Professor Shahbaz Khan

		Research Scientist
		CSIRO Land and Water Private Bag No. 3 Griffith NSW 2680 Ph: +61-2-6960 1578 Fax: +61-2-6960 1600 Email: Shahbaz Khan

Professor Shahbaz Khan Shahbaz Khan in 2008 is on leave from CSIRO to serve as Senior Programme Specialist and Chief of Sustainable Water Resources Development and Management Section, UNESCO Paris.

Prior to this Shahbaz led the River and Irrigation Hydrology research group, within the Hydrology research program and led the Rural Water Use research stream of CSIRO's Water for a Healthy Country flagship.

He was also Professor of Hydrology  in Charles Sturt University's School of Environmental Sciences and Director of the International Centre of Water at Charles Sturt University.

Shahbaz has an outstanding multidisciplinary background through formal education and acquired skills in water law and policy, water management, water engineering, economics and integrating consumptive use with environment, life and policy. He has brought a wealth of national and international management experience in land and water research, consultancy and management through his work in developing and developed countries. Shahbaz has got world recognition dealing with a range of issues in land use management, surface and groundwater hydrology and has developed mathematical models of groundwater flow and contaminant transport, surface-groundwater interactions, tile drainage, flood forecasting and storm drainage.

He is currently Chair of Irrigated Cropping Forum, Australia and programme leader of System Harmonisation through Regional Irrigation Business Partnerships for Cooperative Research Centre-Irrigation Futures. He is currently Chair of the International Steering Committee of the UNESCO’s Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) Program and the Regional Coordinator for the Australasian region. Shahbaz has a keen interest in the global water management issues and multi-stakeholder driven research aimed at finding sustainable poverty alleviation solutions in 67 basins in more than 50 countries.

Research Interests/Capabilites

• Managing and marketing research, client interactions and communication of results at a range of levels.
• Climate variability and climate change research linked with agricultural water management
• Environmental law and economics integration for sustainable development
• Farm and regional scale integrated hydrologic economic and salinity modelling using complex approaches such as control theory, genetic algorithms, space state reduction and socio-economic integration
• Surface-groundwater interaction and quality management and modelling. Has developed a number of regional and critical area flow and transport models for land use and catchment management.
• GIS and remote sensing applications in spatial hydrology
• Hydrodynamic river flow modelling of rivers for real time flood forecasting and management.
• Hydrological analysis for the design of surface and subsurface drainage systems.
• Urban watershed analysis for policy and design
• Hydrological modelling and database development.
• Training farmer groups and environmental staff of irrigation companies in the land and water management.
• Teaching post-graduate courses in integrated water resources management.
• Supervision of post-graduate research projects in surface and groundwater modelling (experience in Australia, Pakistan, China, United States of America and United Kingdom)

More information on the research projects Shahbaz is involved in can be found in the following links and information sheets:

• Increasing irrigation efficiency across the Murray region
• Great Barrier Reef floodplain renewal
• South-West water futures
• No. 1/2004 Setting a Global Standard for Sustainable Irrigated Catchments (PDF, 326 kB)
• No. 11-2 - Irrigation: Getting the Balance Right (Second Edition) (PDF, 188 kB)
• No. 22 - SWAGMAN Series (PDF, 691 kB)
• Lower Murrumbidgee Catchment First Global HELP Reference Basin

Recent Professional Experience

Shahbaz has worked in the United Kingdom, China, Pakistan, Philippines, USA and Australia dealing with a range of issues in surface and groundwater hydrology and has developed mathematical models of groundwater flow and contaminant transport, surface-groundwater interactions, tile drainage, flood forecasting and storm drainage. His significant appointments include:

• 07/04 - present Professor of Hydrology and Director International Centre of Water for Food Security, Charles Sturt University
• 09/02 - present Senior Principal Research Scientist and previously Research Director - Surface and Groundwater Hydrologist, CSIRO Land and Water
• 06/03 - present Program System Harmonisation. Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures
• 06/03 - present Coordinator Australasia Regional, Hydrology for Environment, Life and Policy program of UNESCO and WMO and Chair of the International Steering Committee
• 06/99 - present Subprogram Leader CRC for Sustainable Rice Production
• 06/99 - 09/02 Senior and Principal Research Scientist - Surface and Groundwater Hydrologist, CSIRO Land and Water
• 10/98 - 05/99 Senior and Principal Hydrologist, Geo-Eng Australia Pty Ltd, Melbourne (now Geo-Eng GHD)
• 04/95 - 10/98 Principal Surface & Groundwater Modeller, National Engineering Services, Pakistan -worked closely during this time with Delft Hydraulics and Euro Consult on Asian Development Bank and World Bank Projects

