Marcelo Somos-Valenzuela
Ph.D. in water resources engineering
My name is Marcelo Somos-Valenzuela, a hydrologist with a Master's and Ph.D. in Water Resources from the University of Texas at Austin. I worked as a postdoc in the Research Center for Water Resources at the University of Texas at Austin and the Northeastern Climate Adaptation Center at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Also, I worked as a Research Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. All my postgraduate studies are related to water in different forms and environments. Since 2017, I work as an academic at the Universidad de la Frontera. I participate in undergraduate and postgraduate courses associated with water resources in the Faculty of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences.
I am interested in the impacts of changes in land cover and climate, the increase in extreme events such as floods and droughts, and the parameterization of models to improve the prediction and adaptation to global change in mountain systems.
Photo credit: Dr. Stephanie Spray
In my research, I have had the opportunity to work on many of the issues highlighted in the agreements reached in recent COPs, particularly in the study of climate change in mountain areas. I have worked extensively with local communities in remote areas of Nepal and Peru, helping them apply science to understand better the problems they face due to climate change. I have advised local communities and seen first-hand how my work has become part of a community-engaging approach to decision-making, bridging the gap between small communities and international agencies like USAID, UNDP, IDB, and central governments. I have also done large-scale hydrology work for the continental US, which has been a revolutionary change in the way the US does regional hydrology, but with a local application. A version of this work has been implemented in the operational river forecasting model of the US National Weather Service. In Chile, I have worked on different projects associated with water resources in collaboration with national research centers (UdeC, UDD, CRHIAM, RedH2O, SOCHICRI) and government institutions (MOP, INIA, CNID, MMA, to name a few). I have participated as principal investigator and co-investigator in projects on hydrology and natural disasters in mountain environments in the central region and Chilean Patagonia, and the Tibetan Plateau. In addition, I have disseminated the results of my research both in presentations for local groups (e.g., Melipeuco Chamber of Tourism), at national events (e.g., Macro-zonal meetings for Cop25), and international as a guest speaker (UC Davis, UC Berkeley, U. Alabama, AGU, among others). I also maintain collaborative ties with international centers such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) of the USA, University of Texas-San Antonio, The Ohio State University, Northeastern Climate Adaptation Center, Utrecht University, to name some of them.
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