Archive - Participants 2021

ABADI, Mwajuma
is an Environmentalist. She got her Master’s Degree (M.Sc) in Environmental Management from the Open University of Tanzania with hon in 2017. Her research is concerning agriculture activity in environmental management. She has Bachelor of Art with education in Geography and English from the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) (2009). Her research area includes women agriculture, soil, land, water, coral Tumbatu Coral Island. Her working experience is in teaching Geography and English also as a Head of In Service Training teacher in Mwanakwerekwe C Secondary school and Kiembe Samaki Teacher Center (2011-2018). Now, she works in department of Agriculture natural Resource and Environment in Zanzibar Urban Municipality. Her hobby and interest with working with Community in Environmental Conservation i.e Migombani Botanic garden, Mangroves Environmental Community in Kilimani Zanzibar, facilitating on Environmental conservation.
ALUKO, Tolulope Israel
was born in Nigeria in 1987. He received the B.Sc. degree in Zoology (Hydrobiology) in 2011 and M.Sc. in Environmental Control and Management in 2016 both from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria. In 2011, he worked with Niger State Water Board as a National Youth Service Corpse and in 2016, he joined the Department of Hydrobiology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife as a Research Assistant where he was engaged in sampling analysis and studying of physico-chemical properties of water, Macro-benthic invertebrates in metals polluted waterbodies. He is a member of Nigeria Field Society, Environmental Society of Nigeria, Nigeria Institute of Management, Zoological Society of Nigeria, among others. His research interest includes water and environmental pollution and has worked on projects involving Sediment Physico-chemical Characteristics and Benthic Macro-invertebrates Fauna of Waterbodies in Itagunmodi Gold Mining Area of Atakumosa, Osun State, study of zooplankton abundance and composition in an effluence impacted stream of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is an environmental activist who has been involved in grassroot mobilization, public enlightenment, and awareness about reduce, reuse and recycle of plastics, green revolution which involves planting of trees in every household garden and discourage cutting down of trees as carbon sink and optimization of water use to reduce water scarcity and to fight drought. Due to his passion for water and environmentally related issue, he is currently a master student of Global Change Ecology (Elite Network of Bavaria), University of Bayreuth, Germany.
ANTWI, Sarpong Hammond
is a PhD Candidate at Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland, where his research focuses on governance and management of water resources.
Born and raised in Ghana, Hammond obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Community Development from the University for Development Studies (Wa, Ghana) and a Masters of Science Degree in Energy Policy from the Pan African University Institute (Tlemcen, Algeria).

He is particularly interested in Water-Energy-Climate nexus with a keen interest in gender mainstreaming and partnership for community development.
ATTAFUAH, Eunice Efua
is a young female Civil Engineer born and raised in Ghana, West Africa. She is a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she attained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science Degree in Water Resources Engineering and Management. Eunice currently works as an Assistant Engineer with the Local Government Service and doubles as a Part-time Lecturer at Accra Institute of Technology.
Growing up in a geographical area with abundant water resources but inadequate financial resources to match the needs of the growing population, she has been drawn to issues of water resources management. Her post graduate research focused on accessing the Small Hydropower Potential of the Ankobra Basin. Eunice developed a Rainfall-Runoff Model for the Ankobra Basin using the Soil and Water Analysis Tool (SWAT), the streamflow was then used to assess the availability of small hydropower. She dreams of undertaking many more researches in the water sector in order to solve problems faced in this field particularly in her country Ghana and the world at large. She is also open to research opportunities and collaborations. Her research interests are in the areas of water resources modelling, geographic information system, climate change, hydrology, fluid mechanics, WASH, among others.
Eunice is poised to become a University Professor in Civil Engineering specifically Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering and its relation to the environment at a highly-reputed and eminent educational institution and to gain exceptional career move ahead through long efforts and performance regularity.
She loves to travel, sky photography and to listen to music. The beauty of the sky is a marvel to her at all times. Eunice, believes in love, compassion, giving, a kind heart and a world where access to potable water is enjoyed by citizens and the environment is safe and serene.
BAKAR, Abdalla
is an Environmental and disaster risk management expert based at The State University of Zanzibar, with a MSc in Disaster Risk Management. He has deep understanding and broad experience in environmental issues particularly natural resources management. Abdalla holds cumulative experience of more than 9 years in research and project in areas of climate change, water quality, disaster management, risk assessment and, environmental and social impacts assessments. He has deep expertise in working in small islands and coastal zones researches. Furthermore, he has experience in conducting numbers of environmental and social safeguards, hazard studies, risk assessments and management plan to the various coastal and inlands projects in Zanzibar islets. Finally, Abdalla has extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation various projects. He has deep experience working with various international stakeholders and donors such as WHO, UNICEF, JICA, European Union, World Bank and DFID.
