Water Quality Monitoring

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Interview with Dr Khalid Mahmood, Assistant Professor at the University of the Punjab

Could you describe your professional career and/or personal experiences related to space technology and water? Where does your interest in those sectors come from?

I started my research career in 2013, with research interests revolving around various environmental concerns that were deeply rooted in water related issues of Pakistan. Having an educational background in Space Science, it was quite intuitive to possess understanding of the very high potential of applicability of Geospatial technologies in the water sector.

Interview with Mr Stuart Crane, Programme Management Officer at UN Environment

Mr Stuart Crane, has been program coordinator at the United Nations Environment Program and its Center for Water and Environment since 2017. Mr Crane has experience in international intergovernmental organizations since 2009 and dedicated large parts of his career to working on environmental issues such as energy, climate change and water. His professional background is in Environmental Quality and resource management, and he received his post graduate degree in International Development. On behalf of UNEP, he coordinates a global SDG 6 fresh water program that supports 193 countries with progressing towards SDG. 6 targets on improving the water governance, ecosystem management and reducing freshwater pollution.

Interview with Mr Stuart Crane, Programme Management Officer at UN Environment

Mr Stuart Crane, has been program coordinator at the United Nations Environment Program and its Center for Water and Environment since 2017. Mr Crane has experience in international intergovernmental organizations since 2009 and dedicated large parts of his career to working on environmental issues such as energy, climate change and water. His professional background is in Environmental Quality and resource management, and he received his post graduate degree in International Development. On behalf of UNEP, he coordinates a global SDG 6 fresh water program that supports 193 countries with progressing towards SDG. 6 targets on improving the water governance, ecosystem management and reducing freshwater pollution.

Interview with Dr Khalid Mahmood, Assistant Professor at the University of the Punjab

Could you describe your professional career and/or personal experiences related to space technology and water? Where does your interest in those sectors come from?

I started my research career in 2013, with research interests revolving around various environmental concerns that were deeply rooted in water related issues of Pakistan. Having an educational background in Space Science, it was quite intuitive to possess understanding of the very high potential of applicability of Geospatial technologies in the water sector.

Capacity Building and Training Material

Water Quality Assessment

Module

This module consists of four Courses with mainly theoretical background and one Course with a final assignment. Following the DPSIR structure (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impact and Response), we will look first at some causes and consequences of water pollution and then learn how to measure and evaluate water pollution.

Local Perspectives Case Studies

Need for water quality data to monitor effects of mining and industrial use of water near Lake Athabasca, Canada

Tar Sands - Photo by Garth Lenz
The community is nestled on the northwest shore of Lake Athabasca and downstream of tar sands/mining extraction and hydroelectric dams. The challenge the community faces is the lack of data on the industry water use and how that is or will affect the community in the future. There is a need for data that will help with informed decision making for active stewardship and monitoring. We have estimated that it will cost about 17 billion dollars in liability if reclamation and remediation is not done to bring back the boreal ecosystem. Therefore, we need data to aid in decision-making and adaptive management to determine whether the current management practices and solutions are effectively working. This could be data on biodiversity, for example of benthic vertebrates to access the health of the water ecosystems and also water quality. Currently we do not have such data. Right now, they are doing progressive reclamation where they are revegetating as they are mining but we cannot evaluate whether this is successful or not. We do not know if the species they are using for revegetation are improving environmental quality or not. We need to develop criteria to determine the success of reclamation by evaluating if specified targets are met with a particular time period and if these are not met then identify what could be done differently – adaptative management.

Stakeholder

Satsense Solutions Limited

Satsense Solutions Limited is a start-up company that uses satellite earth observation to develop business and governance solutions addressing the challenges of resource management, climate change and sustainable development. It has developed and deployed several applications in the Water Resources, Hydropower, Mining and Infrastructure sectors. These include assessments of eutrophication levels in lakes and reservoirs and sedimentation rates at hydropower plants. Identification of pollution in rivers, acid mine drainage and tailings at mining sites.

Person

Photo of Stuart Crane

Stuart Crane

Programme Management Officer UN Environment

Mr Stuart Crane, has been a Programme Management Officer at the United Nations Environment Program and its Center for Water and Environment since 2017. Mr Crane has experience in international intergovernmental organizations since 2009 and dedicated large parts of his career to working on environmental issues such as energy, climate change and water. His professional background is in Environmental Quality and resource management, and he received his post graduate degree in International Development.

Photo of Dhalton Ventura

Dhalton L. T. Ventura

Water Resources Specialist National Water and Sanitation Agency of Brazil

Dhalton is a biologist, with a graduate certificate in environmental management and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Ecology (University of Brasilia and University of Rio Grande do Norte, respectively). After working in the Amazonian Manatee Project as a research trainee and taking a course on Tropical Ecology and Conservation in Costa Rica, he joined the Brazilian National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA) as a water resources specialist in 2006.

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