KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Keynote Address 1: New Building, Room 1
Tittle: “MEMORY OF WATERS”.
9.45-10.30
JORGE EDWARDS
Writer and Chilean UNESCO past ambassador
He was born in Santiago de Chile, in 1931, and undertook a degree in diplomatic studies and graduated in Law at the Universidad de Chile. Afterwards he carried out postgraduate studies in the University of Princeton. In 1957 he started working as a diplomatic, where he has undertaken the posts of Member of the Governing Council in Lima and Secretary of the Chile Embassy in Paris and in EEC at the time. Furthermore, he was chief of the Department of Eastern Europe and embassador in La Habana between 1970 and 1973. When President of Chile, Salvador Allende is overthrown in 1973, Jorge Edwards is stripped of his charges and he goes to the exile in Barcelona. From that moment Edwards publishes a series of books about the political situation of Latin America, although his love for literature is manifested when he is twenty years old, age in which he publishes his first collection of short stories. In 1974 publishes “Persona non grata”, that was censured in Chile and in Cuba. In 1977, he obtained the World Essay Award with his book “Desde la cola del dragón”. In 1978, he returned to Chile, where he resided for some time. In 1982 he became a member of the Academia de la Lengua de Chile. Amongst his works are highlighted: “El peso de la noche”, “Los convidados de piedra” (1978), “El museo de cera” (1981) and “La mujer imaginaria” (1985). Furthermore he has written the short stories: “El patio”; “Gente de la ciudad”; “Las máscaras” and “Temas y variaciones”. In June 1994, Jorge Edwards accepted the post of Embassador for Chile before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 1994 he wrote a short novel “El genio de la botella”. Lately, in September 1994, Edwards was awarded with the National Literature Award 1994 of Chile. In September 1994 he travelled to Moscow to participate in a literary event, “La Rusia de Pablo Neruda”, and at that time, he collected his journal chronicles written during a period of more than 20 years in the book “El whisky de los poetas”. In 1996 his book “El origen del mundo”, a novel set in the present Paris and which its main characters are a group of exiled Chilean. It is based on the work of the same name, of the French Gustave Couvert. In 1999 he published his work “El sueño de la historia”, historic novel that makes a portrait of Santiago de Chile through his arquitecture. He has been member of several literature award pannels, amongst them stand out the National Award of Literature in 1996, the Argentinian José Hernández Award, the Juan Rulfo Award or the el Alfaguara de Novela Award II. Edwards has been the speaker of many conferences, has attended to many seminars held in Spain, and summer courses in Spanish universities and has participated in many conferences and meetings with writers. He was granted the Award Miguel de Cervantes de literatura is the tewnty-fifth author that obtains this Award, the most prestigious that is awarded in Latin-America to a literary author for his life-work.
Abstract:
Keynote Address 2: New Building, Room 1 (16.30-18.00)
Title:
16.30-17.15
DR. ARTHUR MYNETT
Professor and Head Strategic Research & Development at WL Delft Hydraulics, The Netherlands, arthur.mynett@wldelft.nl
Professor of Environmental Hydroinformatics and Head Strategic Research & Development at WL Delft Hydraulics, Netherlands.
Dr. A.E. Mynett was associated with IHE as a guest lecturer since 1985. In 1998 he became a professor at IHE (0.2 f.t.e.). At the same time he is also Director of Strategic Research and Development at Delft Hydraulics.
Contacts:
Email: a.mynett@unesco-ihe.org
Phone: +31(0)15-215 1812
Abstract:
Title:
17.15-18.00
DR. PETER GOODWIN
Current Professional Positions:
Research Interests:
Responsibilities:
Abstract:
Keynote Address 3: (New Building, Room 1) (8.30-10.00)
Tittle:
8.30-09.15
DR. JACK STANFORD
Professor of University of Montana,USA.
Professional Experience and Education: Jessie M. Bierman Professor of Ecology, The University of Montana, 1986-present; Director, Flathead Lake Biological Station, 1980-present; Associate Professor of Biology, University of North Texas 1974-80; Ph.D. (Limnology): University of Utah -1975; M.S. (Limnology): Colorado State University - 197; B.S. (Fisheries Science): Colorado State University - 1969.