BEIER, Felicitas
studied International Economics at Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen (Germany) and Georg-August University in Göttingen (Germany) with research stays abroad at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) and Fudan University (Shanghai, China). During her studies her focus was Empirical Economics, International Trade and Development Economics. Her master thesis on the topic of "Determinants of Virtual Water Trade - The Case of Agricultural Production" sparked her interest in Resource and Water Economics. Since 2018, Felicitas works as junior researcher in the Land-Use Modeling Group at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research (PIK) as part of the MAgPIE (Model of Agricultural Production and Its Impact on the Environment) team. In 2019, she started working on her PhD thesis on Irrigation Water in Global Land-Use Modeling. So far, she developed a River Routing Algorithm to determine the allocation of freshwater resources under different management assumptions for global economic optimization models to better integrate spatially-explicit data on discharge and runoff form the global vegetation model LPJmL into the global land-use model MAgPIE.
BOUMPOULIS, Vasileios
is currently a PhD student at the University of Patras, Greece, Department of Geology and holds a Master’s degree in Engineering and Environmental Geology from University of Patras and a Bachelor degree in Geology from University of Patras. His research mainly focuses on coastal erosion, detection of shoreline changes, soil liquefaction and in the assessment of coastal vulnerability against erosion and Sea Level Rise with GIS and geotechnical methods. He also participated in two research projects in Greece with main topic in natural hazards: 1) Development of a system for recording, monitoring and management of landslide risk by applying modern geotechnical and satellite methodologies (GEODORY, May 2019-December 2019) and 2) «Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020» in the context of the project “Integrated research of coastal vulnerability in Western Greece with remote sensing, engineering geology and in situ measurements”. (January 2020-April 2021). In addition, he is working as an Engineering Geologist for the private sector, having experience from several projects.
BRUSCOLINI, Margherita
is an interdisciplinary young geoscientist holding a MSc in Earth Science from the University of Milano (Italy) with a thesis on a meaningful environmental issue linked to climate change, the human impact on the environment, and a focus on the cement sector, proposing an eco-friendly solution to reduce CO2 emitted during manufacturing. Her passion for innovation, sustainable development, and the humanitarian sector, brought her to work in a start-up based in Luxembourg, using remote sensing and drone technologies to address the problems of our times related to water-risks and the climate crisis
CAO, Xixin
I'm from China. I'm currently doing my Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Research Center Cities, Territories, Environment, and Society (UMR CNRS 7324 CITERES) at University of Tours in France. I have been working in Europe, China, and Japan. I also have many fieldwork experiences in different cultural contexts. My research topic is about the river culture and the relationships between the river and humans in cities. In many cities worldwide, there is a current trend to re-discover water civilizations, strengthen man-river linkages, the de-fragmentation of the urban green infrastructure and their re-connections, etc., However, this trend is at the same time a chance and a risk (many cities copy-paste solutions from elsewhere), with additional pressures from climate change impacts. I'm very happy to study the water-related topic in the Potsdam Summer School 2021!

CARRATTA, Giorgia
is a PhD Candidate at the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management (Germany) and an Early Stage Researcher for the research project called “LimnoPlast - Microplastics In Europe’s Freshwater Ecosystems: from sources to solutions” (EU’s Horizon 2020 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860720). Currently she addresses the issue of (micro)plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems, from both a legal- and a business-oriented perspective.
Before joining HHL and LimnoPlast, she obtained in Italy a Master’s Degree in Law at the University of Salento (2019) and worked as a trainee lawyer for the international law firm Greenberg Traurig. In 2020 she also obtained a five-year diploma on advanced social studies in ISUFI (“University Institute of Interdisciplinary Training”).
Since the beginning of her university studies, the protection of the environment has been at the center of her research interests. She truly believes that the solution to transnational and multi-faceted environmental issues, such as the water-related ones, lies at the intersection of different disciplines.
CHAPAGAIN, Dipesh
I am a doctoral student at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn. In my ongoing Ph.D. project, I am analyzing the spatiotemporal trend of climate-induced disaster impacts and vulnerability in Nepal. Furthermore, I am studying the attribution of observed climatic disaster impacts to indicators of extreme weather events, and socioeconomic indicators of exposure, vulnerability, and climate change adaptation.

In my around ten years of a professional career in Nepal and Germany on climate change issues, I worked in Climate Analytics, UNDP, Oxfam and Clean Energy Nepal. I am an International Climate Protection Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Doctoral Research Fellow of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. I am excited to participate in the Potsdam Summer School 2021.
CHOW, Ka Hei
is a graduate student in Applied Earth Observation and Geoanalysis (M.Sc.) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany. She is also a student researcher working on the Open Data Cube software project, as well as a volunteer data analyst for environmental and scientific journalism at a global non-partisan Think Tank. Ka Hei has worked on remote sensing of polar glaciers and ice sheet, with current focuses on data products from the Landsat and Copernicus programme. In her undergraduate study, she discerned the importance of Artificial Intelligence and Earth Observation to natural hazard management. Her research interests lie in the climate change impacts on the water resources in South Asia given the increasingly adverse impacts on huge population’s subsistence. Her vision is to empower and facilitate better decisions for the global communities using scientific knowledge and geospatial Big Data.
