Speaker: John Sutton and Dr. Nelun Fernando
John Sutton has been with TWDB for 28 years. His duties include managing the agency’s agricultural and municipal conservation programs. This includes the agricultural conservation grant program and the annual agricultural irrigation water use surveys; coordinating review of required water conservation plans, annual water conservation reports and water loss audits; providing technical assistance and outreach; developing informational and educational material; and working with other agencies and professional groups relating to drought, water conservation, and related activities.
Prior to being with TWDB John managed the water conservation program for El Paso Water Utilities and in a previous life was a landscape designer.
Dr. Nelun Fernando is Manager of the Water Availability Department in the Surface Water Division at the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). She is responsible for program oversight of the technical assistance provided to the regional water planning process, the stewardship of the state’s reservoir evaporation data program, and the provision of drought and water supply information through the TWDB’s Drought Dashboard. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography (specialization: Climatology) from Rutgers University, an M.A. in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a B.A. (Honors) in Geography from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr. Fernando has expertise in developing actionable climate information for water resource applications, and in drought diagnostics and predictability. She loves designing and executing applied research projects that target knowledge gaps in the estimation of future available surface water in Texas.
Topic: Current Drought and Water Conservation in Central Texas, by Texas Water Development Board
Sponsor: DCS Engineering
