AIMS, with generous support from the World Bank and the International Statistical Institute (ISI), is pleased to offer a workshop on Environmental Impact Assessment and Decision Making from 16 to 22 March 2013.
The workshop is aimed at graduate students and faculty with in interest in Environmental Statistics. The workshop is limited to 20 participants and applications will be treated on a first come, first served basis.
It features a course presented by the international expert in Environmental Statistics, Professor A. H. El-Shaarawi.
Professor Abdel H. El-Shaarawi is the distinguished AIG Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science at The American University in Cairo. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and an Emeritus Research Scientist in The National Water Research Institute, Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
He has worked in the University of Metz, France; the University of Genoa, Italy and Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He obtained his PhD in 1973 from the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo and his Masters degree from Cairo University, Egypt. He has obtained several awards, among them an Honorary Doctrol Degree from University of Lorraine, France in 2011, the Impact Award of the Statistical Society of Canada in 2010 and The Distinguished Medal Award of The Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
He is the Founding President of The International Environmetrics Society, TIES and the Founding Editor in Chief of the Environmetrics Journal. He has published extensively in environmental statistics particularly in problems related to water. He has also served in projects about water quality in many countries around the world through the support of The Canadian International Development Agency, Canadian International Development Agency, and the World Health Organization.
Environmental Impact Assessment and Decision Making
The first objective of this course is: to provide participants with an overview of the broad picture on the role of modern statistical methodologies in the solution of environmental problems that they may face in their studies.
The topics covered will include techniques for the:
- Design of data collection whether the data are collected for routine monitoring or for special studies;
- Informal techniques for data analysis with particular emphasis on graphical methods that display the pattern of non-stationarity, unusual observations and distributional characteristics of the available data;
- Modeling and associated parameter estimation, goodness of fit, inferences about parameters and uses of models for predictions and sampling design;
- Summarization of the results and their communications to design makers.
The second objective is to focus on some typical examples of environmental impact assessment with emphases on impact detection, trend analysis and multivariate data reduction using examples on:
- Contaminants in water.
- Long range transport of air pollution.
The third objective is to describe and demonstrate the use of the R software platform for data analysis. This will provide a preliminary training on the use of R which is the free and most comprehensive software for statistical data analysis.
- Participants will be offered free registration, morning and afternoon tea/coffee and meals.
- Accommodation is free for those travelling from outside Cape Town, subject to availability.
- All delegates are expected to arrive on Friday March 15.
- Participants are responsible for their own travel costs (although AIMS will provide a free service between Cape Town airport and AIMS, Muizenberg).
- The workshop is limited to 20 participants only.
To apply, please send an email to Rene January on workshops@aims.ac.za including CV and a letter of motivation.
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