COELHO, Andre
is an environmental researcher focusing on water and sustainability science and technology. He obtained his Master's degree in Sustainable Development Practice at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, part of the Global Master's program in Development Practice. His career goals are to teach at the university level and implement sustainable water management in vulnerable communities to help reduce water, sanitation, and hygiene access inequalities. Andre also holds a degree in Environmental Management and a postgraduate degree in Environmental Engineering and Basic Sanitation. He has eight years of technical experience working in environmental, health, and safety for logistics companies. Andre started teaching percussion and music history to children in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In the lessons, he teaches students how to recycle materials to build instruments and play them, promoting both sustainability and the culture of his home country Brazil.
CORRADI, Sofia
is a Civil Engineer and a specialization candidate in Geoprocessing. She currently works with hydraulic and hydrological modeling at HIDROBR, a consultancy in Brazil, subsidizing dam breaks studies for the mining sector. In addition, she is also involved in the company’s sustainability team, developing new projects and processes towards increasing its social and environmental impacts.
Sofia is interested mainly in analyzing human and climate influences on hydrological systems with a transboundary approach. She is also enthusiastic about geospatial applications and technology.
Furthermore, she is part of the Water Youth Network, Youth Climate Leaders, The Climate Reality Project, Global Shapers, and The Economy of Francesco and Chiara communities
DAHLMANN, Heindriken
is a master's student in the M.Sc. Geography of Global Change programme at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. She is currently writing her master's thesis on upstream-downstream asymmetries regarding drought impacts in the Alpine region. She received her bachelor's degree in Geography from the Humboldt University of Berlin, and also spent exchange semesters in Jordan and Sweden. During her studies, Heindriken completed internships at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Stockholm Resilience Center, which encouraged her to focus her research on climate change impacts on water resources and socio-hydrological questions. Heindriken's main focus is on interdisciplinary approaches to water issues, with a particular regional interest in the Middle East and North Africa.
DAYAL, Deen
is a PhD student at Department of Water Resources Development and Management, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in India. His area of PhD research work is on the integration of remote sensing based water fluxes in hydrological modelling. He obtained his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering with specialization in Geoinformatics (2015) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee with a focus on dynamics of the river (Ganga) course using satelite images. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering (2013) from Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya. He is from the Northern part of India. Before joining PhD he worked as a junior researcher in a research project on hydrological respose of a river basin in changing climate funded by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India.
DESALEGN, Ayenew
is originally from Ethiopia and a PhD candidate at Christian-Albrechts University, Germany. He has a BSc degree in Meteorology obtained from Arba Minch University and MSc degree in Engineering Hydrology obtained from Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Ayenew Desalegn has more than 12 years of development and research experiences in hydrology, water resources, climate change, systems modeling, and climate adaptation. Mr. Ayenew has extensively participated in the development, application and research of decision support systems for integrated water resources planning and management. He has also developed practical skills of applying analytical tools, global datasets, GIS and Remote sensing products for research and development of natural resources from landscape to river basin scales. His working experience includes data compilation; water resources and hydrological modeling; climate downscaling; spatial analysis of natural resources; study in climate and environment sector. Currently, he is working on “Modelling the dynamics of hydroclimate variability and associated extreme events in Ethiopian Rift valley Lake basin, East Africa.
DOWLATI FARD, Reza
With a background in water engineering at University of Tehran, I started my journey of water interest with agricultural use of water and its narrative for management. I followed this dream through my master's working om water resources management for Lake Urmia, located in the North West of Iran. As a student in water resources engineering and management at SBU, worked on many topics for different courses such as water quality management, floods, surface and ground water management and hydrology.
During my years at Master's, I started working at the Regional Centre on Urban Water Management (RCUWM-Thran) under the auspices of UNESC; in which I was appointed as research assistant. My work there was consisted of planning, holding and reporting the workshops, sessions and Governing Boards of RCUWM. Along with these duties, I also conducted research on water economics, water security, drought and major floods in Iran, which many of them resulted in papers and books.
Since the pandemic hit, I was forced to leave this centre and started looking for open positions. Fortunately, very recently I was accepted as the environmental specialist at Tehran Municipality's Urban Planning Agency (Tehran-UPA) working on Tehran Master Plan. Our agenda at Tehran-UPA -a newly-stablished agency- is to gather all the information and experts to plan for next 20 years of Tehran Metropolitan, in various aspects of jousting, environment, sustainable infrastructure, etc.
ELUSMA, Manassé
is a Haitian Environmental activist. Born in Haiti, Manassé has a bachelor degree in agriculture and a master degree in Environment and Sustainable Development. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in Climate Change and Sustainable Development in National Taiwan University. His research interests include (i) Disaster Risk Management and Governance under Climate Change; (ii) Climate Change – Food Security and Water Nexus, and (iii) Human Vulnerability to Natural Hazards. He is also the co-founder of a local non-profit organization called ACDED (Citizen Action for Sustainable Development), which is dedicated to achieving sustainable development in Haiti. As potential future leader, Manassé´s vision is to work in the highest political office in his country as well as key international institutions working on improving the human conditions.
