FutureWater is looking for an experienced agricultural water expert for our expanding international activities, particularly in Asia and Africa, who has affinity with technical tasks but also appetite for leading and coordinating some of the projects. At FutureWater you work in a dynamic organization, independently or in a team, on both organizational and technical aspects of challenging projects at the interface of water management, agriculture, nature-based solutions, and climate change. The following tasks and responsibilities are associated with the position:

• Lead analytical work in projects on the interface of water resources and agriculture
• Provide technical support and guidance within the team around these topics
• Work directly with clients to ensure project scope and expectations are well-aligned, and deliverables fall within the applicable scope and budget
• Project planning and coordination of budget and resources, and communication and cooperation with partner organizations (private sector, NGO, universities)
• Collaborate on or lead project proposals and have affinity with project acquisition

It is expected that about half of the work will consist of technical contribution to projects (data analysis, modeling, interpretation of results, reporting), and half of the time to the other tasks and responsibilities listed here.

Job requirements

The ideal candidate has an academic background in agro-hydrology, irrigation, or agricultural water management, followed by at least 5 years of progressively autonomous, professional experience.

Further requirements include:

• Proven planning and organizational skills
• Demonstrable experience with contact with clients, ideally demonstrated by successful completion of multiple international projects
• An existing network of relevant public and private organizations, in The Netherlands and/or abroad
• Experience with crop water modeling or similar (e.g. AquaCrop or CROPWAT)
• Affinity with programming (e.g. Python, R) is appreciated
• Affinity with climate smart or precision agriculture
• Fluent in English (required) and Dutch (preferred)
• Valid permission to work in The Netherlands (already obtained)

In the event of proven suitability, there is the possibility of a permanent employment contract.

Organization
FutureWater is a research and consultancy company with the objective of contributing to the sustainable management of water, worldwide. FutureWater focuses on the application and development of scientific methods and concepts to provide advice and solutions in the field of water management. Simulation models, Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, innovative data processing techniques and training play a key role in this. Activities take place in the Netherlands and abroad. Typical clients include World Bank, Asian Development Bank, NGOs, river basin organizations, national and regional governments, and research organization.

More information or apply?

Interested? Send your application letter and CV to jobs@futurewater.nl.
This vacancy is open until a suitable candidate is found.

this announcement is available here.

The post Job Opportunity// Senior Agricultural Water Expert at Wageningen, The Netherlands appeared first on WEF Nexus.

The Dresden Nexus Conference 2022 (DNC2022) will take place 23–25 May 2022 under the theme “Biodiversity – Stewardship for Vital Resources”.  

DNC2022 welcomes contributions that explore and advance our understanding of the resource nexus thereby facilitating sustainability transformation. Contributions should be aligned with one of the sessions listed under ‘session topics’. Contributors should address questions raised by the panel and link their research to this core issue of biodiversity and the resource nexus. The conference organisers welcome contributions from both the areas of research and practice, where either disciplinary or inter-disciplinary, or transdisciplinary approaches are applied. Conceptual contributions are equally welcome, as well as quantitative and qualitative empirical analyses set out single cases or comparative studies. 

We welcome both oral and poster presentations. Oral presentations, by default, will have a duration of 15 minutes; specific arrangements may hold for certain sessions as we encourage conveners to use interactive formats. This information will be communicated by the session conveners after the acceptance of oral contributions. We will provide permanent virtual access to the posters during the conference. 

We look forward to welcoming you to DNC2022 for an exciting conference! 

Timeline: 

• Deadline for abstracts submission: 10 February 2022
• Review of abstracts: February/March 2022
• Notification of abstract approval: March 2022

You can download the PDF-Version here.

The announcement is copied from here.

The post Call For Abstract: Dresden Nexus Conference 2022 appeared first on WEF Nexus.

Rainwater harvesting is gaining much interest as both an alternative source of water and for its potential to be an important climate change adaptation measure, although large-scale adoption remains challenging in many parts of the world. The harvesting and storage of rainwater for future use is not new and has existed since antiquity, and before mains supply became the norm, rainwater was widely collected and used for everyday use. In many parts of the world, rainwater is still the main or an important supplementary source of water supply, particularly in areas where centralized piped systems are uneconomical due to low population density and/or have an unreliable or poor quality of groundwater supplies.

