Tag Archives: World Bank

Hydrosystems Group holds Freshwater Resilience by Design training at the University of Dar es Salaam

Posted on by

Hydrosystems leader Casey Brown and Tanzania project lead Alec Bernstein held a successful training workshop on the Freshwater Resilience by Design methodology at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on June 14, 2019.  The training was directed at students and faculty within the Civil Engineering/Water Resources department with the goal of increasing awareness of the Freshwater Resilience by Design methodology for climate change risk assessment and investment prioritization.

Casey Brown presenting FRbD at the University of Dar es Salaam

Students represented 13 countries across southern Africa including: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Burundi.

Also present were members of the World Bank Water Global Practice, and representatives from the Ministry of Water Department of Water Resources.

Casey Brown presenting FRbD at the University of Dar es Salaam

Successful results workshops in Tanzania push the FRbD analysis into the final stage

Posted on by

Alec Bernstein, Tanzania team leader and Hydrosystems Group project manager, traveled to Tanzania on a mission in August 2018 to discuss results from the ongoing Freshwater Resilience by Design work with stakeholders.  Stakeholder workshops were held in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Arusha, and Iringa to discuss initial results and tradeoffs among competing water users in the Rufiji, Wami-Ruvu, and Pangani basins.

Presenting results to Wami-Ruvu stakeholders

Building off inception meetings held in January and April 2018 for the Wami-Ruvu, Pangani, and Rufiji basins as well as ongoing joint modeling efforts, the August 2018 mission discussed draft final results of the Freshwater Resilience by Design approach for the Wami-Ruvu and Rufiji basins, and initial results for the Pangani basin. This approach assesses the robustness and resilience of investment scenarios for a broad range of possible future scenarios based on resilience and robustness criteria (details on methodology included in a previous Aide Memoire).  The analysis highlights the tradeoffs among sectoral water users, and this mission provided an opportunity for stakeholders to understand the tradeoffs and begin to assess water management investments to manage these tradeoffs.

The Ministry of Water Department of Water Resources hosted four workshops to gain stakeholder feedback on the results, to finalize the analysis going forward and to deepen stakeholder understanding and utilization of the tool.  Each workshop contained a broad group of sectoral stakeholders from the public and private sector (energy, irrigation, agriculture, environment, and urban water supply).  The first workshop was held at the University of Dar es Salaam and focused on the Wami-Ruvu basin draft final results.  A national stakeholders workshop was held in Dodoma, and was introduced by the Ministry of Water Permanent Secretary.  During this workshop, draft final results from both the Wami-Ruvu and Rufiji basin were shown as well as initial results from the Pangani basin.  Representatives from all nine Tanzanian basins were in attendance and this provided an opportunity for water managers across the country to engage with the analysis in the three basins.  In collaboration with the Kilimanjaro Water Stewardship Platform, initial results were presented to the Pangani basin stakeholders.  Since these results were in an initial state, additional results from the Wami-Ruvu basin were shown to provide context to the stakeholders on the potential of the analysis.  A preliminary list of management options and scenarios to assess was established in conjunction with the stakeholders and Pangani Basin Water Board technical team.  In Iringa, the team presented the draft final results to the stakeholders of the Rufiji basin.  Stakeholders during this discussion provided useful feedback on the results, and made recommendations for improvements to the modeling, especially related to data on agricultural land use.

Rich discussions were held in all workshops to expand the understanding of the analysis output in each basin, and its importance for resilient water allocation decision making.  Next steps for this analysis in each basin includes finalizing the model based on this mission’s workshop feedback, refining the scenario testing, and packaging final results.  Continued engagement through additional stakeholder workshops is anticipated on a following mission.  The Hydrosystems Group will also plan a training session for the BWBs and interested learning institutions (e.g., University of Dar es Salaam, University of Sokoine, Morogoro) to ensure that the Freshwater Resilience by Design methodology is well understood and can be scaled up to other basins in the future.

Alec and Rufiji BWB partner, David Munkyala

 

HRG Presents Initial Results on Rufiji and Wami-Ruvu basins and Begins Collaboration with Pangani basin in Tanzania

Posted on by

The Hydrosystems Research Group kicked off collaboration with the Pangani Basin during the most recent mission to Tanzania.  HRG members Alec Bernstein and Mariam Allam, along with World Bank staff and consultants traveled to Tanzania April 3 through 12 to participate in initial output presentations and to conduct inception meetings with the Pangani Basin Water Board (BWB) to advance the Freshwater Resilience by Design analytics work ongoing in the country.

Continue reading →

HRG members host working session with Tanzanian representatives

Posted on by

Two members of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation from Tanzania journeyed to Amherst from March 15 through March 22nd to work with HRG members to advance the ongoing Freshwater Resilience by Design work ongoing.  David Munkyala (Rufiji Basin Water Board) and Rosemary Masikini (Wami-Ruvu Basin Water Board) spent a week in Amherst to work with Alec Bernstein, Mariam Allam, Chinedum Eluwa, and Jonathan Lala and gain insight into detailed modeling efforts. Continue reading →

Implementing Freshwater Resilience by Design in Tanzanian River Basins – Scoping Mission

Posted on by

The Hydrosystems Research Group has entered a partnership with the World Bank (WB) and the Government of Tanzania to demonstrate freshwater resilience principles in multiple river basins in Tanzania.  Group members Casey Brown and Alec Bernstein participated in a World Bank scoping mission from 19 September, 2017 through 27 September, 2017 to lay the framework and connect with partners in country. Continue reading →

Hydrosystems Research Group led World Bank Decision Tree Training at UMass was a Success

Posted on by

The trainers and attendees of the World Bank Decision Tree Framework workshop at UMass Amherst

The UMass Hydrosystems Group completed a week long World Bank Decision Tree Training on April 24th-28th for water managers and decision makers from around the globe.  The workshop featured participants from Kenya, Nepal, South Korea, Mexico, Ethiopia, as well as World Bank staff.  The Decision Tree Framework is a four-phase assessment methodology developed to understand risk associated with climate change and their potential impacts on water infrastructure.

