By 2050, Earth鈥檚 population is estimated to reach nine billion. This will intensify a growing food security crisis, which is already exacerbated by current agricultural processes, climate change and economic inequality. Around the globe, there is an urgent need to improve the safety, efficiency and sustainability of the food supply chain.

This fall the 91探花’s annual will feature three 91探花engineers and scientists who are working across disciplines to manage the quality and quantity of the food we eat and grow. Their lectures 鈥� on developing technology to help farmers, studying how arsenic affects food and water quality, and analyzing how dams in rivers impact fish 鈥� are free and open to the public, but seating is limited and .

Growing more with less: Smart tech solutions to feed the world

The series kicks off Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall 130 with , a professor in the civil and environmental engineering department. His work has resulted in satellite management systems in several nations across Asia that help improve water, food and energy security. Asia has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, but regional monsoons impact efficient water management and reduce agricultural yield. Learn how Hossain uses global weather models and satellite data to develop technology that will help farmers increase crop yield through sustainable water management.

Updated 11/25/19 – video

Human and ecosystem health: Arsenic in food, water, plants and animals

On Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall 130, , an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, will talk about how arsenic is a naturally occurring but harmful pollutant. Its ubiquitous presence in natural and agricultural environments threatens global food security and negatively affects the health of millions of people worldwide. Neumann is studying how arsenic in local and global settings affects food and water quality, and the health of ecosystems.

Updated 11/25/19 – video

Floods, fish and people: Challenges and opportunities in the Mekong River basin

The lecture series closes Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall 130 with , associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. Holtgrieve is an ecosystem ecologist and fisheries scientist whose research spans the Puget Sound area, Alaska and the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. He will talk about his work in the Mekong River basin to address how energy policy, watershed hydrology and ecosystems interact in order to lessen the effects of climate change and new infrastructure in rivers around the globe.

Updated 11/25/19 – video

All lectures are free and start at 7:30 p.m. Advance registration, either or by calling 206-543-0540, is required. All lectures will be broadcast at a later date on UWTV.

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In the Pacific Northwest, the conversation about hydroelectric dams is complicated: Dams hamper the natural migration of salmon, yet they are an important source of cheap, renewable energy for the region.

In other parts of the world, gray areas still exist, but the conversation about dams is very different, brought on by a critical need for reliable food and energy sources. In tropical river systems such as the Amazon, Congo and the Mekong, river and lake fishing provide food security in some of the world’s poorest regions and would be negatively impacted by an onslaught of new dams. At the same time, existing and future dams planned on these rivers hold the promise of renewable energy in places that arguably need it the most.

There, the debate is over when and how 鈥� not whether 鈥� dams will be built and operated.

In Southeast Asia, the Mekong River and its tributaries support what is likely the largest inland fishery in the world, worth more than $2 billion annually, that over 60 million people rely on for daily food and livelihoods. Nearly 100 hydropower dams are planned for construction along the tributaries and main stem of the river’s 2,700-mile stretch.

In a , researchers from the 91探花, Arizona State University and others institutions that allows dam operators to generate power in ways that also protect 鈥� and possibly improve 鈥� food supplies and businesses throughout the Mekong River basin. The proposed solution, the first of its kind, can be applied to other large river systems around the world facing similar tradeoffs.

“One of the challenges in dealing with these systems and environmental change is the conversation is largely stuck in, ‘don’t build dams,’ or ‘yes, build dams,'” said , a 91探花assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. “What this does say is, let’s try to find ways we can work together. This won’t solve all the problems, but let’s work to find solutions.”

The paper represents a first step in a large, multiyear project involving researchers across the 91探花and ASU campuses. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s , the project will use findings in the Mekong River basin as an example of how three critical issues 鈥� feeding people, generating energy and maintaining functioning ecosystems 鈥� can be addressed thoughtfully and progressively in the developing world.

Every summer in the Mekong River basin, monsoon rains flood the river and delta, increasing by six times the flooded area of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in Southeast Asia and frequently called the “heart” of the Mekong. The rise and eventual fall of the water triggers the migration of dozens of fish species, which spawn in the upper tributaries during low water. Fish larvae return to the lake on the next flood to grow and mature in its highly productive waters. This yearly pattern provides a critical source of animal protein, and an economy, for the people of Cambodia and other countries along the Lower Mekong.

But with new dams coming online soon, there is no basin-wide effort to coordinate how each dam’s release of water will impact the hydrology of the basin or fish, said , a 91探花professor of civil and environmental engineering and a collaborator on the project.

The goal of the project, involving researchers from fisheries, forestry, engineering, public health and the , is to gather information about how dam water flow interacts with fish, rice production and nutrition in this region and provide the most useful information to individual countries so that they can decide how best to operate their hydropower dams, he explained.

“We are trying to find a sweet spot for the many stakeholders, who often compete for resources, that can maximize the overall benefits in a way that doesn’t do too much damage to the environment, fish and livelihood of the region,” Hossain said.

One promising option is to use hydroelectric dams to mimic the flood of water from monsoon rains each spring that bring fish to the lake. The team’s algorithm, outlined in the Science paper, recommends long, low-flow periods punctuated by rapid flooding, which would allow dam operators to manage their power generation priorities while protecting fishing economies downstream.

