Olli Varis

Aalto University, Department of Built Environment, Professor, Vice Dean

Followers

626

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

I am Professor of Water Resources Management and Vice Dean of the School of Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. I have a broad and interdisciplinary experience on water, environment and development research and consultation. I am internationally acknowledged scientific writer and scholar with the research focus on sustainable development and water resources management in developing and emerging economies, particularly in Asia including China. I have been active in several international organizations including UNESCO, WMO, IWRA (Vice President 2007-2009), IWA, IIASA and UNU/WIDER.

less

Michele Barbato

University of California, Davis

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Berrin Tansel

Florida International University

Cymene Howe

Rice University

Gomaa Dawod

National Water Research center

sabina porfido

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)

Viacheslav Kuleshov

Stockholm University

Bogdan Gabrys

University of Technology Sydney

Nizam Ugm

Universitas Gadjah Mada (Yogyakarta)

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Olli Varis

Climate and Water - A 1998 perspective

by Nils Roar Saelthun and Olli Varis

Water resources development: Vicious and virtuous circles

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, Nov 1, 1999

Water Resources Development: Vicious and Virtuous Circles. O Varis Ambio 28:77, 599-603, 11/1999.... more

Multipurpose use and water quality challenges in Lac de Guiers (Senegal)

Water Science and Technology, 2001

Lac de Guiers (Guiers Lake) is a shallow lake in West Africa. Its waters are used mainly for irri... more Lac de Guiers (Guiers Lake) is a shallow lake in West Africa. Its waters are used mainly for irrigation and drinking water. Recent engineering in the Senegal River Valley has changed the lakes functioning and led to new water quality conditions. This article describes the water quality effects of the management of the lake and use of its waters, with special emphasis on salinity and eutrophication.

Home/All Titles/AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment/May 2008/pg (s) 145-145

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 2008

Approximately one-third of mankind lives within the basins of the large Himalayan rivers. These r... more Approximately one-third of mankind lives within the basins of the large Himalayan rivers. These rivers include the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Red River, Yangtze, and Yellow Rivers. Whereas the concentration of people within the basins of these rivers is remarkable, even more striking is the agglomeration of poverty, marginalization, malnutrition, and uncontrolled urbanization. It is estimated that around half of the world's total for these factors is concentrated within these basins.

Multivariate analysis of lake phytoplankton and environmental factors

Archiv für Hydrobiologie

The water quality of Lake Enajarvi, Southern Finland, has deteriorated strongly due to eutrophica... more The water quality of Lake Enajarvi, Southern Finland, has deteriorated strongly due to eutrophication, especially by high summertime biomasses of cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae). Of a number of multivariate techniques used to find associations between the algal taxa and selected environmental factors, canonical correlation analysis appeared the most applicable. Canonical correlations were used in defining the roles of selected environmental variables in the algal associations

Global human exposure to urban riverine floods and storms

River

The world&#39;s urban population is soaring, with an increasing number of people exposed to u... more The world&#39;s urban population is soaring, with an increasing number of people exposed to urban natural hazards such as riverine floods and storm surges. The global quantification of their extent is, however, still blurred. The ongoing surge in high-resolution data allows novel opportunities for quantification of hazards and exposure. Here, we provide a global spatial synthesis of urban populations&#39; exposure to riverine floods and storm surges in 1990 and 2015. Our results reveal that, owing to rapid economic development globally in a large proportion of exposed areas, most of the exposure has shifted from low-income to middle-income countries. Asia dominates as a continent. The total growth of human exposure continues, suggesting that disaster risk reduction policies and implementation call for enduring effort.

Data from: The planet's stressed river basins: too much pressure or too little adaptive capacity?

Integrated Water Resources Management Plans: The Key to Sustainability?

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been identifi ed as one of the basic water resou... more Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been identifi ed as one of the basic water resources related policy approaches in several recent important commitments and recommendations such as those of the Rio and Johannesburg Summits, and the World Water Forums. In the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the preparation of IWRM and water effi ciency plans by 2005 for all major watersheds of the world was one of the two major water targets. The inclusion of IWRM as one of the standard components of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers has been discussed lately. That would still enhance the political role of IWRM, which aims at developing democratic governance and promotes balanced development of water resources for poverty reduction, social equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability. International rivers account for 60% of all the water that fl ows in world's rivers. 145 nations have shared waters with their neighbours (Giordano & Wolf, 2003). Thus, international basin organizations are one of the key actors in implementing IWRM in practice. International basins have found different solutions for managing their shared waters. This paper summarizes the history and present situation of IWRM as a theoretical concept, and contrasts this with the historical developments in the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia and in the Senegal River basin in West Africa.

Olli Varis

Uploads

Papers by Olli Varis

Log In