May 28, 2014, California – Dr. Glen
MacDonald, Director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
and an international expert on drought, will deliver the opening keynote at the
Whole Water Conference happening June 24 in Monterey, Calif.
MacDonald’s opening speech is titled,
“Current Drought, Early 21st Century Drought, and California’s Water Future”,
and 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 ground water 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 honours.
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 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 and 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.
Print this page