Contacts:
Jack.stanford@umontana.edu
Research Interests: I am an ecosystem scientist mainly working in limnology. I study the many interacting natural and cultural factors and disturbances that determine the distribution of species and productivity within large river-lake ecosystems. I work mainly in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem encompassing the headwaters of the Columbia, Saskatchewan and Missouri-Mississippi Rivers in western Montana and southern British Columbia and Alberta. The crown jewel of this area is 480 km2 Flathead Lake and its 22,000 km2 drainage basin. Flathead Lake is perhaps the most pristine large lake in the temperate region of the world. For over 30 years I have directed research at the Flathead Lake Biological Station demonstrating trends in basic limnological measures, such as annual nutrient loading, water clarity, primary productivity, phyto- and zooplankton species composition and biomass dynamics. Lake productivity is determined by natural (floods, droughts and wildfires) and human (accelerated nutrient and sediment inputs, flow regulation and introductions of non-native species) disturbances. This work has expanded to other glacial lakes in the Flathead Basin to study the influences of invading non-native species on food webs and nutrient cycling. My concurrent studies of mountain rivers in the USA (Flathead, Columbia, Missouri and Colorado) focus on groundwater and floodplain ecology. Penetration of river water into alluvial flood plains forms shallow aquifers that are inhabited by a wide variety of hypogean animals, many of which are new to science. Upwelling of ground water from these aquifers back to the surface creates wetland or riparian mosaics on the flood plains that are hot spots of biodiversity and bioproductivity. Since 1999 this work has expanded to extremely remote and notably pristine rivers in British Columbia, Canada, and Kamchatka, Russia, where processes and biodiversity are influenced dramatically by marine nutrient subsidies from salmon runs. I use these studies to mediate conservation of pristine rivers and to determine restoration strategies for rivers that have been functionally altered by dams, water diversions, pollution and other activities. I also currently direct a long-term study of the effects digging by grizzly bears on plant distributions and phenologies in alpine meadows in Glacier National Park. The bears dig for nutritious corms of glacier lilies. Mineral nitrogen is much higher in the digs than in undisturbed meadow and bear foraging is variable in time and space. Hence, the meadows are a mosaic of successional stages; plant diversity and productivity is substantially higher than it would be if the bears were not farming lilies. This work compliments other studies of animal disturbances on riparian nutrient cycling being conducted as parts of the river studies described above.
Professional Memberships: Editorial Board Member (1986-present): River Research and Applications Editorial Board Member (1996-1999): Ecological Applications Past President: Organization of Biological Field Stations Past President: North American Benthological Society Fellow: American Association for Advancement of Science Panelist: National Research Council, U. S. National Academy of Sciences Panelist: U. S. National Science Foundation, Division of Environmental Biology Science Advisor: Wild Salmon Center, Portland, Oregon Science Advisor: Ecotrust, Portland, Oregon Gratis Ecological Consultant: The Nature Conservancy. Director of Flathead Lake Biological Station and Bierman Professor of Ecology, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA, jack.stanford@umontana.edu
Abstract
Keynote Address 4: New Building, Room 1
Tittle: “Change Impacts on High Elevation Hydropower Generation in California”
9.15-10.00
Dr. JOHN A. DRACUP, Ph. D., P.E.
Professor of the Graduate School, Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of California, Berkeley.
