Alumni Award winner lunch seminar: A masterplan for better flood control in Peru

Alvarado Ancieta, of Peru, will share highlights from 20 years of  research on Peru’s Piura River and its tributaries that resulted in an alternative flood control masterplan from an engineering-environmental-social point of view. The masterplan, completed in 2022, describes the complexity of the river basin, its estuary, lagoons and coastline, and considers anthropogenic changes and the effects of El Niño phenomena and climate change. It includes infrastructure, non-structural measures and nature-based solutions working in harmony.  

Alvarado Ancieta will discuss the broad knowledge required for resilient hydraulic infrastructure planning. Factors to consider include the complexity and vulnerability of the existing hydraulic system; as well as the engineering of rivers, estuaries, coastal seas and oceans, and of the sources of sediment. Add to that the evaluation of extreme events, environmental and social vulnerability, anthropogenic changes and ecosystems.

The annual IHE Delft alumni award recognizes individuals who have made a particularly remarkable impact in a water-related field and who are role models for water professionals. Watch the seminar livestream. Guests in Delft can participate in-person; please show your ID at reception as you arrive.

About the speaker

Alvarado Ancieta graduated from IHE Delft – then known as UNESCO-IHE – in 2004 with an MSc in Hydraulic Engineering with specialisations in River Engineering and River Basin Development.  He spent the second year of his studies at the Laminga Foundation and the Technical University of Barcelona.

Early in his career, he learnt about the complexities of fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, river dynamics, river bank erosion, underground engineering, and sea outfalls, wetting his curiosity for more and motivating him to study at IHE Delft .

After finishing his Master of Science, his plans to return to Peru were thwarted by the beckoning of engineering projects around the world. Based at first in Germany, his career took him to many countries in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. Today he lives with his family in the Czech Republic, where he continues to tackle engineering projects across the globe and, just as importantly, addressing the local social and political problems which accompany them.