DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

SEMINAR
The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus: A Platform to Help
Alleviate Threats to the Global Commons
Dr. Rabi H. Mohtar,
TEES Endowed Professor
Texas AM University, College Station

Friday, September 15, 2017

2:00 PM - Ryon Lab 201

Summary: The global commons are those resource domains lying outside of the political reach of any one nation
state, and they include the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the land that provides our food. Significant threats to
these resources - along with the ways in which those resources interact with one another - are ever-increasing. Therefore,
there is an urgent need for integrated analytical frameworks to help understand the science of their interactions,
interlinkages, and sustainable management. Mohtar will explore how engineering and analytics interface with economics,
policy, and the supply chain at the local and global scales. He will then address how a "nexus" approach can drive
sustainable resources management and allocation. Describing the key research gaps that must be addressed to enable this
greater understanding of the complex Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus, he will present examples of nexus-focused
research from his own studies on the water-hydraulic fracturing-transportation nexus and describe the processes,
analytical framework, scenarios, and tradeoffs in this system.
Bio: He is a member of the faculty in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and the Zachry
Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M, and Adjunct Professor at TAMU-Q and at Purdue University. Mohtar
coordinates the TAMU WEF Resource Nexus Initiative (2015). Hes research interests focus on the development of
integrated analytical frameworks to help understand the science of the interactions and interlinkages of the Water-Energy-
Food Nexus, and the way in which a Nexus approach can drive sustainable resources management and allocation. His
WEF Nexus Research at Texas A&M University is also home to the Pedostructure Characterization Laboratory, which
focuses on Soil health and Green Water accounting. Professor Mohtar has used more than $12M in funded research grants
to address global resource challenges such as the development of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus framework linking
science to policy, characterization of the soil-water medium using thermodynamic modeling, efficacy of non-traditional
water using physical-based methodologies; and applications for sustainable, integrated water management. He has 90 peer
reviewed articles and more than 200 published scientific and policy articles, 4 books and multiple book chapters. Mohtar
has supervised 55 graduate students, hosted over 30 postdocs and visiting scholars, and worked on research and training in
over 15 countries. He is the 2015 Ven Te Chow Memorial Lecturer of the International Water Recourses Association, a
Distinguished Alumnus of the American University of Beirut (2014), recipient of the ASABE Kishida International
Award (2010).Mohtar has served on theWorld Economic Forum Global Agenda Councils on Water Security and Climate
Change (2009-2014), and is an advisor to the UNFCC Momentum of Change, World Water Council and the OCP Policy
Center.