Contacts:
625 Davis Hall #1710
Berkeley, California 94720-1710
phone: (510) 643-4306
fax: (510) 643-4307
email: dracup@ce.berkeley.edu
Areas of Interest:
Hydroclimatology, Surface Water Hydrology, Analysis of Large Scale Water, Resource Systems, Analysis of Hydrologic and Environmental Systems, Engineering Economics of Water Resource Systems
Education:
B.S. : University of Washington, Seattle, June 1956, Civil Engineering
M.S. : Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, June 1960, Civil Engineering
Ph.D. : University of California, Berkeley, June 1966
Civil Engineering (major in water resource engineering & hydrology, minor in agricultural economics)
Special Recognition:
Tau Beta Pi, Engineering Honorary; Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honorary; Sigma Xi, Research Honorary; Ford Foundation Graduate School Fellowship; Visiting Research Professor, Univ. of Melbourne, January - June 1995; Fulbright Scholar, University of Melbourne, Australia, January-June 2001
Professional Society Memberships:
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Member, American Geophysical Union; Member & Chairman, Horton Award Committee; Manpower and Education Committee; Water Resources and Environmental Planning Committee; Search Committee for Editor of Geophysical Research Letters; Associate Editor, Water Resources Research; Member, American Meteorological Society; Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers; Faculty Advisor to UCLA/ASCE Student Chapter ; Chairman, Committee on Water Resource Systems; President and Director, Water Resources Planning and Management, Technical Group, Los Angeles Section; Subcommittee on Climate Change, Committee and Weather Change, Irrigation and Drainage Division. Associate Editor, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering; Associate Editor, Journal of Hydraulics; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, American Water Resources Association; Editorial Board, Water Resources Bulletin Member, International Association for Hydrologic Sciences; U.S. National Committee on Scientific Hydrology; Member, International Water Resources Association; Committee on Mathematical Models in Hydrology
Significant committees:
Member of the U.S. Delegation to the International Conference on Water for Peace, Washington, D. C.; Member, Panel on Water and Climate, Geophysics Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.; Member, Committee on Water Resources Research Review, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. ; External Examiner, Faculty of Technology, Univ. of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.; Member, Committee on Man and the Biosphere, MAB 4 Directorate, U.S. State Dept.; Member, Committee on Mono Basin Ecosystem Study, National Research Council, National Academy of Science, Wash. D.C.; Member, Committee on Natural Disaster, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Wash. D.C.; Member, Advisory Committee on the International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction, National Academy of Science, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.; Team Leader, Analysis of the New Year's Eve Flood on Oahu, HI, Dec. 31, 1987 Jan. 1, 1988, Committee on Natural Disasters, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Washington D.C.
Abstract:
Title: “CHANGE IMPACTS ON HIGH ELEVATION HYDROPOWER GENERATION IN CALIFORNIA”
JOHN A. DRACUP, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, Ca 94720, USA.
SEBASTIAN VICUNA, Centro Interdisciplinario de Cambio Global, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
LARRY L. DALE, Energy and Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Berkeley, Ca 94720, USA.
Presented here are the results of our work to estimate the impacts of climate change on two high elevation hydropower systems in California: the Upper America River Projected (UARP) owned and operated by Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) in Northern California and the Big Creek system owned and operated by Southern California Edison (SCE) in Southern California. Since previous studies have shown that climate change has a greater impact on lower elevation snowpacks, the future operations of these two high elevation systems were simulated using new climate change scenarios provided for the Second Biennial Science Report to the California Climate Action Team. Compared with historic hydrologic conditions, the climate change scenarios resulted in a reduced runoff for the two systems (with a greater reduction for the Big Creek systems) and a change in the hydrograph towards earlier timing of runoff. The change in the hydrograph is greater for the UARP system because of the lower elevation of the basins where the system is located. Associated with the reduction in runoff there is a reduction in energy generation in the two systems. However, due to the greater change in the hydrologic conditions for the UARP system spills are greater in that system and hence the reduction in energy generation (and associated revenues) is greater as well. In the two systems the ability to meet peak historic power demands in the summer months would remain basically unaltered. However, an increase in the occurrence of heat waves especially later in the summer period (September) would increase peak power demand at times when these systems might not be at peak power capacity unless operating strategies are modified.
Keynote Address 5: New Building, Room 1 (8.30-10.00)
“The big rivers on the World: Missisipi and Paraná”
Tittle: Balancing Navigation and Environmental Sustainability: Upper Mississippi River Restoration
8.30-9.15
JOHN M. NESTLER
Research Ecologist, WES Environmental Laboratory, USA.
CEERD-EP-W
Contacts:
John.M.Nestler@usace.army.mil
Education:
B.S: Degree in Biology from Valdosta State College in 1972,
M.S: Degree in Zoology from the University of Georgia in 1976
Ph.D: Zoology from Clemson University in 1980.