The researchers found that seasonal periods of drought before the annual flood are crucial to producing abundant fisheries in the lake and surrounding streams. When the soil is dry, trees and plants grow, organic matter is produced and the soil is filled with nutrients. When floodwaters rush in, those nutrients are suspended in the water and fish are able to exploit them 鈥� drawing more fish to the feast, which in turn benefits fishers.

Holtgrieve, along with several 91探花colleagues, will study the flooding cycle in connection with the nutritional value of fish and rice, both staples in Southeast Asian diets, to help prioritize certain species and timing for harvesting the most nutritious food. Specifically, he will analyze tissue samples from 50 different fish species covering a range of habitats in the Mekong, measuring for beneficial fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, as well as for harmful elements like mercury.

“We as a society view fish as generally good for you,” Holtgrieve said. “This project recognizes that not all fish are the same in terms of their nutritional value.”

With the knowledge of which fish are the healthiest to eat, the researchers can work backward by figuring out what those fish like to eat, and then what flood and drought regime is most likely to produce those plants and organisms 鈥� controlled by dams releasing water 鈥� that produce more fish of high nutritional value.

Similarly, 91探花professors (civil and environmental engineering) and (environmental and forest sciences) will look at beneficial nutrients, such as zinc, and harmful contaminants, such as arsenic, in rice to measure whether the length of time that rice paddies are flooded makes a difference in the presence of these elements in the crop. Again, water releases from hydropower dams could be programmed to optimize for rice that is high in zinc and low in arsenic.

Hossain has used satellites to reverse engineer the blueprint of dam operations on about 20 dams in the Mekong region, and his those findings to dozens of the planned dams to try to predict their likely water releases and storages, and how they may impact the surrounding landscape.

“Satellites are immune to political boundaries on the ground,” he said. “Information is key, and I think it should be a fundamental right for everyone to know what’s happening with the water around them, but that’s not the case here, unfortunately.”

In other aspects of the project, (civil and environmental engineering) will help forecast future floods under hydropower and climate change scenarios, while (public health) will integrate the fish and rice nutrient data with information on the nutritional needs of the local population.

In addition to lab and field work, the researchers plan to visit the region, documenting in video and photos the personal stories from people who live in the Mekong River basin. They will also involve 91探花undergraduate students in a by accepting submissions for a based on stories from the Mekong.

The project will run for three years, and the researchers intend to share results along the way.

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For more information, contact Holtgrieve at gholt@uw.edu or 206-616-7041.

Nearly 100 hydropower dams are planned for construction along the tributaries and main stem of the Mekong River鈥檚 2,700-mile stretch. The river, one of the world鈥檚 largest, flows through Burma, China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. It is an economic engine for fishermen and a food source for millions of people worldwide. And while the dams are expected to provide clean energy to the region, if not managed properly, they also have the potential to offset natural river patterns, which would damage food production, supply and business.

The 91探花, Arizona State University and other collaborators have in the Dec. 8 issue of Science that allows dam operators to generate power in ways that also protect 鈥� and possibly improve 鈥� food supplies and businesses throughout the Mekong river basin. The proposed solution, the first of its kind for this problem, can be applied to other large river systems around the world facing similar tradeoffs.

鈥淲e have figured out the relationship between river flows and fish catch, and we have developed an algorithm for dam operators to use that will increase fish harvests and still generate power,鈥� said lead author , a professor at Arizona State University. 鈥淒ams are going to be built no matter how much fuss we make, our research shows how we can be more strategic about the buildout and operations of these dams in the Mekong.鈥�

The Mekong river floods annually, and it is known that those floods are important for fisheries, Sabo said. New in this research is the recognition that seasonal droughts are equally important. Long droughts combined with short floods may create the ideal conditions for terrestrial nutrients to be entrained into the freshwater system. With that in mind, the algorithm presented by the researchers recommends long low-flow periods punctuated by pulses of flooding, which will allow dam operators to co-manage their power generation priorities, while protecting livelihoods for fisheries downstream.

鈥淲e have taken this conversation around fisheries and dams in the Mekong from a yes-or-no conversation, from a good idea-bad idea conversation, and we have come up with an alternative, a mathematical formula that has the possibility to achieve dam operator goals and protects fisheries,鈥� said co-author , a 91探花assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

Also appearing in the Dec. 8 edition of Science is an co-authored by , a 91探花professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, and of Colorado State University, who both maintain active research programs in the area of environmental flow science. The authors use the Mekong river basin example as a grounding point to offer that there are “exciting, yet still largely unexplored, opportunities to revisit the role of dams in supporting the needs of humans and ecosystems,” Olden said.

With recent funding from the , Holtgrieve, Sabo and a team of researchers will expand the project to better understand how dam operators can balance power generation needs with other factors, including rice production, food nutritional quality, ecological goals and more.

Other co-authors are from the University of Maryland, Conservation International, the University of South Florida, the Mekong River Commission and Aalto University.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.

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This has been adapted from an Arizona State University news release.

Author contact information:

Gordon Holtgrieve:
Phone/cell: 206-227-9930 (preferred)
Phone/office: 206-616-7041
Email: gholt@uw.edu

John Sabo:
Phone/text: 480-734-7120
Email: John.L.Sabo@asu.edu