The book is intended to be a rigorous transdisciplinary practical guide for a broad audience of practitioners, NGOs, students, academics, policy makers, regulators, urban planners, architects, building managers, etc. interested in the many opportunities that RWH systems can provide, including water security, food security, flood management, and climate change adaptation. It will comprehensively cover the state of the art in RWH with practical examples and case studies of cutting-edge research and innovation in the design, operation, and maintenance of RHW systems from both academics and practitioners.

The book will be structured in three main parts:

1. Research, innovation, and state-of-the-art on RWH
2. RWH in practice (research and experiences from a range of disciplines and perspectives, including arts and humanities, social sciences, applications, etc.)
3. A blueprint for the future with a focus on strategies at different scales/ contexts, addressing inequalities, new perspectives, etc.

The aim is to include contributions of maximum 20 pages from the most significant researchers and practitioners in this field. At this stage, please submit a title, a brief abstract, and keywords. The deadline for abstract submission is 31st January 2022. Outcomes will be notified by 31 March 2022.

Please register interest here!

Further details on format and contents will be provided in due course.

The post Call for chapter contributions: Rainwater harvesting for the 21st century appeared first on WEF Nexus.

By George Munene

The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) has launched a new rice variety, Komboka, that promises farmers to double the yields of presently available cultivars. It is drought-resistant, needing less water to grow which makes it possible to be grown in untraditional rain-fed lowland regions.

The new rice variety developed in conjunction with the International Rice Research institute yields 6.5 to 7 tons per ha compared to regularly grown Basmati rice which stands at just 2.5 to 3 tons per hectare. A farmer can harvest up to 40 bags of 100kgs per acre compared to Basmati which will yields 20 to 25 bags —this will enable farmers to earn more per acre than they ever have

“This variety can be grown in Western, Eastern and even the Coastal regions as it has some relatively high drought resistance and if there is no water it can still do well,” Dr. Rosemary Murori, an IRRI rice breeder noted.

Komboko also has been engineered to have attributes that are preferred by the Kenyan consumer: it is semi-aromatic with long slender grains and has a soft cooking texture.

It also takes just four months (110-120 days) to mature compared to Basmati which grows in 140 days. The plant height upon maturity is 110-115cm, it is sturdy and does not lodge; plant stems weaken and cannot support rice grain weight causing them to fall over—a common occurrence as farmers push for maximum grain yield from their paddies. This leads to significant yield losses as well as increasing harvest costs and time.

The rice variety is best suited for all of Kenya’s main rice-growing regions; Mwea, Ahero, West Kano, Taveta, Kilifi, Kwale, Bura, Hola, Bunyala, Lower Kuja, Busia, Alupe.

Kenya currently imports about Sh23 billion worth of rice per year, this bill the government hopes will go down with the production of Kamboka in good quantities. At its launch in Mwea, Kirinyaga, KALRO Director-General Dr. Eliud Kireger pointed out that the country has been well short of meeting the annual demanded consumption of 600,000 tonnes per year, operating at an average of 200,000 tonnes. “The rice varieties farmers have been planting have never gone beyond 2.5 to 3 tonnes per hectare, the new Komboka variety can now double production to up to seven tonnes per hectare compared to what is currently being produced,” he noted.

KALRO will be partnering with Mwea Rice Cooperative Sacco who are licensed seed producers, giving them basic bred seeds to multiply and produce seeds that will be availed to the farmers. 24 acres of Kamboka seed is currently available in Mwea with the government seeking to promote awareness of its potential benefits as its uptake by farmers has thus far been low.

The post KALRO Launches Drought Resistant Rice, Doubles Basmati Yield appeared first on WEF Nexus.

The overall aim of the Theory of change Observatory project is to enhance regional capacity to develop, pilot-test and validate regional climate models that enables the prediction, assessment and response to effects of droughts and flood risk. Millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa face disasters every year which obviously leads to food, water and energy insecurity. Besides the humanitarian consequences of disasters such as floods it also heighten investment risks due to creation of stranded assets such as wastewater treatment plants in developing countries. Global climate models can be used to identify the geographical distribution of disaster risk but without being able to specify the regional intensity, frequency and duration of events. In Sub-Saharan Africa the difference between what models forecast and the reality of dryness has come to be known as the East Africa Climate paradox. Because of model inconsistency, it is difficult for investors and decision makers to be forewarned about impending events and to respond when they occur. Two recent policy trends have however converged to enhance the potential for Cyber-enabled Effective Disaster Response: (a) the expansion of Regional Early Warning Systems (REWS) and (b) a growing demand for open data platforms to enhance accountability of decision-making processes.  

