DATE: Wednesday, April 27th, 2016
PLACE: Hawthorne Lucky Lab Brew Pub, 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd
TIME: 11:30 a.m. Networking, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Presentation
SPEAKER: Scott Wells, PSU
TOPIC: Is the Dead Sea Dead?
The Dead Sea is a terminal lake and is the lowest water body on the earth’s surface. As a result of historic changes in inflows to the Dead Sea, water levels are now receding at more than 1 m per year. There have been many proposed solutions to the ‘dying’ Dead Sea such as reinvigorating the Jordan River by bringing in desalinated water from the Mediterranean Sea and pumping sea water from the Gulf of Aquaba. Water quality impacts on the Dead Sea were evaluated for the latter solution by constructing a suite of mathematical models of the circulation and chemistry in the Dead Sea. Will these proposed ‘solutions’ save the Dead Sea?
Bio: Scott Wells, Professor Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Portland State University
He has a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and graduate and undergraduate degrees from MIT and Tennessee Technological University. His current research focus is environmental fluid mechanics: modeling of surface water quality and hydrodynamics and solid-liquid separation processes. He has written over 100 technical publications.
He has been involved in well-over 100 water body studies throughout the United States in Oregon, Hawaii, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Idaho, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Montana, New York, Colorado, and Florida. He has also been involved in projects in Canada, Guyana, Peru, Brazil, China, Ukraine and Israel/Jordan. He has received 2 Fulbright scholar awards, one to the Ukraine working on the Dnieper River and the other to Israel where he is continuing to work on a computer simulation model of the Dead Sea.
He is a co-author of the water quality and hydrodynamic model, CE-QUAL-W2, used throughout the world for hydrodynamic and water quality modeling studies. He has been actively involved in studies for local, state and federal government as they work on improving water quality in surface water systems and in understanding the environmental impacts of reservoirs and how to manage water quality in surface water systems.