Satellite Monitoring of Water Resources in the Middle East

This book presents both updated and new measurements on water resources from selective pilot areas form the Middle East. Demand for water has become very crucial notably in arid and semiarid regions like in the Middle East. The changing climate and the increased population are the most striking challenges on water resources in this region where the largest part of its territory is dry lands and deserts with minimal precipitation and high evaporation rates, and thus, the average per capita of water does not exceed 25 m3/year. This resulted in developing many studies and researches in different Middle East countries to clearly identify and assess the hydrological characteristics of the available water resources and to explore new resources in order to secure balanced water supply/demand. 

As a first of its type, this book introduces comprehensive knowledge on the successful reports of the use of satellite images in water studies in the Middle East, and the economicvalue resulted from adopting these techniques. Based on illustrated case-studies the book will represent a significant resource for a large number of experts, academics, researchers, engineers and different-level stakeholders including the decision makers.     

Amin Shaban is a Director of Researsh at the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS-L), Lebanon; and Professor at the Lebanese University, as well as he has been as  a Consultant for several international entities (e.g. UNESCO-IHP, UN-ESCWA , ENPI-CBCMES-European Commission, etc.) He has a Master degree from the American University of Beirut; Ph.D. from Bordeaux-I University, France; and he has achieved a Fulbright Program in the United States, at Boston University. He is specialized in water resources management including the use of satellite images to study surface and subsurface water bodies, monitoring water systems, groundwater exploration, watershed management, climate change impact on water, as well as the influencers on water supply.

 Dr. Shaban is the representative for Lebanon in many  international programs, including the International Hydrological Program (IHP) and SDG-6. He is also committed as representative for many national committees. Moreover, he is a membership in different scientific assemblies, such as American Geophysical Union (AGU) and International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). Dr. Shaban has been given several honorary awards, such as the Award for Career Excellence in Scientific Research; Award of Distinguished Researchers in Lebanon; Award of Best Arab Researcher in Integrated Water Resources Management; as well as the Appreciation of CNRS-L for his distinguished scientific productivity.

Dr. Shaban has more than 60 Publications in International Journals, as well as published in more than 50 International proceedings, a number of scientific books on water resources, and produced several book chapters and produced many technical studies. Dr. Shaban has been the Principal Investigator for more than 15 research projects and participated in more than 25 projects. He has a teaching experience of more than 15 years, and supervised many Master and Ph.D. dissertations.