Ashenafi L. Akawka

Research Area: Hydrological modeling

Nationality: Ethiopian

Time Frame: February 2014 – February 2015

Ashenafi has been working as a Senior Hydraulic and Hydropower Researcher in the Research and Development Directorate of the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia since 2011. His qualifications include a MSc in Hydraulic and Hydropower Engineering from Arba Minch University, Ethiopia (2010), a BSc in Agricultural Engineering and Mechanization from Hawassa University, Ethiopia (2005), and a postgraduate diploma in Water Resource Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt (2013).

Ashenafi worked as a full-time instructor and lecturer at Gambella Agricultural TVET College, Ethiopia (2006-2010). His work for this program focuses on the ‘Evaluation of adaptive management of water resources under climate change impact in the Blue Nile River Basin’ under the IMPACT2C research project. Currently, he is setting-up the Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) hydrological model and revising the existing Water Evaluation and Planning Model (WEAP) setup for the Blue Nile River Basin.

As a young researcher with a limited scope of knowledge and experience, it is a good opportunity to be part of this program and learn the best techniques in hydrological modeling. After a few months of my stay and doing my research, I realized that I am lucky to be part of this program and I thank IWMI for allowing me to be part of it.

Comments on completion:

It was a good exposure and experience for me to work with IWMI on water related research. My research area was on hydrological modeling focusing on the Upper Blue Nile basin. I used HBV hydrological model for the modeling purpose and used regionalisation technique for estimating stream flow for ungauged catchments in the basin. In this regard, my supervisor, Dr. Alemseged, and I, managed to produce conference paper for the second new Nile Conference which was held 8-9 December, 2014 in Addis Ababa. I also managed to set up WEAP water resource model for Upper Blue Nile for IMPACT2C climate change research project and the final output is on progress. In general, it was a very interesting and helpful internship program to improve my hydrological modeling knowledge and skill. This will help me to apply all the skills and knowledge which I learned in the internship program on other assignments which will be given to me by my office. The program also gave me the chance to learn how scientific researches are done. Finally; because such program has great significance in improving the capacity of young researchers, it should be continued. I thank you IWMI for giving me this great chance!!!!