IRES Faculty Mark Johnson Featured on CBC News

The CBC News website recently featured Mark Johnson. Mark discussed how the Fraser River can be a possible future water source for Metro Vancouver in addition to our current reservoirs.

Click here to view the news article.

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Photo credit: Julian S. Yates

RES PhD Student Sameer Shah Featured in UBC’s “A Quick Study”

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(Photo credit: wfelden from flickr/Creative Commons )

A Quick Study is a UBC ongoing series aimed at getting to know what motivates and inspires UBC students about their learning — inside and outside the classroom.

RES PhD student Sameer Shah is featured in UBC’s A Quick Study. Click here to view the interview.

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RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière’s Research in Brazil
Featured on Mitacs Blog

Below is a short description of research RES PhD Candidate Michael Lathuillière is doing in Brazil posted on the Mitacs Blog:

https://www.mitacs.ca/en/impact/postcard-brazil-ubc-phd-student-travels-southern-amazonia-find-water-footprint-local-farms

For more information on Mitacs, click here.

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Photo credit: Michael Lathuillière

RES PhD Candidate Michael J. Lathuillière and IRES Faculty Mark S. Johnson have a new publication

A review of green- and blue-water resources and their trade-offs for future agricultural production in the Amazon Basin: what could irrigated agriculture mean for Amazonia?

Co-Authors: Michael J. Lathuillière¹, Michael T. Coe², and Mark S. Johnson^1,3

¹Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, 2202, Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada
²Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644, USA
³Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2207, Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada

Abstract: The Amazon Basin is a region of global importance for the carbon and hydrological cycles, a biodiversity hotspot, and a potential centre for future economic development. The region is also a major source of water vapour recycled into continental precipitation through evapotranspiration processes. This review applies an ecohydrological approach to Amazonia’s water cycle by looking at contributions of water resources in the context of future agricultural production. At present, agriculture in the region is primarily rain-fed and relies almost exclusively on green-water resources (soil moisture regenerated by precipitation). Future agricultural development, however, will likely follow pathways that include irrigation from blue-water sources (surface water and groundwater) as insurance from variability in precipitation. In this review, we first provide an updated summary of the green–blue ecohydrological framework before describing past trends in Amazonia’s water resources within the context of land use and land cover change. We then describe green- and blue-water trade-offs in light of future agricultural production and potential irrigation to assess costs and benefits to terrestrial ecosystems, particularly land and biodiversity protection, and regional precipitation recycling. Management of green water is needed, particularly at the agricultural frontier located in the headwaters of major tributaries to the Amazon River, and home to key downstream blue-water users and ecosystem services, including domestic and industrial users, as well as aquatic ecosystems.

Click here to download the publication.

Photo credit: Michael J. Lathuillière

Congratulations to our May 2016 RMES Graduates!

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Johnnie Manson – MA (Supervisors: Terre Satterfield and Hannah Wittman)

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Kelly Sharp – MA (Supervisors: Hisham Zerriffi and Philipe Le Billon)

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Yaron Cohen – MSc (Supervisor: Milind Kandlikar)

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Arvind Saraswat – PhD (Supervisor: Milind Kandlikar)

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Lisa Westerhoff – PhD (Supervisor: John Robinson)

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Thor Jensen – Joint PhD [UBC — UVSQ] (Supervisor: Hadi Dowlatabadi)

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Chloe (Pui Wing) Sher — MA (Supervisor: Karen Bakker)

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Matt Taccogna — MSc (Supervisor: Hisham Zerriffi)

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Anne-Mareike Chu — MSc (Supervisor: John Robinson)

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Phil Torio — PhD (Supervisor: Leila Harris)

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Photo credit: Narek75/Creative Commons

Charlotte Milne

PhD Student
Disaster Resilience Research Network Fellow
R. Howard Webster Fellow
IRES Student Society Social Coordinator, 2023-2024

Contact Details

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-milne/

cmil137[at]mail[dot]ubc[dot]ca

Bio

Charlotte’s research looks at current approaches to floodplain mapping in Canada and the potential for the process to be improved through greater consideration of Indigenous community values and perspectives. Through her work with the Living With Water research project she is also interested in how Nature-based Solutions to riverine flooding can be implemented in just ways that reflect local community priorities. Charlotte is from Aotearoa (New Zealand) where she completed her MSc in Fluvial Geomorphology before working on the Māori-led project Te Mana o Rangitāhua. Charlotte is supervised by Professor Stephanie Chang (IRES and SCARP).

Congratulations RES PhD student Sameer Shah!

RES PhD student Sameer Shah was recently awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal at the Master’s level for UBC.

Sameer is also the recipient of the UBC Faculty of Science Graduate Prize. This award recognizes the science student whose record, in the opinion of the Faculty, is the best in the graduating class for a Master’s degree with a thesis.

Sameer graduated with a Master of Science in Resource Management and Environmental Studies in November 2015. He continues his PhD in the same program.

Congratulations Sameer!

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Above photo credit: Sameer Shah

Scenic photo credit: Julian S. Yates

IRES Faculty Mark Johnson Featured on CBC News