亚洲AV

Water Crisis

Is Water the New Oil? | Episode 2听

In this episode of "Our Future, Transformed," Mason President Gregory Washington speaks with Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, Dean of the , about water, why there's too much in some places, too little in others, and what we can do, in a warming world, to avoid water catastrophes.

听 听 ... if you look at human history, people have been battling for water since the ages. If you think about your first history lesson, water was in it, you know, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. It鈥檚 been happening for a long time and it鈥檚 happening now and it will continue happening in the future.

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm

" "

Read the Transcript

Transcript EP. 2: Our Future, Transformed:听Is Water the new oil?

Dr. Gregory Washington:

I鈥檓 Mason President Gregory Washington welcoming you to the second episode of 鈥淥ur Future, Transformed,鈥 a series of conversations with Mason鈥檚 leading experts about the grand challenges of today 鈥 and tomorrow. My guest today is Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, dean of Mason鈥檚 College of Science, to talk about the water crisis and how we solve it. When we think about water as a grand challenge, the first question that actually comes to my mind is, is water the next oil?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

I think it is and it probably has been for a long time. And if you look at human history, people have been battling for water since the ages. If you think about your first history lesson, water was in it, you know, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. It鈥檚 been happening for a long time and it鈥檚 happening now and it will continue happening in the future.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

So in the D.C. region where we are here today, there have been some notable examples of urban flooding. What is the driver? What鈥檚 going on?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Well, I think, you know, the, you know, one thing about water that鈥檚 very easy to understand but very difficult to predict is that water moves. You know, you have water in the atmosphere, you have water in the oceans, you have water in rivers. It鈥檚 moving all the time. It鈥檚 moving at different rates. So what ends up happening in places that we鈥檝e seen, and certainly in the National Capital region where urban flooding is becoming a bigger, bigger issue. We had huge floods in Southwest Virginia just a, you know, a few months ago, around the major Washington, D.C. area, there鈥檚 urban flooding all the time is, is the fact that water has become concentrated in places where we have just built too much infrastructure. When we build cities, when we build roads, what we鈥檙e doing is that we鈥檙e replacing natural systems that can regulate water flow, they can absorb it, they can prevent flooding from happening to, to pavements and buildings that tend to concentrate water. And that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e having the problem.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Around the globe there have been examples of devastating wildfires, and then we see these massive examples of flooding in Pakistan not too long ago globally, and then also in many of, a number of our western states as well. What are the challenges to addressing these issues and how might we overcome them?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Well, you know, the wildfires typically originate when the soil gets too dry, and then vegetation becomes natural fuel for fires to propagate. That is what was happening in the Amazon, that鈥檚 what was happening In Australia just a few years back, and certainly in California that continues to be the case, right? A drought will very likely result in wildfires spreading, spreading quicker. The solution to that is to really build systems that can store water and regulate, essentially, the, the moisture content of the soils. Soil is the biggest regulator of water around the world. You know, you think about big rivers, big lakes containing vast amounts of water. But the largest amount of water worldwide is contained in soils. And soils are the big regulator, and natural systems are the big regulators of water. So trying to allow natural systems to store water in a way that they prevent these things from happening is going to be a big part of how we solve these issues.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Given that a sizeable amount of the globe鈥檚 population lives in, in either climates that have very little water, or no water at all, do we have any great examples of water management, any great examples that we can point to and ask the question, how are some of these other countries responding to either flooding or lack of water? How are they responding to it in ways that actually can help us here in the U.S.?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Yes, I always point to the example of the, of countries in the Middle East as the most water scarce but also as countries that have learned to live with little water in a moderately successful way. And so, water conservation, building infrastructure that stores water, using natural systems, the term these days is nature-based solutions, is using nature to store water. Those are the ways you can actually mitigate the big peaks towards floods or mitigate the big valleys towards, towards floods, towards droughts.

Dr .Gregory Washington:

Is it fair to compare those entities to, to the U.S. and what we can do in the U.S.? Is it, in some sense, we鈥檙e very, very different, right? So talk a little about that.