This project enhances the regional capacity to develop, pilot-test, and validate regional climate models that enables the prediction, assessment, and response to the effects of droughts and flood risk in Ethiopia and Tanzania. In addition to remote sensing and climate model downscaling citizen science will be used given the ubiquity of cell phones help ground truth (information verified/observed on-site) to complement environmental information and proxy data. Project outcomes include a) a place-based observatory based on principles of dispersed data handling and reuse, 2) co-curating and co-designing regional research that focuses on down-scaling and coupling robust models of disaster risk monitoring and 3) pilot-testing and validating composite indices as a means of knowledge translation with the objective of building a theory of change on disaster resilience. WEF nexus frameworks and approaches will be used in facilitating the design, execution, and dissemination of results of regional research. Linked databases will also generate nexus analytics on different aspects of a “web of data” relevant to disaster resilience and water energy and food security. 

The post WEF Nexus Initiative in Africa Joins International Consortium that received a Belmont Forum project Grant- Theory of Change Observatory on Disaster Resilience (TOCO-DR) appeared first on WEF Nexus.

Position type: Intern (fixed term)

Hours per week: 40

Job Description

A graduate student internship position is available in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Strategic Energy Analysis Center. NREL is the nation’s primary laboratory for research, development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

The opening is for a graduate student intern in the Golden, Colorado office. The intern will join a team of researchers in NREL’s Strategic Energy Analysis Center (www.nrel.gov/analysis) who perform environmental sustainability assessments of energy technologies.

The projects the intern will support assess the tradeoffs between energy, water, and food systems, including water availability and impacts on the power sector, across different regions in the United States. The intern will lead the development of an analysis framework of high resolution national-scale energy-water data sets and model results, which may require advanced statistical methods. The intern will also be involved in data collection and validation of water withdrawals, discharges, and quality impacts of and on energy systems (hydropower and thermal power plants). Based on performance, this position allows for participation in other NREL food-energy-water-nexus activities and model development.

Desired Education, Experience and Skills:

• Applicants must have demonstrated skill and experience with analyses of agriculture, energy and water data sets.
• Familiarity with Python, as well as federal and state agriculture, energy and, water data sets is preferred for this position.
• Knowledge of statistical methods, reservoir operations, hydrologic modeling, energy system modeling, thermal and hydro power plant operations, and GIS are desirable, but not required.
• Excellent oral and written communication as well as recordkeeping will be essential.
• A strong candidate will have proven abilities to develop informative papers and presentations and to manage work to meet deadlines.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations research, economics, environmental science, environmental engineering, business, or other energy-related field or equivalent relevant experience.

Must be enrolled as a full-time student in a degree granting program, or graduated in the past 12 months from an accredited institution. Internship period cannot exceed 12 months past graduation. Minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average.

Additional Required Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

Preferred:

• Candidates working toward their PhD, with consideration toward how the work of this project could contribute toward their dissertation. The team at NREL has in-depth knowledge and experience in energy-water-nexus analysis that will provide a philosophical if not tactical framing for this project.
• Previous experience with water policy, resiliency, and risk analysis is preferred for this position.
• The applicant will ideally have a strong publication record compared to peers at similar levels of education and career experience.
• The applicant should be able to work independently within a team environment.

Submission Guidelines

Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any position at NREL you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified. Applications are not kept on file for future positions. Please include a cover letter and resume with each position application.

For more information and to apply visit NREL Job Postings

The post Open Position: Food-Energy-Water Systems Analysis (Year-round) Graduate Student Intern appeared first on WEF Nexus.

Over the past two years, the Resilient Food Systems (RFS) programme, one of the three Integrated Approach Pilots funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has been committed to fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The programme consists of 12 country projects– Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda – each contributing to a paradigm shift in the continent’s agriculture: one which emphasises the importance of natural capital and ecosystem services to enhance agricultural productivity.

The Annual Report covers implementation of the RFS programme between 2018 – 2019, providing an overview of the activities, achievements, lessons learned, and best practices of the 12 country projects and the RFS Regional Hub. The report captures and highlights the considerable learning and knowledge that has been generated and shared by the implementing agencies, partners and beneficiaries within each country project. It serves as an acknowledgement of the significant achievements made possible by the collective efforts of all RFS partners. 

Read Full Report Here

Chesterman, S., Ciannella, R., & Tenou, J. (Eds.). (2020). Resilient Food Systems 2018-2019 Annual Report. World Agroforestry (ICRAF).

The post Publication: Resilient Food Systems 2018-2019 Annual Report appeared first on WEF Nexus.