FATIMA, Eshrat
is currently, a Ph.D. Student at Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Germany, and affiliated as Associated member with DFG - Research Training Group "NatRiskChange" & doing her Research with Subsurface Hydrology Research Group at UFZ, the project is funded by DAAD. Her Area of Research is on the Quantification of drought losses in agriculture, Ground Water, Climate Change, and Hydrological Model i.e mHM. She is from the Northern Area of Pakistan. Previously She worked as an Early Stage Researcher with the REDD++ Ministry of Climate Change in Pakistan and also involved in a Teaching and Mentoring Position at Two different Universities in Pakistan.
GRUDDE, Bastian
In my profession as a sustainability analyst I am responsible for the climate change strategy of one of Germany’s largest asset managers in Frankfurt/Main. In that kind of work I engage with many global corporations on climate change mitigation. Additionally, I regularly deal with the consequences of climate change, that is for instance the financial and societal risks of flooding, drought, and insufficient water accessibility. My academic studies in economics and environmental sciences in Berlin and Edinburgh were focused on climate change.
Additionally, I completed a two-year scientific course on climate change with the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) and spent almost two years at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. I am very excited to return to Potsdam for the Potsdam Summer School 2021.
HANDIQUE, Sumi
I am currently engaged as an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University located in the beautiful location surrounded by hills in the north eastern part of India.
I went to Delhi University for my B.Sc. in chemistry but I did not find chemistry interesting.
Though I always loved the river being so close to the river Brahmaputra, my passion for research in hydrology started during my masters in 2006-2008 in Environmental Science in Jawaharlal Nehru University. I got selected for the prestigious Indian Academy of Sciences Summer Fellowship in the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa where I studied “Evaluation of Pattern of Nutrient Variation in the Mandovi Estuary During Monsoon Period'.
I started my PhD research in 2012 titled “ Study of the sediment geochemistry of the river Brahmaputra and its major tributaries in India” where I studied weathering geochemistry and carbon distribution of the suspended and floodplain sediments of the Brahmaputra and how the different tributaries. Duringmy PhD I got a chance to participate in a Mekong River Expedition organized by Global Rivers Observatorywhere I got to interact with scientists from all over the world.

Growing up in a geographical area which faces the problems of floods every year my research interest in understanding floodplain processes and surface water-ground water interactions and how weathering and geology controls the hydrological processes. With this background, I intend to better understand and quantify the floodplain processes and understand uncertainties and improve the capacity of hydrological models to predicting extreme flood events and their future change and have a deeper understanding of the ground water and surface water interactions.
I teach Earth Processes and Natural Hazards, Hydrogeochemical Processes and Climate Change and its impact. I love to interact with my students and go with them to fieldwork where we can explore and learn a lot from nature.

JOHNSON, Shaji
is a Geographer. He got his Masters Degree (M.Sc) in Geography from the University of Kerala (Trivandrum, India) with First Rank in 2009. He has a PhD in Geography from the University of Kerala (2017). He has qualified National Eligibility Test conducted by the University Grants Commission (Government of India) in December 2008. His area of research includes coastal zone management, river basin studies, coastal vulnerability assessment, social vulnerability, and sustainable development. He is a passionate teacher, and he has worked in the Department of Geography, University College, Trivandrum as an Assistant Professor for two and half years.
He has been working in the River Management Centre of the Institute of Land and Disaster Management (ILDM), Government of Kerala, Trivandrum, India, for the last 9 years as a GIS Specialist. He is leading the River Bank Mapping and Sand Auditing Programme of Kerala, which focuses on developing a basic bio-physical inventory of river banks and assessing the available sand deposits to ensure sustainable sand mining management. This project is a pioneering initiative in India. He has co-authored a book entitled ‘Handbook on River Bank Mapping and Sand Auditing’ published by ILDM, Government of Kerala (2020). He is the Project Co-ordinator of Flood Level Marking Survey, a Government of Kerala Funded Project to permanently document flood height above Mean Sea Level recorded along the major rivers in Kerala during the massive flood 2018 and 2019. He is serving as a faculty member at ILDM, providing training to Government officials, NGOs and other stakeholders on river basin management, Vulnerability Assessments, and Geo-informatics.
He has published 10 research articles on coastal sensitivity, social vulnerability, land-use change analysis, and the impact of river sand mining in reputed international journals. He was awarded the Young Geographers Award of the National Association of Geographers India (NAGI) in 2013. Apart from this, he has been serving as the founder president of KRVGG village library in Kerala for the last eleven years.
KHANAL, Anil Kumar
is a PhD candidate at University Grenoble Alpes (Grenoble, France), working in the field of radar remote sensing of rain and snow in high mountains. His research focuses on using X-band radar to study the precipitation in data-scarce complex (mountainous) terrain where the precipitation shows high spatio-temporal and phase (solid/liquid) variation. While the solid precipitation has slow hydrological response and acts as a reservoir, the liquid precipitation in bare and steep terrain produces quick response and increased hydrological risk (flood / gravitational movements). Accurate radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) by improving the understanding of melting layer of precipitation is critical for effective water resource management in mountainous terrain. With prior background of BSc in Civil and Environmental engineering from Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel) and MSc in Civil and Hydraulic Engineering from Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble, France) he maintains a strong interest in hydrometeorology, hydrology, river-hydraulics, and water resource management.