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Yeah, so that鈥檚 a great question, and let me tell you where it is that we鈥檙e most different. The biggest difference between the U.S. and other countries is, is how we manage water. So, and let鈥檚 take the example of the western states cause, you know, in, in the U.S. we speak a lot about water rights. There鈥檚 a, there鈥檚 a big, there鈥檚 big water legislation that apportions water in a way that does not take into consideration the physical variables. So there are commitments for water to be delivered in places where you just don鈥檛 have enough water. It鈥檚 like I鈥檝e committed to pay you a salary of water where I鈥檓 running out funds, and no matter what you鈥檙e going to expect that salary even thought I have no money.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

You have no water to give them.

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Exactly, exactly, yes.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

And so what happens then?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

So I think we have to, in the U.S. I think we have to tune our legislation and our water legislation, in particularly in the western states, towards the fact that, you know, the climate is changing, population has changed in the distribution, the economies have changed. And, um, and, you know, speaking of California again, we cannot be subsidizing farmers to grow almonds that are exported to other parts of the world and think that the natural aquifers and water systems in California are going to pick up the bill. And that has to change. And that is happening in many parts of the country, but it is particularly severe in the western states.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

So I would like to now open it up to our student audience for questions on this topic.

Student:

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. My question really talks about or is pertaining to coastal flooding and how much of that has to do with climate change and deforestation. I know there鈥檚 a little bit of talk about certain cities such as Norfolk, Va., going underwater in a couple of years or a few years in time. But I was just wondering, how much of that is due to climate change or other factors such as deforestation?

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm:

Globally, around, you know, and that鈥檚 certainly the same thing in the United States, about 60 percent of the population, globally and in the United States, live within 60 miles of a coastline. That鈥檚 where we have built a majority of our infrastructure, that is where everybody lives. And what we鈥檝e seen historically over, for the past over 100 years, is that sea level rise have been rising and rising and rising. I grew up in Miami, and Miami they have something that鈥檚 called sunny day flooding. That means, it floods when there is no rain. It鈥檚 just the water coming up and flooding, and flooding significant property. This is starting to happen all over the world. We know it is a combination of temperature increase because of global warming. So, you know, you know, a little bit of physics 鈥 you know, the temperature increases, water expands, so seawater expands, and because seawater is a lot of water, it鈥檒l really, really start rising up and flooding. The other piece that contributes to this is that, you mentioned is deforestation. So when we take out trees and we clear out land, the water moves through the land much, much quicker. So rivers that naturally drain into coastal areas do so much faster. So you have more freshwater coming in, sea level going up. The result is that you, you know, we have a significant increase in, in coastal flooding around the world, certainly here in this country.

Dr. Gregory Washington:

Thank you, Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm for your participation today. And I want to thank all of you for your participation in this episode of 鈥淥ur Future, Transformed.鈥

" "

Learn more

About the Series

Mason President Gregory Washington hosts a new YouTube series听titled听鈥Our Future, Transformed: Mason Spotlights the World鈥檚 Grand Challenges.鈥澨齌he series features faculty experts speaking about some of the most debated and significant topics of our day with an audience of听听students. Experts in the first season discuss the key solutions to key issues, including water policies in the West, police reform, problems at our Southern border, clean energy, and getting more women into STEM fields.

Guest Bio

Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm is the Dean of the听听at 亚洲AV. He is a hydrologist and water resources engineer with research interests in modeling of surface and groundwater systems, climate-hydrology-vegetation interactions, remote sensing applied to hydrologic cycle processes and water quality, and modeling of the water-energy-food nexus.听Read more.

Explore Honors College

The听亚洲AV Honors College听is a place where students are highly motivated, perpetually learning, and inquisitive. Here, we ask questions that allow us to engage with our world in meaningful ways.听.

Learn about College of Science

Understand. Innovate. Succeed.

The College of Science at 亚洲AV blends traditional science education with sought-after programs in molecular medicine, climate dynamics, planetary science, forensic science, environmental studies, and geoinformation science to prepare students for exciting careers at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary scientific domains. .

" "

More from this series

" "

In This Episode

People Mentioned in This Story