Extreme Hydrology and Climate Variability

Professor Assefa M. Melesse is a Professor of Water Resources Engineering at Florida International University. He earned his ME (2000) and PhD (2002) from the University of Florida in Agricultural Engineering. His areas of research and experience include climate change impact modeling, watershed modeling, ecohydrology, sediment transport, surface and groundwater interactions modeling, water–energy–carbon fluxes coupling and simulations, remote sensing hydrology, river basin management, and land cover change detection and scaling. Dr. Melesse is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) and also Diplomate of Water Resources Engineer (D. WRE) with over 30 years of teaching and research experience, and has authored/edited 7 books, over 215 journal articles, and over 90 book chapters. Dr. Wossenu Abtew is a registered professional civil engineer working on water resources field for over 25 years. He is trained in agricultural engineering and is also a hydrologist. He earned his Ph.D in interdisciplinary engineering focusing in Civil Engineering and Agricultural Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1989. He earned his Master of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1986. Dr. Abtew has published a book on evaporation and evapotranspiration. He has participated in a workshop on the Nile river basin and edited a proceeding for the workshop and published chapters and journal article on the Nile. Dr. Abtew is author and editor of three books, and over 100 book chapters, journal and proceedings articles, conference papers and technical reports. Dr. Abtew is a Principal Engineer at the South Florida Water Management District. He has over 27 years of experience in water resources and environmental restoration area at the South Florida Water management District. He a certified water resource engineer (D.WRE) by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. He is an affiliated faculty at Florida International University, Department of Earth and Environment. Gabriel Senay is a Research Physical Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (USGS EROS) Center, co-located with the North Central Climate Science Center in Fort Collins, Colorado and is a faculty affiliate with the Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University. He conducts applied research on water use and availability assessment and drought monitoring using satellite-derived data and hydrologic modelling with over 20 years of experience. His research contributes to the development and dissemination of a suite of drought monitoring and early warning products through the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) for Africa, Central America, and parts of Asia (https://earlywarning.usgs.gov/fews). Similarly, through the USGS Water Census program, he works on the estimation and mapping of landscape water use dynamics and trends for the United States. He is a licensed professional engineer in Civil Engineering (Water Resources) and earned his M.Sc. (1991) in Hydrology from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, and a Ph.D. (1996) from The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

1. Hydormeteorology Monitoring
2. Hydrologic Variability and trends
3. Landscape dynamics and regional weather patterns
4. Droughts
5. Floods
6. Extreme events management: adaptation and mitigation