Younes Alila

For over a century, hydrology research has been misguided by an experimental design that dramatically underestimated the power of forests in mitigating floods and droughts. The historic and ongoing logging of old and second-growth forests—especially in the form of clearcut logging—can no longer be ruled out as a root cause of downstream droughts and floods, which come at a high cost to the environment and the public. Legal actions against government and the forest industry are multiplying. In the backdrop of an intensified climate driven by global warming, it is high time for defensible hydrology to guide forestry-related policies, regulations, and professional practice, rather than guiding litigations in courtroom battles.

Dr. Alila is a registered professional engineer and a professor of hydrology in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia. He earned his Bachelor (1985), Master (1987), and Doctorate (1994) degrees in civil engineering from the University of Ottawa. In 1996, he joined UBC’s Faculty of Forestry, where he teaches and conducts research on the effects of climate and land use change on water resources. His work continues to challenge more than a century of published literature on the influence of forests on hydrology—particularly floods and droughts—and has received wide media coverage and press attention over the past two decades. Dr. Alila has also served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in cases involving the forest industry and the Government of British Columbia.