Originally from Nepal, a tiny developing Himalayan nation with abundant yet poorly managed freshwater resources and having experienced the geo-political and socio-economical quagmire involving the freshwater resources firsthand, he is motivated in learning the social and economic aspects of the water, including water governance and potential impacts of climate change. An inter-disciplinary understanding of the hydrosphere, its evolution and the needs of stakeholders will enable him as a scientist to develop tools that help to achieve sustainable practices. He hopes the Potsdam summer school will help to learn from and connect with various actors involved in different aspects of water resource management.
KODROSTAMI, Fereshteh
is holding a PhD degree in Forest Ecology from the Faculty of Natural Resources at University of Tehran, Iran. For my PhD research, I worked on evaluating the effect of afforestation projects on water balance components at watershed scale in semi-arid regions. The goal of my study was quantifying hydrological responses of watershed under afforestation scenario in a multi-functional catchment to analyze the trade-off between development and environment on a sustained basis. Regarding my scientific background as well as my aspirations in doing interdisciplinary research, I would like to follow my research in interactions between Ecology and Engineering. As a young researcher of an affected country regarding climate change (flood and drought), my long-term goal is taking a dive into the field of integrated water resources management with the focus on sustainable strategies to adapt/mitigate the climate change and natural hazards using nature-based solutions.
KUPZIG, Jenny
In October 2019 Jenny Kupzig started to work as a scientific employee at the chair of engineering hydrology and water resources management at Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB), Germany. In June 2020 she started her Ph.D. in the field of global hydrology. The objective of here thesis is to enhance the global Hydrology Model within the WaterGAP3 framework to receive more accurate information about the complex interactions of hydrological processes in a large-scale context.
During her studies at RUB (B. Sc. & M. Sc.) Jenny already worked as a student assistant for the chair of engineering hydrology and water resources management. As a student assistant, she strengthened her programming skills in Python and R and became confident in dealing with geographical information systems (ArcGIS/QGIS). As a scientific employee, she improved her computer skills further on and started to learn C++.
KURNIAWAN, Tonni
got his PhD from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on the applications of low-cost adsorbents to remove heavy metals from contaminated water. His work seeks to capture water from municipal wastewater using those materials. Significant contribution to research in the field has earned him recognitions from the World Economic Forum.

So far Tonni Kurniawan has been cited over 7,600 times with a Hirsch factor of 28 (Scopus). His most cited paper, entitled “Low-cost absorbents for heavy metals uptake from contaminated water” in Journal of Hazardous Materials, ranks among Scopus’ Top 25 Most Cited Articles in Chemical Engineering. Recently Institute for Scientific Information-Thompson Reuters has identified him among the top 1% of researchers in the field of Engineering according to Essential Science Indicators.
LEDEZMA, Juan Carlos
is the Regional Technical Specialist for the Americas Field Division at Conservation International, he has been working for Conservation International for more than 16 years, supporting the regional efforts and formerly the Bolivia office’s Land Use Planning, GIS and Project Management. He is a biologist with a specialized focus in natural resource management and earth observation. More recently, he has also been involved in global research related to carbon analysis, especially into the development of the Irrecoverable Carbon concept and spatial analyses.
LI, Yao
Since 2017, I have been engaged in researches about urban flooding management and the interaction between urban landscapes and urban disaster. My research career started from a heavy rainfall in Hangzhou in June 2017. That severe rainfall triggered massive transport disruptions and caused massive economic losses. Therefore, I was wondering what I can do to help the people or government deal with the bad disaster. After I had graduated, I applied a master position and went on work on urban flood. My research paper focused on urban flood simulation. Part of my work 'An Improved Simplified Urban Storm Inundation Model Based on Urban Terrain and Catchment Modification' has been published.

Now, I am pursuing my PhD degree in ITC, University of Twente in Netherlands. My research topic is to predict and simulate the urban flood, from its causes to its bad health consequences. After more than seven years' GIS, RS and hydrology trainings, my research experiences equip me with in-depth knowledge and good research experiences.
LINKE, Felicia
is a Ph.D. student at the Chair of Hydrology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She investigates urban groundwater pollution. More than half the global population lives in cities where groundwater is a valuable resource and essential for future resilience. She is especially interested in entry pathways of micropollutants such as biocides to soil and groundwater. The research is part of the EU INTERREG-project NAVEBGO (Sustainable reduction of biocide inputs to groundwater in the Upper Rhine region).
Felicia holds a M.Sc. in Hydrology from the University of Freiburg. As part of her Master thesis, she spent several months at UC Davis, California. She is passionate about jointly working towards solving today’s challenges, especially the sustainable use of water.
