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.