Dr. Glen
MacDonald, Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
and an international expert on drought, will deliver the opening keynote to the
Whole Water Conference, June 24 in Monterey, California. MacDonald’s opening speech titled, “Current Drought, Early
21st Century Drought, and California’s Water Future” will set the
stage for over two days of technical and policy presentations about best
practices in water resource planning, integrating recycled water, storm water,
desalination and groundwater management with environmental protection and
restoration.
MacDonald’s
research focus is climatic and environmental change and the impact of such
changes on ecosystems and human populations. Using a wide array of methods to study
past climate and environmental change, he has published over 120 peer-reviewed
journal articles and received numerous awards and honors. His research covers many parts of the earth
and has been supported by numerous scientific research grants. In 2010 the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science (PNAS) published a special sustainability issue on southwest
drought and water sustainability that MacDonald organized and edited. Widely sought as an expert on climate and
environmental change, MacDonald has been interviewed by news organizations
ranging from NBC National News, NPR, and BBC to the Discovery Channel and
National Geographic Online. He has
testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee and spoken to local,
state, and national policy makers in the U.S. and Canada.
Rounding out
the opening session of the conference, which runs from June 24-26, Paul R.
Brown will present on lessons learned from a career in water planning and will
moderate a panel of water agency leaders discussing local approaches to
sustainable water resources. Brown is
the co-author of Water Centric
Sustainable Communities (2010) and a contributing author or editor
of other books on progressive urban planning.
Confirmed panelists include Celeste Cantú, Executive Director of the
Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority; Marsi Steirer, Deputy Director of San
Diego Public Utilities; and Dave Stoldt, General Manager of the Monterey
Peninsula Water Management District.
Luncheon speakers will be Frances Spivy-Weber, vice chair of
California’s State Water Resources Control Board on May 24, and on May 25 local
historian emeritus from Cabrillo College, Sandy Lydon will speak on “High and
Dry: How Monterey Got Stuck in History’s Spider Web.”
The
Whole Water Conference is organized by the California-Nevada Section of the
American Water Works Association (AWWA) and is open to anyone interested in
water resource issues. Registration
information is at http://ca-nv-awwa.org or
by calling (909) 481-7200.
