SYNOPSYS

Water and environment are fundamental resources for sustaining human economic and social development, at the same time have become subjected to increasing pressure and challenges related to water and environmental sustainability. While water is a renewable resource, its availability is limited, being determined by climatic, geographical and political conditions, by affordable technological solutions that permit its exploitation, and by the efficiency with which water is conserved and used. More and more development means greater impacts on the water and environment. Shortcomings in the management of water and environment, a focus on developing new sources rather than managing existing ones better, and top-down sector approaches to water and environmental management result in uncoordinated development and management of the resources. There is a need to better manage the water and environment in sustainable way. The integrated approaches in management of water resources and river basin such as Integrated Water Resources management (IWRM) and Integrated River Basin management (IRBM)are very important in the planning, managing, and conserving the water resources and river basin. There is also a need to appreciate the important role of human in managing water resources and environment, taking into account on what a human being can contribute to conserve and preserve the water and environment, and how they can also give the good or bad impact to the nature ecosystem that will affect the water and environment. It includes the role of all related water and environmental stakeholders, more specifically the role of engineers, scientists and communities in water and environmental sustainability. The sustainability science approach, which promotes cross-disciplinary coordination, and requires global cooperative effort to advance understanding of the dynamics of human-environment systems seems prominent to be adopted towards achieving water and environmental sustainability. It is a vital part of the solutions to the sustainability challenges we face, involving multiple disciplines of the natural, social, medical and engineering sciences, from the professions, and from practical field experience in business, government and civil society. Thus, we need to strengthen collaboration among them and take a leading role in providing the knowledge needed for societal transformations to a sustainable world.

SPEAKER BIODATA

Dr. Rahmah Elfithri is an environmental scientist and water resources management specialist. She obtained her Bachelor Degree (Hons) in Environmental Science in 1999,Masters in Environmental Management in 2000 and Ph. D. in Environment and Development(Integrated Water Resources Management) in 2006 from the National University of Malaysia(UKM), Malaysia.

She started her professional career as a Lecturer as well as Research Fellow at the Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), UKM since 2007 and currently holds a position as a Visiting Professor since 2020. She has conducted various research, education and capacity building programmes in areas of water and environmental sustainability, in collaboration with some Local, National and International partners/institutions and has published more than 300 publications in form of journals, books/chapter in books, proceedings, etc. She coordinates the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)Research Group and Sustainable Ecosystem Management Research Group in UKM, and led the Water Research Field under the UKM’s Sustainable Campus Programme since 2008. She initiated the Langat River Basin in Malaysia to become a UNESCO HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy) River Basin since 2004, and the Putrajaya Lake and Wetland as a UNESCO Ecohydrology Demonstration Site since 2010 where she promoted the implementation of IWRM and Ecohydrology.

She actively served in various networks and partnerships in Malaysia such as Steering Committee Member of Malaysian Capacity Building Network for IWRM (MyCapNet) 2005-2010, Steering Committee Member of Malaysian Country Water Partnership (MyCWP) since2008 & Chair of MyToolBox Committee under the MyCWP since 2011, Executive Committee Member of UNESCO-IHP Malaysia (MIHP) since 2010, Task Force Committee Member of IRBM and IWRM Advocacy, Awareness Raising & Capacity Building (AACB) of Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) since 2012, National Research Committee Member on Lake, Reservoir and its Catchment of National Hydraulic Research Institute Malaysia (NAHRIM) since 2014, Advisory Committee Member of National River Care Fund (NRCF) Programme of Global Environmental Centre (GEC) since 2015, Founding Member and Coordinator of Ecohydrology Malaysia Chapter (EMC) since 2017, Founding Member of Friends of Langat River (FoLR) since 2017 &Friends of River Malaysia (FoRM) since 2018, Committee Member of International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research Malaysia Chapter (IACRR-MC) since 2018, and Founding Member & Coordinator of Langat IRBM Network since 2019. At the international level, she served as a Technical Division Committee Member on Environmental Impacts or Public Communication and Engagement Committee of International Association for Coastal Reservoir Research (IACRR) since 2017, Founder Member and Joint-Treasurer of International Association of Water, Environment, Energy and Society (IAWEES) since 2018, Direction Board Member of International Society for Ecohydrology (ISEH) since 2019, Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) Member of UNESCO’s Ecohydrology Programme since 2019, and Steering Group (SG) Member of UNDRR’s Global Risk Assessment Framework (GRAF) since 2020.