MANSOOR, Asma
is an Environmentalist holding M.phil degree in Environmental Sciences from the Govt. College University Lahore, Pakistan. She focused on evaluation of the riparian reserve forest during the M.phil research year. Currently she is working as a Visiting Lecturer at the National University of Modern Languages. Besides she is affiliated with an NGO as a Research and Development Officer in her volunteer capacity, assessing the vulnerability of the water deprived community in the Tharparkar Desert. She is also an Asia Pacific Youth Exchange Scholar and got training on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Asian Development Bank, Philippines where she specifically designed a project on SDG 14 ‘Climate Action’ during local immersion in the typhoon prone community of Tulay Buhangin. With the aim of spreading awareness, she is teaching SDGs to the youngsters in her home country Pakistan. Her research interests are environmental informatics, climate change, ecology, and sustainable management of water resources.
MONCLOU SALCEDO, Samuel Alejandro
I am Colombian, born on November 14, 1993 in the "beautiful city", Bucaramanga, capital of the department of Santander, a place of wild lands where friendly and hard-working people live. Proudly Lasallian. As a profession, I have held the title of Environmental Engineer since 2015, and thanks to this exciting mission and purpose, I obtained my title as a specialist in Preservation and Conservation of Natural Resources in 2016, and I achieved my Master's degree in Engineering in 2020. During my life as a professional I have worked in areas such as environmental management, integrated management systems, and environmentally applied nano biotechnology to treat fungal diseases in African oil palm, and I currently serve as Director of Sustainability of the Alianza BioCuenca Water Fund, where I work in the development and management of projects focused on promoting the improvement of water security in the northeastern region of Colombia.
MOUSLI, Fatimazahra
I am a State Engineer in water and environment engineering and graduated in 2017 from Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco. I worked as a project manager in water treatment projects for two years, I am currently a PhD student at the Research Center on Water, Natural Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Sciences, Mohamed V University of Rabat, Morocco. My research interests include environmental studies, energy and water treatment and pollution studies, wastewater treatment processes, smart environmental systems, innovative technologies, solid waste recovery, modelling and simulation, climate change, etc.
MUKHERJEE, Subham
is a PhD candidate studying Urban Water Security at the Freie University of Berlin, for which he has been awarded the DAAD full scholarship. His PhD project explores the dimensions and issues for quantitative assessment of urban water security in Kolkata. He holds Masters of Science degrees in Ecohydrology (Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany), in GIS for Catchment Dynamics and Management (University of Leeds, UK) and Remote Sensing and GIS (University of Burdwan, India).
Subham has held several research positions both in academic positions and in advisory/management roles for the Governments of England, Scotland, and India. In the latter context, Subham's expertise in GIS and Mapping Techniques has been applied to research under the Rural Payment Agency for DEFRA (2010-2011), in contribution to various rivers projects for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (2011) and as a Project Supervisor for Coastal Regulatory Zones under the Ministry of Environment and Forest for the Government of India (2014). His academic roles have seen him engaged both as a research associate and within a teaching capacity, with responsibility for Masters Students both at the Capital Normal University, Beijing (2014-2016), China, and the University of Kiel (2013), Germany.
Subham has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships in acknowledgement of his academic excellence throughout his career. In addition to the DAAD scholarship which supports his PhD, Subham was awarded a full Research Scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council to pursue his work in China (2014-2016), and the UNESCO-Erasmus Mundus Full Scholarship to support his MSc Studies at the University of Kiel (2011-2013). He is also a recipient of GeoX Network’s research travel grant (2018) to conduct survey in Kolkata, as a part of his PhD. Additionally, he has recently received Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) workshop grant (2019-2020) to conduct workshops in the UK, India, and Bangladesh. He has a number of publications in reputed journals, and has frequently presented at conferences and roundtables in his areas of specialism.
MURDOCK, Heather
Heather's passion is urban infrastructure, water and resilient communities. As a civil engineer focused on flood risk management, she has developed skills in the areas of hazard and vulnerability assessment as well as planning, policy, and stakeholder engagement. She holds a masters from IHE-Delft and a Bachelor's from Queen's University and has worked on three continents. Her research interests include quantitative assessment methods for critical infrastructure resilience and flood risk modelling. In her current role as a Flood Risk Specialist and Hydrotechnical Engineer with Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, Heather serves as technical lead and project manager for flood risk assessments and adaptation planning. In addition, Heather is the co-creator of the Flood Resilience Challenge game, which is a serious game designed to build the capacity of stakeholders to improve flood resilience and enhance flood risk governance. Heather is a member of the AGU’s Hazard Equity Working Group (HEWG), the Water Youth Network’s Disaster Risk Reduction Committee, and a registered professional engineer in Canada.
NEER, Sibylla
Sibylla is a junior policy advisor at the Climate Policy Support Programme of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Bonn, Germany. With a specialisation in climate change adaptation, her work is focusing on the coordination of the implementation of in-depth climate risk analyses for the agricultural sector in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa under the AGRICA Project, which is implemented by PIK. Her role focuses on local stakeholder engagement in the partner countries as well as on embedding the results of the risk analyses in national policy making. She is also coordinating the further development of a tool which is assessing the adaptation content in the current round of nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Before joining GIZ, Sibylla obtained a BSc in geography with a minor in political sciences at Heidelberg University, Germany, and University of Perpignan, France, and holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences, majoring in environmental policy with a focus on climate policy, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her master thesis focused on the challenges of voluntary carbon markets and included an extended research stay in Bangkok, Thailand.
