Professor Khaled M Bali
University of California, San Diego, USA

Biography: Dr. Khaled Bali is the Irrigation Water Management Specialist at the University of California Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, CA. He has been with UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources since 1992 and served in different capacities as irrigation and water management advisor in Imperial County (1992-2016), UCCE county director in Imperial County (2009-2016) and two years as interim director of the UC Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville (2012-2013 and 2014-2015). He received his PhD in soil physics from UC Davis (1992), MS degree in irrigation and drainage from UC Davis (1987), and BS degree in soil and irrigation from the University of Jordan (1984). He is responsible for designing, implementing, and conducting educational and applied research programs in irrigation, drainage, water management, water quality, soil salinity, waste management, reuse of wastewater for irrigation and nonpoint source pollution control practices. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jordan (2006-07) and conducted research on reuse of wastewater for irrigation and constructed wetlands to treat wastewater.

Professor Sunil Herat
Griffith University, Australia

Mikio Ishiwatari is a Professor at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. He worked as a Senior Advisor on Disaster Management and Water Resources Management at the Japan International Cooperation Agency and a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo. He has been engaged in the projects and research works of disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and water. He led the formulation of the Japanese assistance policies of climate change adaptation and community-based disaster management. He worked at the World Bank as Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, and produced the “Learning from Megadisaster: Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake”. He worked at various positions at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, Japan for 17 years. He formulated and supervised national projects of flood risk management and highways in Iwami District as Director of Hamada River and Road Office, and was responsible for research and technology development as Senior Deputy Director for River Technology and Information. He worked as Urban Development Specialist at the Asian Development Bank. He was a member of “Committee on Building Resilience to Natural Disasters” of the Japan Science Society; and experienced members of “Advisory Council of Development Assistance in Climate Change Adaptation” of Ministry of Land Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan, “Steering Committee of Water and Climate Change of Asia-Pacific Water Forum”, and other committees of government organizations. He holds a PhD in international studies and MSc in Urban Engineering from the University of Tokyo.