Growing up in Iran, Alireza experienced the problems that come with water scarcity and shortages. Still today, Iran is gripped in one of the worst droughts in over 500 years, with reports sharing that a quarter of Iran’s farmers lost their livelihoods in the past seven years because of water scarcity.
Alireza Ghane, Ph.D., Hydrodynamics and Water Quality Modeller
“It’s a dried country,” he says. “Precipitation is about one third of the world average, and it’s always been like that. Our ancestors always had problems with water, and I come from a farming family. The water shortages affected us and previous generations. I always wanted to do something to help my family and those around me.”
His journey started in 2008, when he started a bachelor's degree in Iran, majoring in water resources engineering. After that, he continued his studies at graduate school before moving to Canada to complete his PhD at Queen’s University, joining the hydrotechnical group.
Then, almost two years ago, he was hired by Ecometrix as its Hydrodynamics and Water Quality Modeller.
“What really drew me to Ecometrix was that they said they were growing and building a culture,” he says. “That stuck in my mind. I always wanted to be part of a team that was creating something or building a culture.”
His day-to-day work sees him working on various projects concerned with hydrology, hydraulics, hydrodynamics, and water quality using Environmental Intelligence and tools like MineMod to assist the mining industry. Anyone who needs support in those areas goes to him, and he collaborates closely with the water resources experts to deliver results to clients.
He's also passionate about creating and developing tools that are useful for colleagues not just on his team but everyone at Ecometrix.
“I created a tool to help us with water balance and closing water balance for a water shed or mine site,” he says. “It uses satellite images to calculate everything related to water balance and makes our job much easier. Something that usually takes two weeks now takes two or three days.”
A hydrodynamics model showing the movement of water in a natural lake
The visual above is another project Alireza worked on. It shows a hydrodynamics model output, specifically the velocity field, illustrating the movement of water in a natural lake.
When Alireza isn’t working with water, he plays music professionally. More specifically, he plays the Iranian string instruments setar and tar as part of an ensemble, taking part in concerts every few months.
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