• Mohamed Hamitouche, winner of an IIAMA Award for his Final Master Project, talks about his training experience at CIHEAM Zaragoza, his research results and future plans

Mohamed Hamitouche, an Algerian student from CIHEAM Zaragoza, is the author of the Final Master Project ‘Hydrological modelling using artificial intelligence to characterize and predict extreme high-flow events’. The project was carried out under the supervision of Dr José Luis Molina at the University of Salamanca and has been awarded the top distinction in the FMP/FDP category of the VIII edition of the IIAMA Awards of the Valencian Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

In 2020, during a pandemic that thwarted so many plans, Mohamed decided to further his studies in Spain. After graduating from the Higher National Agronomic School (ENSA) in Algeria, this agricultural engineer, specialized in agricultural hydraulics, applied for a place on the International Master in Sustainable Water Management and Governance in Natural and Agricultural Environments organized by CIHEAM Zaragoza with the collaboration of INIA and ICARDA. His application was successful and the international organization, which carries out cooperation through training, awarded him one of the scholarships they grant to outstanding students from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

In this interview, Mohamed talks about his training experience at CIHEAM Zaragoza, his research results and future plans.

Question. What made you apply to study in the International Master in Water Management at CIHEAM Zaragoza?

Answer. Lately, my country (Algeria) has been experiencing serious water availability problems, affecting both drinking water and crop irrigation through the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall as a consequence of climate change. However, I think that the main reason why we have reached this situation is bad water management which is why I chose this international master that addresses water management and governance from all perspectives.

Q. Tell us about the research that you have carried out.

A. Water management is very much conditioned by extreme hydrological events. Climate change affects the frequency and intensity of these events that are difficult to quantify, making it complicated for the water sector to develop effective adaptation strategies. In this sense, my FMP aimed to fill this gap in research and develop a methodology based on artificial intelligence to characterize and predict extreme flood events, estimate associated uncertainty and quantify the impact of the causing factors.

Q. What are the main conclusions of this project?

A. The project has generated a lot of results. In fact the work is made up of three publications:

            - “A review of AI methods for the prediction of high-flow extreme hydrology”, identifying relevant artificial intelligence methods with high prediction precision such as ANNs, SVMs, wavelets and Bayesian methods.

            - “HydroPredicT_Extreme: A probabilistic method for the prediction of extreme high-flow hydrological events”, focused on the HydroPredicT_Extreme method that gives simple, robust predictions of the runoff associated to a high-rainfall event. A very powerful method for anticipating high risks of floods and catastrophic impacts on nature and the environment.

            - “Event-based Bayesian causal modelling for flood hydrograph prediction, Upper Andarax intermittent stream, Spain”. This shows the results of Bayesian causal modelling in the Upper Andarax river basin in Almería. Among these findings, this work concludes that the response of the river basin depends more on the rainfall intensity than on the previous moisture conditions of the soil.

Q. What does this IIAMA award for your MFP mean to you?

A. The award motivates me to carry on with my work and strive to achieve the best results.

Q. How about your experience at CIHEAM Zaragoza.

A. I’ll never regret such an experience. Unfortunately in my year of studies we couldn’t come to Zaragoza because of Covid and the lectures were given online. But it was enriching to learn from top lecturers from the best universities in the world.

Q. What are your plans for the future?

A. I am actively seeking to improve my skills, perfect my knowledge and prepare to become a researcher in high technology. That is why I have recently embarked upon a doctoral programme in sustainable development and climate change at the University School for Advanced Studies - IUSS Pavia, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Climate Modelling of the Casaccia Research Centre – ENEA, in Italy.