event
Tuesday 30 Jul 2013: Defining limits to multiple simultaneous anthropogenic stressors in a lake ecosystem - Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) as a case study
Professor Eran Friedler - Faculty of Civ. & Env. Eng., The Grand Wat. Res. Inst. – Technion, IL Inst. of Technology
Harrison 170 14:00-15:00
As water in lakes is more intensively used and as its quality deteriorates, there is an increasing need for improved decision-making processes to manage water quality and quantity, from both an ecological and economic point of view. Quality of receiving waters is known to be affected by human activities in the watershed such as the appearance of point- and non- point pollution sources, especially nutrients and sediments. Lake management impacts on water quality via water supply due to different water abstracting regimes. These can result in drastic changes of the lake's water level leading to large changes in the lake's morphometry, and are considered a management factor as important as nutrient loading from the watershed. In the study the combined effect of nutrient loads and water levels on lake water quality was quantified by a new approach for defining acceptable levels of management measures that allow sustaining a "stable" aquatic ecosystem. The approach was tested on Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the range of acceptable management measures was defined through the use of long term simulations (1-D lake model) of different scenarios. This approach represents a first outline of the sustainable management policy of Lake Kinneret as an important water resource. It may well be implemented to other lakes around the world suffering from water quality deterioration as a result of changes in water level and nutrients loads.
Eran Friedler is an associate professor in the Department of Env. Water and Agr. Eng. in the Technion – Israel institute of Technology. He is also a member of the Grand Water Research Institute in the Technion, and a research fellow in the Samuel Neaman Inst. for Advanced Studies in Science & Technology where he coordinates the Water Forum. During the last five years he was the academic coordinator of the Environmental Engineering course of studies (undergrads), and the head of the teaching committee in his department. His main research interests are development of alternative water sources and their influence on sustainable urban water use, extensive wastewater treatment processes, and catchment basin management for water quality. His research involves experimental and modeling work. Eran currently supervises two PhD and four MSc (MRes) students. He has co-authored 49 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, five book chapters and over 50 conference papers.
