Global projections indicate that demand for freshwater, energy and food will increase significantly over the next decades under the pressure of population growth, economic development, and changes to culture, technology and climate.

Slobodan Simonovic, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Western University, will discuss ways to mitigate and adapt to these global pressures during a presentation Friday in the Joyce Entrepreneurship Centre.

His free public speech, titled “A Systems Approach to Modelling Water-Energy-Food Nexus,” will present an innovative society-biosphere-climate model. The model consists of nine individual sectors that reproduce the main characteristics of the climate, carbon cycle, economy, land use, population, surface water flow and water demand and water quality sectors at a global scale. The model also explores the manner in which interactions or feedback between these subsystems determine the behaviour of the whole Earth-system.

Dr. Simonovic is a globally recognized and award-winning expert in water resources systems engineering and engineering chair of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. His primary research interest focuses on the application of a systems approach to management of complex water and environmental systems.

The one-hour presentation will begin at noon March 18 in the second-floor EPIC Innovation meeting room. It is part of the University of Windsor’s Centre for Energy and Water Advancement Distinguished Speakers Series. Find more information on the engineering website.