NGUYEN, Thi Minh
Vietnam is among the most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts according to a recent International Panel on Climate Change report. The effects of climate change are now substantially manifested in the Mekong Delta River, through sea-level rise in low lying areas, increased precipitation, increased number of extreme weather events, rising average temperatures, and increased salinity intrusion. I aim to tackle seawater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. To address the intrusion of seawater, I need to obtain a profound understanding of the interaction between land and sea, climate impacts, and hydrological modeling. I noticed that such knowledge is offered in the program’s discussion of the Potsdam Summer School 2021. I also believe that this summer school is a good platform for young researchers like me to come to learn and share our knowledge understanding, and interests.

Thi Minh has a BSc in Geology from Vietnam National University (2017) and at the moment she is undergoing her master studies in geology (focus: oceans and lakes) at University of Brussels since 2018
ORTIZ, Andrea
is a research assistant at the Environmental Vulnerability & Ecosystem Services (EVES) section of the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security. She is originally from Bolivia but moved to Germany 4 years ago to pursue a master's in Geography, Risk, and Human Security. She holds around 4 years of experience in research of ecosystem services, climate change, forest management, NbS/EbA, and disaster risk reduction. She has worked with the German Development Institute (DIE), the European Forestry Institute (EFI), and the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Office (UNDRR). The focus of her current work at EVES is Nature based solutions for flood risk reduction in Central Vietnam.
PILLAI SIVASHANMUGHAM, Rahul
Having graduated in Geography and Development Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Bombay respectively, I was fortunate to acquire excellent theoretical and field experience on my research interests surrounding livelihoods, located at the interface of water, environment and human societies. Presently, my research interests relates to how development policies as a part of international cooperation, relates to sustainable livelihood options. I argue that in many parts of the developing world, this is closely linked to the interconnectedness between local society, natural resources, and (more recently) the rather unpredictable manifestations of extreme climatic events. I specifically look into the case of the housing project for internally displaced persons in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. This research is interested in finding out if an exercise of post-war reconstruction in this area is in sync with the changing livelihood options.
RETTIG, Katharina
is a PhD candidate at the Department of Aquatic Ecology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Her research focuses on the effects of human activities on aquatic ecosystems as well as their contributions to the quality of life for people. With a view to improving the assessment and management of aquatic ecosystems, she currently develops models and support decision tools using a combination of empirical data, published research as well as expert and stakeholder opinion.
Katharina graduated with a B.Sc. in Geography from the University of Bonn, Germany, and later completed a M.Sc. in Environmental Planning and Engineering Ecology at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. She was born in Germany and has lived in Cameroon, Uganda and the USA.

SAJID, Imran
is engineer by profession and currently a PhD candidate at Center for Development Research (ZEF), Bonn University Germany. My PhD research is on Irrigation Water Management in the context of water distribution law. I have an educational and professional background in hydraulic structures and water management. I am really interested in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research topics on environment, climate change, land, water, food and energy.
SCHEIFFER, Rafaela
sees herself as a 21st-century biologist in the edge of science, arts and technology. From Curitiba, Brazil, she graduated in Biology at the Federal University of Paraná, with a period of studies in Evolution at the University of Münster, Germany. She concluded her MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College, with a particular interest in climate change narratives. Her interest for researching water cycles brought her to southern Portugal, where she is working towards the conclusion of her MSc Urban Water Cycle. Rafaela is involved with facilitation, delicate activism, bio-mimicry, transformative education, Donut economics, Water Sensitive Cities, amongst many others. She aims to use her knowledge and passion to start an action-based PhD project and is open to discuss research possibilities across international research groups.
SÖLLER, Linda
I am a PhD-candidate in the working group Hydrology at the Institute of Physical Geography, Goethe-University, Frankfurt. I am holding a M.Sc. in Physical Geography from Goethe-University with a focus on global freshwater resources and biodiversity and their modification through climate change and human interventions. I am currently working in an inter- and transdisciplinary project called regulate (regulation of groundwater in telecoupled social-ecological systems), in which we aim to develop and support sustainable groundwater management in Europe in close collaboration with stakeholders. In the project, I will investigate alterations in groundwater quantity due to climate change and human water use. Therein, I aim to integrate diverse and uncertain scientific and local knowledge using participatory modeling techniques to overcome disciplinary boundaries in solving water related problems.
SOLOMON, Melvin
is a civil engineer with a solid track career history in water industry. He earned his BS Civil Engineering from University of the Philippines Los Baños in 2004 and joined Manila Water Company. He moved to GHD Manila in 2008 as civil engineer and job manager for water and wastewater projects. Then, he earned his ME Civil Engineering from University of Tokyo in 2011. Upon his return, he served the academe as Assistant Professor in UPLB. After which, he moved to WCI Consultants as Senior Hydrologist and led the team of engineers dealing with various water resources projects. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in FEU Institute of Technology Manila. He is also a co-founder of Philippine Young Water Professionals.