Research Interests:
Research Projects:
Other Information:
Abstract:
BALANCING NAVIGATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER RESTORATION
John Nestler1, Kenneth Barr2, Larry Weber3, and David Smith1
1U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center, Vicksburg, MS 39180-6199 USA
Tel: 601-634-2720, Fax: 601-634-3129, email: john.m.nestler@usace.army.mil; v
2U.S. Army Engineer District, Rock Island, Rock Island, IL USA
Tel: 309-794-5349, Fax: 509-794-5157, email: kenneth.a.barr@usace.army.mil
3IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 552242-1585 USA
Tel: 319-335-5597, Fax: 319-335-5238, email: larry-weber@uiowa.edu
4Department of Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-7240 USA
Tel: 573-882-9426, Fax: 573-884-5070, email: galatd@missouri.edu
In many geophysical respects, the Mississippi and Paraná Rivers are surprisingly similar. The Upper Mississippi River and its major tributaries include 1900 km of river, 91,500 Hectares of nature reserves, and are considered to be a nationally significant ecosystem. The river also supports an inland navigation system comprised of 37 Navigation Lock and Dams that is important to the regional and national economy. We provide an overview of the Navigation and Environmental Sustainability Program tasked with restoring and conserving the natural resources in the Upper Mississippi River, but in a way that also continues to support the navigation system. As part of this overview, we describe the kinds of impacts presently associated with the navigation system, touch on the institutional process used to determine system-level and local restoration goals and objectives, and broadly lay out the potential management actions that can be used to restore those parts of the system deemed most impacted. We base our strategies to reduce impacts, conserve unique flora and fauna, and guide restoration on flood pulse concepts. In very general terms, the flood pulse of large floodplain rivers transports nutrients into backwaters in spring, supports primary and secondary production during the summer, and redistributes this production to main channels as water levels recede. North American large river fishes such as sturgeon, blue sucker, paddlefish and other fluvial dependent species exhibit complex system-level longitudinal and/or lateral movements across life stages that apparently allows them to exploit flood pulse driven spatial heterogeneity and seasonal connectivity to feed, reproduce, and over-winter. We present a conceptual framework to assess habitat-use dynamics of these fishes that acknowledges flood-pulse effects by integrating hydrodynamics, hydrogeology, biogeochemistry, and fish ecology. The framework emphasizes inherently itinerant behaviors by fish that evolved over system-level time and space patterns cued to information in the hydraulic strain and velocity fields. We show how these hydraulic patterns can likely be used by fish to “hydro-navigate” the river and its complex floodplain. We believe the framework is an important element of large river restoration because it directly links the unique physical and chemical processes of large floodplain rivers to habitat requirements of this important group of fishes and maybe to other taxonomic groups. Potential management actions include fish passage at select dams, management of pool water levels, restoration of side channels and backwaters, alterations to wing dikes, reconnecting floodplain to the river, and island shoreline protection. All of these individual actions must be assessed, ranked, and scheduled to execute this restoration program. We show preliminary examples of tools based on the framework that can potentially describe how river fish utilize different habitats in large rivers or help determine environmental flows necessary to conserve this important group of fishes. We describe the program dualism - sustainability of both the environment and the navigation system - and the attendant societal, economic, and scientific challenges, in hopes of establishing dialogue with other practitioners of large river protection and restoration faced with similar challenges, such as those working on the Paraná River.
Keywords: stream habitat, floodplain rivers, fish behavior, environmental flows, fish habitat, ecohydraulics
Title: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND NATURAL RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER PARANA BASIN
(9.15-10.00)
DR. CLAUDIO BAIGUN
Dr. Ciencias Biológicas
Professor of the Universidad de San Martín, Argentina.
Director of Laboratorio de Ecología y Producción Pesquera
Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Contacts:
claudiobaigun@intech.gov.ar, cbaigun@yahoo.com
Dr. Claudio Baigún is a fellow research scientist from National Research and Technical Research Council (CONICET). He obtained a Masters degree in fisheries at the Oregon State University (USA) and a phD in Biology at the Buenos Aires University (Argentina). At present he is the team leader of the Fishery Ecology Laboratory at the Technological Institute of Chascomus.
