Arizona, Israeli, and Palestinian Water Management and Policy Workshop

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Opening Dinner Session - August 31

Convenors: Sharon Megdal, Director, Water Resources Research Center, and Director, Water Sustainability Program, The University of  Arizona; Itay Fischhendler, Senior Lecturer and Program Head, Environmental Planning and Policy Program, Department of  Geography, The  Hebrew University.

Presenter: Christopher Scott, Assistant Research Professor, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, and Assistant Professor, School of   Geography and Development, UA, “Physical Environments in Arizona, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories: Landscape, Physiography,  Climate, and Current Water Availability”.

Plenary Backgrown Presentations and Discussion - September 1

Session I: Historical and Social Environment: Understanding the Interaction of History, Culture, and Water

Moderator: Dan Bitan, Co-Director, Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization (IPSO)

Presenters: Samer Alatout, Assistant Professor University of  Wisconsin, Department of  Rural  Sociology, Water Resources Management Center, “Comparative Analysis of  Water in Arab and  Israeli History and Culture”; Daniel Hillel, Senior Research Scientist, Columbia University Center  for Climate Systems Research, “Water in Israeli History and Culture”; Gary Nabhan, Research Social  Scientist, The Southwest Center, UA, “Historic Precedents for Cross-Cultural Water Conservation in  the Desert Southwest”.

Session II: Contemporary Water Management: Reuse and Desalination as Expanding Water Sources, Including Consideration of Costs, Water Quality, and Community Acceptability

Moderator: Hassan Dweik, Co-Director, Israeli-Palestinian Science Organization

Presenters: Abdel Rahman Tamimi, Director General, Palestinian Hydrology Group Water Provision, “Water Treatment and Infrastructure Development in Palestinian Communities”; Miki Zaide,  Head of  Long Term Planning Division, Israeli Water Authority, “Water Management Challenges and  Potential Solutions in Israel”; Karen Smith, Deputy Director, Arizona Department of  Water Resources; Tom McCann, Assistant General  Manager for Operations, Planning and Engineering, Central Arizona Project; Bruce Hallin, Manager, Water Business Development, Salt River Project; Marc Campbell, Planning Analyst/Engineer, Salt River Project, “Role of  Desalination and Reuse in Arizona: Expanding Water  Resources in Arizona”.

Session III: Water Law, Policy and Pricing

Moderator: Marc L. Miller, Esq. Ralph W. Bilby Professor, James E. Rogers College of Law, UA

Presenters: David Schorr, Esq., Lecturer and Director of  the Law and Environment Program, Tel Aviv University, “Property Regimes and  Nature Conservation: Water Law in Israel and Arizona”; Yoav Kislev, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University; Sharon B. Megdal, “Water Pricing in Theory and Practice”.

Session IV: Climate Change and Long Term Water Planning, Including the Water Needs of the Environment

Moderator: Akrum Tamimi,  Associate Research Scientist, International Arid Lands Consortium, UA

Presenters: Gregg M. Garfin, Deputy Director of  Science Translation and Outreach, Institute of  the Environment, UA, “Climate Change  Challenges and Solutions for Water Managers in Arid North America”; Amjad Aliewi, Director-General, House of  Water and Environment, “Implications of  Climate Change for the Palestinian Territories”; Alon Tal, Associate Professor, Department of Desert Ecology, Ben Gurion University, “Water Related Environmental Issues in Israel”.

Session V: Transborder Water Supply Issues

Moderator: Sharon B. Megdal

Presenters: Ayman Jarrar, Director General for Regulatory and Water Control Directorates, 

Palestinian Water Authority presented the paper by Rashed Al-Saed, Technical Advisor to the 

Palestinian Water Authority; Ahmad Al-Hindi, Director General of  the Unit National Water 

Council; Fuad Bateh, Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Water Authority, “Current Challenges of  

Transboundary Wastewater Management at the Israeli-Palestinian Water Borders", Mousa Diabat, Ph.D.  Candidate, Oregon State University;  Aaron T. Wolf, Professor of  Geography, Department of  Geosciences, Oregon State University, “Transboundary Water Quality and Quantity: Lessons from Around the World”; Rodney B. Lewis, Esq., Former General Counsel of  the Gila River Indian Community, “U.S.-Gila River Pima Trans-Boundary Water Issues and the Gila River Settlements"; Robert G. Varady, Deputy Director and Research Professor of  Environmental  Policy, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, UA; Roberto Salmon-Castelo, Commissioner of the Mexican Section, International Boundary Waters Commission; Susanna Eden, Applied Research Coordinator, Water Resources Research Center, UA, “Key Issues, Institutions, and Strategies for Managing Transcoundary Water Resources in the Arizona-Mexico Border Region"; Itay Fischhendler, Senior Lecturer and Program Head, Environmental Planning and Policy Program, Department of  Geography, The Hebrew University; David Katz, Teaching  Fellow, Tel-Aviv University, “The Dynamics of  Linkage Politics: Israeli-Palestinian Water Negotiations”.

Evening Community Program: Israeli and Palestinian Water Management and Policy: Challenges Facing Water Managers and Potential Solutions

Welcome:  Sharon B. Megdal, Director, Water Resources Research Center

Governor's Greetings: Ben Grumbles, Director, Arizona Department of  Environmental Quality

Opening Remarks:  Robert Shelton, President, The University of  Arizona

Speakers: Shaddad Attili, Chairman of  the Palestinian Water Authority, via DVD with questions addressed by Ayman Jarrar, Director General for the Regulatory and Water Control Directorates of  the Palestinian  Water Authority.

Uri Shani, Director General of  the Israeli Water Authority. 

Collaborative Research Workshop - September 2

The first part of this full day session involved workshop speakers, invited participants and students. Based on the themes and questions identified, breakout groups formed to work more intensively on collaborative  research proposal development.  The full group reconvened to outline next steps.

For a full list of  presenters, see the complete agenda, on the WRRC website.