Luis Garcia of the World Bank introducing the training during the opening day.

It is common for major hydroelectric facilities, irrigation schemes, dams, and water supply systems to have 50 to 100 year lifespans.  This, coupled with emerging knowledge about long term behavior of the global climate system and changes in other non-climate factors, may affect water system performance in the future.  The goal of the workshop was to provide hands on practice utilizing the Decision Tree Framework for evaluating risks associated with climate change.

Participants listening to a presentation during the workshop

Participants were led through the steps of the Decision Tree Framework and spent many sessions throughout the week working collaboratively with other participants and trainers.  Using Microsoft Excel, R, OpenAgua, and other modeling tools, the workshop trainers led exercises in generating modeling tools for weather generation, hydrologic processes, systems analysis, and stress testing a system for an uncertain future.  Participants were eager to learn about the methods used for these different modeling tools, and many are bringing this new knowlege with th to assess climate risk in their home countries.

Participants working collaboratively during a training session on weather generation.

Earlier this week, the group took a field trip to the U.S. Geological Survey’s S. O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls and the Cabot Station hydroelectric facility and fishway. Fish passage over hydraulic structures is a critical component in the design to ensure species connectivity along a river above and below a facility. This experience allowed the training participants to see a working full-scale fish passage research facility.

The Hydrosystems Group members who were trainers during the week:  Casey Brown, Patrick Ray, Katherine Schlef, David Rheinheimer, and Alec Bernstein.

Hydrosystems Research Group Hosts Training for Group of International Water Managers at UMass Amherst

Posted on by
The Hydrosystems Research Group is leading a World Bank training session for international water managers this week.  There is a group of 13 engineers and managers from around the world completing a training on the decision tree framework for climate risk assessment.  The training session was recently highlighted in a UMass Amherst news release, shown below.  The participants have been very enthusiastic to learn these innovative methods for assessing climate risk in water infrastructure projects and will have a set of tools they can bring back and utilize in their home countries.

UMass Amherst Hosts Training for Group of International Water Managers

Water managers and trainers visit the U.S. Geological Survey’s S. O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls.
Water managers and trainers visit the U.S. Geological Survey’s S. O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls, MA.

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst is hosting a World Bank training workshop for water managers from developing countries April 24-28 where participants from six countries will learn about risks associated with climate change and their potential the long-term impacts on water infrastructure.

The training is being conducted by the the Hydrosystems Research Group of the department of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst. There are 13 water managers attending the training along with four World Bank staff members. Participants from Kenya, Nepal, South Korea, Mexico, Ethiopia and the U.S. will learn how climate change can affect hydropower facilities, dams and water supply systems. It is common for major infrastructure projects to be designed with an expected operating life of 50 or even 100 years. Emerging knowledge about the long-term behavior of the global climate system and changes in other non-climate factors that may affect water system performance means that water systems infrastructure planning is a process of decision making under uncertainty.

Casey Brown, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst, one of the organizers of the training, says this event shows the key role the university plays in preparing officials around the world for the future climate. “The engineering profession is at a change point. We need to design infrastructure to be resilient in a world of change. We have water planners from around the world here to learn how.”

The training workshop will provide background on the Decision Tree Framework, developed by Brown and Patrick Ray, former research professor at UMass Amherst and currently an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. The Decision Tree Framework is a four-phase assessment methodology developed to understand risk associated with climate change and their potential impacts on water infrastructure.

Training sessions take place at the UMass Amherst Campus Center and will include sessions for participants to learn climate change science as well as hands-on sessions to develop modeling tools for evaluating water infrastructure systems. Earlier this week, the group took a field trip to the U.S. Geological Survey’s S. O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls and the Cabot Station hydroelectric facility and fishway. Fish passage over hydraulic structures is a critical component in the design to ensure species connectivity along a river above and below a facility. This experience allowed the training participants to see a working full-scale fish passage research facility.

Decision Tree Training workshop at UMass Amherst: April 25th-28th, 2017

Posted on by

The Hydrosystems Research Group will be hosting a week long Decision Tree Framework training on April 25th through 28th on the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, Massachusetts.  The sessions will be focused on applying the Decision Tree Framework to address uncertainty in water resources planning and project design.  Participants will bring their own system information and data and will be guided through the decision tree process during the course of the week.  Training sessions will be conducted by Hydrosystems Group members Dr. Casey Brown, Dr. Patrick Ray, and Ms. Katherine Schelf.

The Decision Tree Framework

Anyone interested in attending should contact alec.bernstein@umass.edu for information and the application for the event as soon as possible.