Skip navigation
Mobile menu is now open
    • Publications
    • Perspectives
    • Projects and tools
    • Events
    • People
    • About
    • SEI Africa
    • SEI Asia
    • SEI Headquarters
    • SEI Latin America
    • SEI Oxford
    • SEI Tallinn
    • SEI US
    • SEI York
    • Climate
      • Adaptation
      • Mitigation
      • Finance
      • Climate services
      • Short lived climate pollutants
      • Fossil fuels
      • Disaster risk
      • Climate policy
    • Water
      • Sanitation
      • Water resources
      • Disaster risk
      • Food and agriculture
      • Cities
      • Adaptation
      • Water-Energy-Food Nexus
      • Planning and modelling
    • Air
      • Short lived climate pollutants
      • Transport
      • Cities
      • Household energy
      • Food and agriculture
      • Pollution
    • Land
      • Food and agriculture
      • Forests
      • Cities
      • Land use
      • Ecosystems
    • Energy
      • Energy access
      • Household energy
      • Sustainable lifestyles
      • Renewables
      • Fossil fuels
      • Transport
      • Planning and modelling
    • Governance
      • Finance
      • Public policy
      • Geopolitics
      • Sustainable Development Goals
      • Innovation
      • Participation
    • Economy
      • Supply chains
      • Bioeconomy
      • Finance
      • Business
      • Behaviour and choice
      • Sustainable lifestyles
      • Innovation
    • Gender
      • Household energy
      • Sanitation
      • Participation
      • Behaviour and choice
      • Food and agriculture
      • Adaptation
      • Disaster risk
      • Renewables
    • Health
      • Pollution
      • Sanitation
      • Disaster risk
      • Household energy
      • Cities
      • Food and agriculture
      • Well-being
    • COVID-19

    Connect with SEI

    SEI Logo
    Centres
      SEI Logo
      Stockholm Environment Institute
      • Publications
      • Perspectives
      • Projects and tools
      • Events
      • People
      • About

      SEI Topics

      Climate Water Air Land Energy Governance Economy Gender Health COVID-19
      • Climate
        • Adaptation
        • Mitigation
        • Finance
        • Climate services
        • Short lived climate pollutants
        • Fossil fuels
        • Disaster risk
        • Climate policy
      • Water
        • Sanitation
        • Water resources
        • Disaster risk
        • Food and agriculture
        • Cities
        • Adaptation
        • Water-Energy-Food Nexus
        • Planning and modelling
      • Air
        • Short lived climate pollutants
        • Transport
        • Cities
        • Household energy
        • Food and agriculture
        • Pollution
      • Land
        • Food and agriculture
        • Forests
        • Cities
        • Land use
        • Ecosystems
      • Energy
        • Energy access
        • Household energy
        • Sustainable lifestyles
        • Renewables
        • Fossil fuels
        • Transport
        • Planning and modelling
      • Governance
        • Finance
        • Public policy
        • Geopolitics
        • Sustainable Development Goals
        • Innovation
        • Participation
      • Economy
        • Supply chains
        • Bioeconomy
        • Finance
        • Business
        • Behaviour and choice
        • Sustainable lifestyles
        • Innovation
      • Gender
        • Household energy
        • Sanitation
        • Participation
        • Behaviour and choice
        • Food and agriculture
        • Adaptation
        • Disaster risk
        • Renewables
      • Health
        • Pollution
        • Sanitation
        • Disaster risk
        • Household energy
        • Cities
        • Food and agriculture
        • Well-being
      • COVID-19
      1. SEI
      2. People
      • Image of Marisa Escobar

        Marisa Escobar

        SEI-US Water Program Director

      • Expertise: engineering, hydrology, ecology
      • marisa.escobar@sei.org
      • @MEscobar_Agua
      • +1 (530) 753-3035 x. 2#
      Share

      Marisa Escobar is the Water Program Director at SEI US, based in the Davis office. Her work focuses on creating linkages between physical processes and socio-ecological systems.

      She uses her expertise on water, including water quality, the physics of water, and the movement of water through watersheds, to produce information on the implications of decisions about water on the overall ecosystem. Her geographic focus is California (where she resides) and Latin America (where she is from). Exploring the linkages between water and the socio-ecological system in Latin America has resulted on the investigation of the energy-water-food nexus and of the role of hydropower in sustainable development .

      Since joining SEI’s U.S. Centre in California in 2007, Marisa has used SEI’s Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) as a primary tool for her analyses. In a major project funded by a STAR Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, she has linked WEAP to ecosystem assessment tools to study anadromous fish management in California rivers, focusing on analyzing the tradeoffs between power production and other water management objectives.

      Marisa also works to advance the use of WEAP in Latin America and to support a rapidly growing WEAP user community in the region. For example, as part of a World Bank-supported investigation of potential climate change impacts on water resources management in Peru, she developed a glacier accumulation and ablation routine and integrated it with WEAP rainfall-runoff modeling algorithms.

      Also in Latin America, Marisa is using WEAP as an analytical tool to support negotiations around the definition of water benefit-sharing mechanisms in Andean Rivers, under funding from the global CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food.

      Marisa has a B.S. in civil engineering from Javeriana University, in Bogotá, Colombia; an M.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Los Andes University, also in Bogotá; an M.Eng. in the same field from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Ph.D. in hydrologic sciences from the University of California, Davis.

      All publications by Marisa Escobar

      • ResearchGate Profile

      Publications by Marisa Escobar

      • Incendios de Chiquitania: rol de los recursos hídricos en los planes de restauración forestal
      • Delving into the Divisive Waters of River Basin Planning in Bolivia: A Case Study in the Cochabamba Valley
      • Una nueva agenda para gestionar un recurso vital
      • A new agenda for managing a vital resource
      • The Chiquitania fires: the role of water resources in forest restoration plans
      View more

      Perspectives by Marisa Escobar

      • Contribución de SEI en la gestión sostenible del agua en Colombia – un largo camino por delante
      • Water, climate change and peace: Lessons from 3 years in Colombia

      Featured stories with Marisa Escobar

      • The Ocean and Biodiversity
      • Fuego y agua: Integrando la gestión de recursos hídricos en la restauración de la Chiquitanía
      • Creando una visión de recursos hídricos en Bolivia a través de WEAP: de lo nacional a lo local.
      • New ways of thinking about sustainable water planning
      • Nuevas formas para pensar la planificación sostenible del agua
      View more

      Projects and tools with Marisa Escobar

      • WATCH en Chiquitanía
      • Hydro-ecological monitoring and modelling of high-altitude wetlands in the Katari watershed, Bolivia
      • WATCH Chiquitania
      • Water modelling in Africa
      • Water management in Cochabamba: 20 years after the "Water War"
      View more
      Share:

      Sign up to the SEI newsletter

      Get the latest updates and invitations to your inbox with SEI’s newsletter.

      • Privacy policy
      • Jobs
      • Cookie notice
      • Press room
      • Accessibility
      • RSS feeds
      • Contact
      • Social media
      • Whistleblowing
      • Twitter
      • Facebook
      • LinkedIn
      Centres:
      • SEI Africa
      • SEI Asia
      • SEI Headquarters
      • SEI Latin America
      • SEI Oxford
      • SEI Tallinn
      • SEI US
      • SEI York

      © Stockholm Environment Institute 2021