He has been appointed as regular professor at the National University of Patagonia, San Martin University and as invited professor at the Iowa University, where he has teached graduate and postgraduate courses. Main research activity has been focused on wetlands, lakes, reservoirs and rivers fisheries, fish ecology and fisheries management covering from cold temperate to subtropical areas from Argentina. He performed also research projects on Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, mostly related to fish migratory patterns and dams and fish passage issues.
Main scientific activity comprised several presentations at international meetings and symposia being also appointed as keynote speaker to present problems and approaches related to South American river fishery issues. Published papers included both national and international peer review journals and participation in several books related to fishery policy and management, fish ecology etc.
Abstract
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND NATURAL RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER PARANA BASIN
Claudio R. M. Baigún1, Alba Puig2, Priscilla G. Minotti3, Patricia Kandus4, Ruben Quintana4, Ricardo Vicari4, Roberto Bo4,Norberto O. Oldani5, John A. Nestler7
1IIB-INTECH, Camino de Circunvalación Laguna Km 6, 7130 Chascomús, Argentina
2 Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Angel Gallardo 470, 1405 Ciudad de Buenos Aires
3 Universidad CAECE, Dpto. Biología, Junín 516, 1026 Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
4 GIEH, Universidad de Buenos Aires, FCEN, Dpto. Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Ciudad Universitaria, Pabellón II, 1428 Ciudad de Buenos Aires
5 Centro Científico Tecnológico. Güemes 3450, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina
6. US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA
The Paraná River, in its middle and lower segments, is one of the last large river systems in subtropical and template regions remaining almost undisturbed. The main and secondary channels are still freely connected with extensive fringing floodplains (19,200 km2) and lack levees or dams. The lower middle portion is a complex delta (15,000 km2) that connects the Parana to the Rio de la Plata, the world’s largest freshwater delta. Such a riverscape provides a significant mosaic of habitat complexity which contrasts with the upper basin (Brazil) that is severely regulated and fragmented by large dams. As in other neotropical large rivers, the Parana basin is strongly influenced by annual flood pulses which trigger the main productive processes based on the large amount of suspended solids which drive carbon metabolism and nutrient fluxes. In the Parana alluvial valley and delta, livestock, wildlife and fish have been historically exploited in a sustainable way. The artisanal fishery, mainly represented by the sabalo (Prochilodus lineatus), and the recreational fishery, based on large migratory species, represent an important economical resource at a regional scale. The sabalo plays a critical role by ingesting fine organic matter and flock detritus from the bottom and surface of submerged plants, thus contributing substantially to organic matter and nutrients recycling in the system. This species is also an important food source for larvae and adults of large predator species. In recent years export revenues and lack of adequate regulations promoted heavy exploitation resulting in a substantial reduction in fish biomass and mean individual size that also affected other species harvest as bycatch. In recent years, upper dam flow regulations and climate change have stimulated changes in flood intensity, decreasing hydrological amplitude whereas waterway drainage works, drainage channels and road infrastructures are promoting new scenarios for resource use. In the Parana delta forest plantations have been created by draining marshes and building polders, residential projects encroach on floodplain areas, filling natural wetlands and artificial lakes and channels have been constructed. Cattle numbers have steadily increased from some 50,000 to more than a million, changing a historical seasonal grazing cycle to year round grazing, due to a combination of persistent dry conditions enhanced by high soy bean prices which displaced livestock activities from nearby mainland areas. The future of the Parana River basin should be envisioned based on maintaining ecological integrity to support biodiversity and resource sustainability taking advantage from goods and services strongly related to the natural ecological variability stimulated by flood pulses and geomorphological conditions. Is important to learn from past mismanagement strategies applied to other large river systems such as the Mississippi and European rivers, where costly restoration efforts are at present applied in order to recover some of the lost wetland hydroecological conditions and their associated biota. In this context the Middle and Lower Parana still represent a valuable reference system which should be preserved for guiding restoration actions in other impaired large rivers.
