Ahmad Amer

What are your main job responsibilities or activities in your current position?

” My role at the regional district varies day to day and involves different aspects such as operational, technical, analytical, and communicational work. At the SCRD, I have coordinated different environmental monitoring programs that focuses on maintaining and improving the district’s informational database system. Currently, I am leading a data enhancement project to deliver a more efficient informative, data-analytical visualization software that represents the SCRD’s water conservation targets. I also provide several data models and data summaries, during the summer drought phase, allowing me to give my recommendations when it comes to managing the SCRD’s conservation plans. I am also in charge of leading couple of communication-based programs where I get to share and visually represent the data in different ways to the public and to businesses.“

What do you enjoy and also, what do you find challenging about your current position?

“I enjoy working with the Strategic Initiative team on providing strategies and ideas for managing water. I got to experience lots of exciting and unique environmental work such as groundwater sampling, water quality testing for fish habitat, data collection from wells, and taking a helicopter ride to Chapman Lake to collect snow samples during the winter for predicting and modelling future summer lake levels.

As we experience the effects from more and more extreme climatic events, we face several challenges when it comes to managing our water supply and making sure that our supply is in balance with what is in demand from the public. Our team works on transcribing the environmental data systems into science and translating the complexity behind that science- based data into planning and policy regulations. It is important that we are able to communicate the long-term implications from our data.”

How has your education in the MLWS program served you in your career?

”The MLWS program laid out a path for me, filled with countless opportunities to choose from. During my time in the program, I was exposed to different career options and that exposure is what helped me narrow down my passion in working in an environmentally focused, regulatory setting. During my coursework and major project. I was also qualified to receive my A.Ag status from BCIA from completing the coursework in this program which was a bonus for my career. The program enhanced my ability to critically analyze emerging environmental issues/challenges and also taught me to always learn and explore new things. It is all right if we don’t know the solution to all of our problems/questions, but with the knowledge and skills gained from the MLWS program, I can confidently say; ‘The answer is not as simple, rather it is more complex than you think’.“