SAME Resilience COI Webinar: Climate Change: Adapting to Drought

Dr. F. Martin Ralph is a hydrometeorologist focused on understanding the origins of extreme precipitation, flooding and drought, and on improving predictions to manage them. He founded the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. His work expanded interest in atmospheric rivers (AR) and led to the development of AR Reconnaissance, the AR Scale, the International AR Conference, and Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations. He uses science and partnerships to address practical problems and inform public policy.

Romain Maendly is a supervisor water resources engineer who recently joined the California Department of Water Resources’ executive team (DWR). Romain is the Climate Action Coordinator for the Integrated Watershed Management Programs. Over the last fourteen years at DWR, Romain Maendly has led, assisted, and collaborated on many plans and studies related to integrated water management. Romain has been leading the Climate Action Plan Phase II, aiming to improve the consistency and scientific rigor of DWR's approaches for analyzing the potential impacts of climate change and strategies to adapt our water management sectors.

Romain originated from Switzerland, where he earned a technical certificate in Land Surveying. He came to the United States to play college basketball, but instead, completed a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering Science from UC Berkeley and an M.Sc. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Water Resources at UC Davis.

Amardeep Singh is a Principal Water Resources Engineer with the Delta Conveyance Office at the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). He is the Modeling Manager for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) and is responsible for planning and coordinating modeling activities to develop and evaluate operations criteria for DCP and assess operational impacts in the Delta. Amardeep has been with DWR for fifteen years and has extensive experience in various programs within the Divisions of State Water Project Operations & Maintenance, Flood Management and Regional Assistance. He has a master’s degree in civil engineering with a focus on Water Resources from CSU, Sacramento.

JR Gregory is a Geomatics Specialist and Project Surveyor with Towill, Inc. He attended university at California State University, Fresno where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatics Engineering in 2010. He joined Towill shortly thereafter and has experienced a diverse career of 14 years with the company, providing geomatics services around the country. He is a Land Surveyor-In-Training (LSIT) and is currently pursuing his Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) license in California.

JR’s career highlights include field assignments for geodetic surveying, large control networks, terrestrial LiDAR, and airborne LiDAR while traveling across California and the US. He brings substantial experience to Towill using a variety of geomatics software in the office to deliver solutions to complex projects. As a result, he has implemented several QA/QC practices related to terrestrial LiDAR survey technology. Recently, JR wrapped up a 5-year project, managing a team monitoring construction under a QA survey contract for the Isabella Lake Dam Safety Modification Project.