Economic and engineering benefits of water-energy synergies in Africa and beyond

Speaker: Professor Julien Harou, Chair in Water Engineering, University of Manchester

Centre for Sustainable Development Distinguished Seminar

Abstract

Given the urgent need to mitigate climate change, investments in energy and water supply security are being co-driven by financial and international political incentives to decarbonize, and so the scrutiny of plans to modify interconnected resource systems will continue to increase. Additionally, given multiple government needs and priorities, economic, environment and social dimensions should be explicitly considered in the prioritisation of new interventions, whether they be new policies or new infrastructure. This talk considers two river basins in Africa, the Nile river basin and the Volta river basin, and demonstrates how planners and investors can exploit a new AI-based approach to address today’s climate, water scarcity and environmental inequity crises.

Short biography

Professor Julien Harou is Chair in Water Engineering at the University of Manchester since 2013. Previously he was a lecturer at University College London. Julien's group contributes globally leading research in water resources planning and management, water-energy-food systems, and environmental management software.  He served as research director of the $10M UKRI-funded FutureDAMS global challenge research project. He has a PhD from the University of California Davis in water resources engineering and economics and an Master’s degree from Cornell University.