Academic Qualifications

• 2006 to ongoing Master of Applied Environmental Economics, Imperial College, University of London, UK
• 2004 Master of International Environmental Law, Macquarie University, Australia
• 2003 Graduate Certificate in IT (emphasis on evolutionary computation and object oriented modelling approaches), Charles Sturt University, Australia
• 2001 Graduate Diploma in Applied GIS and Remote Sensing, Charles Sturt University, Australia
• 1995 Ph.D., Specialising in Groundwater Hydrology and Mathematical Modelling, Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK
• 1992 M.Sc. Water Resources Technology and Management, University of Birmingham, UK
• 1990 B.Sc. (Hons) Civil Engineering, UET, Lahore- Pakistan

Awards and Honours

• 2006 Vice Chancellors Research Excellence Award – Charles Sturt University
• 2006 Faculty of Science and Agriculture Research Excellence Award – Charles Sturt University
• 2006 Creativity and Innovation Award – Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures
• 2006 Professor Shahbaz Khan featured in an article in The Canberra Times on March 27 “Water: voices we need to heed” as the number one expert in a list of top 10 people we should listen to if we want to achieve a result that will benefit all Australians.
• 2005 Winning team Research Director, 2005 CSIRO Environmental Prize, for on site sewage system
• 2004 Partner or Perish Award by CSIRO Land and Water
• 2000 Exceptional Achievements Award by CSIRO Land and Water for project initiation, client interactions and securing funding from industry
• 2000 Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence, Charles Sturt University, for Grad Dip GIS and Remote Sensing. Completed this course with Distinction
• 1990 – 95 Outstanding academic track record
  Finished PhD in two years and six months
  First position & Three University Medals in B.Sc. (Hons) Civil Engineering
  First position in M.Sc. Water Resources Technology and Management.
• 1991 – 95 Scholarships received
  Science and Technology Scholarship, Ministry of Science and Technology-Pakistan; Merit Scholarship, Ministry of Education-Pakistan
  Overseas Research Scholarship, Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, UK

Publications

Full CSIRO Land and Water publications list

Selection of Recent Publications

Khan S and Akhtar A (2007) Upscaling water savings from farm to irrigation system level using GIS based agro-hydrological modelling. Irrig. and Drain. 56(1), 29-42. Also published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ird.284.

Khan S, O’Connell N, Rana T and Xevi E (2007) Hydrologic-economic model for managing irrigation intensity in irrigation areas for watertable and soil salinity targets. Environmental Modeling and Assessment DOI 10.1007/s10666-006-9081-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10666-006-9081-3.

Khan S (2007) Managing climate risks in Australia: Options for water policy and irrigation management. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture. Volume 47, Issue 12 (in press).

Khan S (2007) Equivalent Cropping Area and Whole Farm Water Balance Approaches to Reduce Net Recharge to Shallow Saline Groundwater from Rice Based Cropping Systems. Paddy and Water Environment. 5(3)

Khan S., (2006) Legal Water reforms in the Murray Darling Basin: law and policy challenges. Chapter 3: Hydrology and Water Law – Bridging the Gap. Wallace J and Wouters P Editors. 60-78. IWA Publishing London

Khan S. (2004) Integrating hydrology with environment, livelihood and policy issues – the Murrumbidgee Model. Special Volume on Hydrology for the Environment Life and Policy. Water Resources Development Vol. 20, No. 3: 415-429.

Khan S., Rana T., Carroll J., Wang B. and Best L. Managing Climate, Irrigation and Groundwater Interactions using a Numerical Model: A Case Study of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. CSIRO Land and Water Technical Report 13/04.

Khan S., Paydar Z and Rana T. (2004) . Net Recharge Targets to Meet Regional Environmental Goals. CSIRO Land and Water Technical Report 12/04.

Khan, S., Robinson D, Beddek R, Wang B, Dharma D, Rana T (2004). Hydro-climatic and Economic Evaluation of Seasonal Climate Forecasts for Risk Based Irrigation Management. CSIRO Land and Water Technical Report 5/04.

Khan, S., Rana T., Ullah M.K., Christen E.W. and Ahmed, H.M.N. (2003). Investigating conjunctive water management options using a dynamic surface-ground water modelling approach: a case study of Rechna Doab. CSIRO Land & Water Technical Report 35/03.

Khan, S., Robinson, Leeson, Beddek and O’ Connell (2003). Hydrologic-economic evaluation of options for improving surface and ground water drainage of the Green Gully Catchment. Client Project Report for the Murray Irrigation Limited.

Khan S., Beddek R., Rana T. and Carroll J. (2004) Salinity Impact Assessment of Darling Anabranch EIS. To Earthtech Consultants for DIPNR.

Full publications list from author (PDF, 118 kB)