Masih Akhbari Author

Mohammad Karamouz is a professor at the University of Tehran. He is an internationally

known water resources engineer and consultant. He is licensed as a PE

in the state of New York since 1985. Dr. Karamouz is the former dean of engineering

at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He is also a fellow of the American

Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a diplomat of the American Academy of

Water Resources Engineers.

Dr. Karamouz received his BS in civil engineering from Shiraz University, his

MS in water resources and environmental engineering from George Washington

University, and his PhD in hydraulic and systems engineering from Purdue University.

He served as a member of the task committee on urban water cycle in UNESCO-IHP

VI and was a member of the planning committee for the development of a 5-year

plan (2008–2013) for UNESCO’s International Hydrology Program (IHP VII).

Among many professional positions and achievements, he also serves on a number

of task committees for the ASCE. In his academic career spanning 35 years, he

has held positions as a tenured professor at Pratt Institute (Schools of Engineering

and Architecture in Brooklyn) and at Polytechnic University (Tehran, Iran). He was

a visiting professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the

University of Arizona, Tucson, 2000–2003 and a research professor at NYU,

2009–2014. He was also the founder and former president of Arch Construction and

Consulting Co. Inc. in New York City.

His teaching and research interests include integrated water resources planning

and management, flood resilient cities, groundwater hydrology and pollution,

drought analysis and management, water quality modeling and water pollution,

decision support systems, climate forecasting, and the conjunctive use of surface

and groundwater. He has more than 350 research and scientific publications, books,

and book chapters to his credit, including three books: Urban Water Engineering

and Management and Hydrology & Hydroclimatology published by CRC Press in

2010, and 2012, respectively, Water Resources System Analysis published by Lewis

Publishers in 2003, and a coauthored book entitled Urban Water Cycle Processes

and Interactions published by Taylor & Francis Group in 2007.

Professor Karamouz serves internationally as a consultant to both private and

governmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the World Bank. Dr. Karamouz is

the recipient of the 2013 ASCE Service to the Profession and 2018 ASCE Hydraulic

Engineering Awards.

Azadeh Ahmadi is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering

at Isfahan University of Technology (IUT). She received her BS in civil engineering

and her MS in water resources engineering from IUT, and her PhD in water

resources management from the University of Tehran. She was a research associate

in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of

Bristol through a UK fellowship in 2008 and at the Eawag Institute of ETH University

in 2017. Dr. Ahmadi is an international expert and consultant in the application of

systems engineering in the planning of aquifer-river-reservoir systems. Her teaching

and research interests include groundwater modeling, water engineering and management,

systems analysis, the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater, conflict

resolution, climate change impacts studies, analysis of risk and uncertainty, and

development of decision support systems.

Masih Akhbari is the founder of Global Water Resources Inc., where he develops

interdisciplinary models and provides consultant services for water resources

management and offers expert witness services on cases with disputes over the management

of water resources systems. He is also a project engineer at Larry Walker

Associates, where he supports development of groundwater sustainability plans

under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Prior to these positions,

he served as a senior water resources engineer at Riverside Technology Inc., a

cutting-edge company that provides innovative IT-based solutions to develop decision

support systems for water resources.

Dr. Akhbari obtained his PhD from Colorado State University (CSU), followed

by two years of postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis to

investigate the effects of climate change on streamflow, stream temperature, and

cold-water habitats for the California Energy Commission, and at CSU to assess

the United States perspective on the water-energy-food nexus for the Department

of State and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His journey to apply increasingly complex

tools of analysis to thorny problems around the world has already led to the

development of interdisciplinary decision-support tools to increase the security of

water, energy, and food systems. He has employed hydrologic, engineering, systems

analysis, and social science concepts to develop frameworks and tools that support

informed decision-making for improved management of water resources.

Through his academic background, along with his professional experience outside

of academia, he has gained a unique blend of research experience and knowledge

of the broader impacts of the technological advances to deal with the most urgent

global water issues. He has built a rigorous perspective on how scientific, engineering,

and systems analysis techniques can be implemented to support resources

planning and management. Dr. Akhbari has also served as a review panelist for the

National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, as a discussion

panelist at the American Water Resources Associations Annual Conference,

as a reviewer for multiple scientific journals, as a session chair and convener at the

American Geophysical Union Fall Meetings, and as a coadvisor on multiple masters

and PhD theses.