Some of his fellowships include Isotope Hydrology at IAEA Vienna Austria and KAERI Daejeon Korea in 2008; Offshore Wind Energy in Yokohama Japan 2010; Wind Energy for EWEA in Copenhagen Denmark 2012; Water Cooperation Initiative in Hanoi Vietnam 2014; Climate and Water Sustainability at UNESCO ICHARM in Tsukuba Japan 2015; Young Water Leaders Summit in SIWW 2016; and Coastal Resiliency Urban Lab of IWA Copenhagen Denmark in 2018.
SOUZA DA SILVA, Everton
was born in Tucano, Bahia, Brazil. He is currently a master student of the Global Change Ecology (GCE) program at the Universität Bayreuth, and holds a B.Sc. in Sanitation and Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Reconcavo (UFRB) da Bahia. When he started getting involved with research, he studied hydrological alterations caused by dams, ecological responses, hydrology of semiarid rivers and hydrological modelling. In 2017, he received the UFRB Talents of Research and Innovation Award for his project on hydrological and geomorphological classification of the Itapicuru River. And his B.Sc. thesis was about the influence of river-aquifer interaction on water availability in the Itapicuru River. Éverton was also a volunteer in projects regarding rational water use and environmental health at traditional rural communities. At the Universität Bayreuth, he is part of the GCE Blog, the DiMoC project, about species distribution related to vector-borne diseases and climate change, and the MedWater Project using the Soil & Water Assessment Tool to model a Brazilian basin.
TU, Hoangh Anh
is a water engineer working in a regional water utility located in the beautiful city of Bendigo, Australia. She spent her undergraduate years at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and holds a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering. Her past and present work focuses on water and wastewater process optimisation, water quality management and concept design of water infrastructure.

Growing up in Vietnam, she witnessed first-hand the bountifulness the Mekong River delta and gained an appreciation for the role of the water sources in influencing the livelihood of the locals and, ultimately, the country's economy. Now living in the land down under, she values even more the bare necessity that was often taken for granted in her youth, seeing the limitations of freshwater availability in Australia and fluctuations in floods and droughts across continent. Her goals are to assist vulnerable regions around the world, in particular developing countries like her own, to achieve safe drinking water at tap and sustainable water resources management
VENEGAS CORDERO, Nelson
is a PhD Student in the Department of Department of Hydrology, Meteorology and Water Management from Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland. He holds A Bachelor and Master-Equivalent in Geography at University of Costa Rica. He has been working on large environmental data analysis, programming, hydrological modeling and Geographic Information System. His previous research at Water and Global Change Observatory - University of Costa Rica, focused on downscaling and correction of global hydrometeorological data products for local-scale applications. Currently, his research focuses on detection and attribution of changes in river floods in Poland. He is passionate about water resources and enthusiastic to improve his research skills.
XERXA, Bardh
holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Zoology, from the University of Pristina, Kosovo. He also holds a MA in European Public Affairs from Maastricht University, as well as certificate in “Restoration Ecology” from Indiana University.
He is specialized in freshwater insect taxonomy and freshwater ecology. His expertise includes biodiversity, water quality assessment, conservation biology, and preservation of protected areas. He was involved in several projects dealing with protected areas, biodiversity, and freshwater ecology. He is engaged as an Ecologist in various water bio-monitoring projects in Kosovo and is a peer reviewer of scientific manuscripts in the field of freshwater ecology.
He has been working for over 10 years in the private and public sectors in the field of environment (water sector) and energy sector in policy drafting.
Besides, he has expertise in the EU acquis chapters (Environment, Energy and Climate Change) and EU Public Affairs.
Currently he works as a senior officer for energy policies in the Office of the Prime Minister.
ZANELLA CARRA, Sofia
is an Environmental Engineer with a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), Brazil. Doctoral researcher in Germany (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst - DAAD scholarship holder) at the Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik und Bioökonomie (ATB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Research group (ATB) “Precision Farming in Crop and Livestock Production” - "Water productivity in agriculture (AgroHyd)". Research project: “Evaluation of Water Productivity of Plant and Livestock Production in an Experimental Watershed Located in Southern Brazil”. This is the first study to apply the FAO LEAP Guidelines "Water use in livestock production systems and supply chains" for water productivity assessment on Brazilian livestock production. It has been developed under an international cooperation agreement between research institutions from Germany (ATB) and Brazil (UCS, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation - Southeast Livestock).
ZAREI, Azin
Azin Zarei (PhD) is a researcher in the Earth System Analysis Department at PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) Institute. She works on improving the existing methods for climate vulnerability and risk assessment in grassland areas. Her current works are focused on identification of the vulnerable areas by quantifying the climate change impacts on vegetation cover, vegetation dynamics monitoring (remote sensing), Geographic Information System (GIS), and statistical models. She suggests a multidisciplinary approach that provides the vegetation dynamics indicators maps under different projected climate scenarios. Her research interests are:
• Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies
• Environmental risk assessment, monitoring
• Spatial and regional planning, Remote sensing, GIS
• Developing vegetation dynamics models