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      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#
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      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

      • Abastecimiento de agua rural en Chiquitania: considerando la infraestructura hídrica descentralizada y el cambio de uso del suelo en el análisis hidrológico
      • Chiquitania rural water supply: Considering decentralized water infrastructure and land use change in hydrologic analysis
      • Hydro-ecological monitoring of high-elevation wetlands in the Katari watershed, Bolivia
      • Untangling the effects of climate variability and irrigation management on water levels in Lakes Titicaca and Poopó
      • Spotlight on social equity, finance and scale: Promises and pitfalls of nature-based solutions
      View more

      Perspectives by Marisa Escobar

      • Local water goes global: exploring water narratives beyond boundaries
      • The importance of valuing water
      • 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

      • Gestión participativa del agua: referentes para procesos participativos de acueductos comunitarios
      • World Water Day 2022
      • Water Stories Podcast
      • Putting ecosystems front and center in water planning: an SEI initiative lays the groundwork
      • Poniendo los ecosistemas en el centro de la planificación del agua: una iniciativa de SEI sienta las bases
      View more

      Projects and tools with Marisa Escobar

      • Water and social equality
      • WATCH en Chiquitanía
      • Hydro-ecological monitoring and modelling of high-altitude wetlands in the Katari watershed, Bolivia
      • WATCH Chiquitania
      • Water modelling in Africa
      View more
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