with 42 years of experience and a comprehensive knowledge on implementation of flood, ice and sediment best management practices and measures.

She works as Advisor in the Jaroslav Cerni Water Institute, Belgrade, Serbia since 2020. There she spent previous 20 years on high management positions. From 2010 to 2018 was assistant professor on the Faculty of architecture and civil engineering in Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Topic: River engineering. She published more than 130 scientific papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings, and a book “River management” (in Serbian).

From initial research on the use of computers to predict the movement of fluids in the natural and built environment, Nigel’s research has expended into the cross-disciplinary aspects of flood risk management and climate change adaptation. This has led to funding from a range of research funders in the UK and more widely.  Nigel has published over 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and has received a number of journal awards.  Nigel's work has had a strong international focus. In addition to time spent working in the US and the Netherlands, he has worked on collaborative projects in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Argentina, China and India. He is a Visiting Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and Fellow of the HEA.

Paul Whitfield is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan Centre for Hydrology; and Emeritus Scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada.  He is an Associate Editor of Water Resources Research.  Research interests include the statistical analysis of trends and changes in floods, flood processes, and low flows; data provenance and the uncertainty of measurements and model predictions.  Paul has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles over the past 50 years.

Prof. Lindsay Beevers is Chair of Environmental Engineering (2022-present) and Head of Research Institute (Institute for Infrastructure and Environment) at the University of Edinburgh (UoE). She has over 20 years’ experience in academia and industry, working in the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia. Her research focuses on developing numerical models to understand and quantify hydrological extremes, their future evolution and associated impacts on society and the environment. Her research is fundamentally interdisciplinary, exploring systemic risk and interconnected impacts associated with hydro-hazards (floods and droughts) and their impacts within cities.

Dr. Xilin Xia is an Assistant Professor in Resilience Engineering at the University of Birmingham. His research focus on developing computer models for water-related hazards such as flooding, landslide, debris flows and their impacts. He has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. The open-source hydrodynamic models he has developed has been used worldwide in research organisations, government agencies and industry. He has also been leading projects to develop national-scale risk assessment and forecasting tools for extreme weather impacts in countries like UK and India.

Angela Corina is an Italian civil servant with more than twenty years of experience in development of  EWS. With a background in environmental engineering, specialization in hydraulic risk and emergency management, she is responsible for the coordination of research activities in the field of operational hydrology in collaboration with the main Italian scientific institutions; author of scientific publications and designer of information systems ( e.g. https://www.infomydewetra.world/ ). Expert in capacity building projects, and  Italian representative in working groups and technical commissions related to EWS, DRR, and hydrology.  Hydrological Adviser of Italy with WMO, and Regional HA for RAVI -Europe.

Prof. P P Mujumdar is serving as a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India. His area of specialization is Hydrology and Water Resources, with a focus on climate change impacts, stochastic modeling,  riverine and urban floods and  river basin models. He is a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU),  Distinguished Visiting Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK,  and the  Rustum Choksi Award for Excellence in Engineering Research, IISc.  He is a J C Bose National Fellow and is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) and Indian National Science Academy (INSA).

Slobodan Djordjević is Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Co-director of the Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter, UK, which he joined in 2002. He has worked and published extensively on the development and application of methodologies and tools for simulation of urban flooding, modelling of drainage networks and assessment of various direct and indirect impacts of flooding, and other areas of water engineering. Slobodan has been awarded research grants worth £13m for projects worldwide, e.g. he led the EU FP7 CORFU consortium and, with his team, organised the International Conference of Flood Resilience: Experiences in Asia and Europe.

Dr. David Gikungu is the current Director of the Kenya Meteorological Department and the Permanent Representative of Kenya with the World Meteorological Organization. Dr. Gikungu is a seasoned meteorologist who has vast experience in the science of meteorology and has held several managerial positions in the Department. Dr. Gikungu holds a PhD in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. He is also a trained Bio-meteorologist, and is the national focal point for climate and health at KMD.

As Director, he is responsible for provision of the overall strategic leadership nationally and internationally, coordinating various technical, administrative, financial and scientific programs for the entire Department’s planning, implementation and execution to achieve the mandate of the Department and the national development agenda as well as provision of weather and climate advisory services to all Government Ministries for decision and policy making.

Johannes Cullmann is a German water scientist. He has worked for German universities and holds a PhD and a Habilitation in hydrology. His early career was focused on research, hydrological modelling and flood forecasting. He was responsible for international water cooperation for the German Federal Institute for Hydrology and supported various international commissions for transboundary water cooperation. From 2012 to 2014 he served as President of the UNESCO´s water program. Johannes was a senior director at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva where he led water and climate activities. The President of the UN General Assembly 2022/2023 invited Johannes to serve as Chief Scientist in New York, where he worked on environmental and economic concepts for sustainable development. Currently he heads a staff unit in the Federal Institute for Hydrology in Germany. 

Tamsin is a well-known thought leader on flood management in Canada. She comes to this position having invested her entire academic and professional careers in the exploration of various aspects of flood management. She has genuine enthusiasm for the subject, which is evident in her many publications (peer-reviewed and for public communication) and presentations. She is particularly interested in exploring the nexus of science, engineering, policy, and planning – disciplines that often work apart or in series in flood projects when best practice suggest they should work together.

Dr. Ali Chavoshian, with over 25 years of expertise in water-related disaster studies, has provided leadership and technical support in numerous flood management projects across Asia and Africa. He led the International Flood Initiative (IFI) Secretariat, a collaboration between WMO and UNESCO, from 2007 to 2012, and served as the director of the UNESCO Regional Center on Urban Water Management from 2014 to 2022. He is Project Manager at Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd., and serves as an invited professor at Tokyo City University. Dr. Chavoshian organized the 5th International Conference on Flood Management (ICFM5) in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2011.

Mohit Prakash Mohanty works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Water Resources Development and Management, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (India). His primary research aims to investigate the principles underlying the concept and implementation of socio-hydrology in multi-hazards emerging from compound weather and climate-extremes. His current research interests include Multi-hazard Flood Risk Management, Hydro-climatological Modeling, River Engineering, Climate Change Impact Assessment, Hydro-environmental Modeling, and Life Cycle Assessment. He also serves as an Editor in the Journal of Flood Risk Management, Wiley, and Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T) Water, American Chemical Society.

Betty Namulunda Barasa is an Earth scientist with over twelve years of experience in hydrology, hydrogeology, flood disaster management and mitigation. She currently a senior hydrologist at the United Nations World Food programme. As part of her duties, Betty is heavily involved in numerical hydrological simulation and remote sensing to support and enhance Nature-based infrastructure developments (NBID). 

Prior to her current role, she served as a principal hydrogeologist at the Water resources Authority (WRA), Kenya for ten years. 

She is a member of the Now generation Network (NGN) under the Mo. Ibrahim Foundation (MIF) with a focus on the critical importance of governance and leadership for Africa.