West Palm Beach, Florida, United States
Carolina Maran, Ph.D., P.E., serves as Division Director for Flood Control and Water Supply Planning and Chief of District Resiliency at the South Florida Water Management District. In this dual executive role, she provides leadership for one of the nation’s most robust flood control, water supply, and resilience planning programs, advancing critical infrastructure projects essential to South Florida’s economy, quality of life, and environment. With 25 years of experience in water and climate resiliency, flood risk management, and water resources planning, Dr. Maran has spearheaded initiatives that integrate science, risk-based analysis, and collaboration across all levels of government to strengthen resilience against flooding, sea level rise, and other evolving challenges. Prior to joining SFWMD, she held leadership roles at Broward County and the Federal Water Agency in Brazil and has collaborated with international organizations. A Fulbright Scholar, she earned her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering – Water Resources from Colorado State University. She currently serves on the Florida Water and Climate Alliance Steering Committee, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact Steering Committee, and the Board of Directors of the South Florida Hydrologic Society
Responsible for leading the District's resiliency efforts to advance restoration, protect communities from flooding and meet the region's water needs, in collaboration with local, state and federal agencies; for coordinating scientific data and research needs to ensure the District's resilience planning and projects are founded on the best available science; and, for developing and coordinating the implementation of comprehensive District wide resiliency goals to mitigate and adapt to the challenges facing the District's infrastructure and core functions from sea level rise and other climate change impacts.
• Managing the Water Resources Program at the Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division and reporting to the Broward County Chief Resilience Office; • Coordinating with Federal, State, Regional and Local Agencies to support water resources planning and management, regulatory and policy issues; • Assessing current and future water resources conditions, with the support of robust modeling tools, including the evaluation of water supply sources and alternative water supply strategies, water quality, drought and flood events driven by intense rainfall, sea level rise and other climate impacts; • Supporting the Implementation of the Broward Countywide Integrated Water Resources Plan and its grant programs, in coordination with Broward’s municipalities; • Staffing the County’s Water Advisory Board and its Technical Advisory Committee and supporting regional policy coordination; • Implementing Indoor and Outdoor Water Conservation Programs, in partnership with over 20 municipalities, including outreach campaigns to engage Broward’s residents. broward.org/waterresources
• Water Resources Modeling • Hydraulic and hydrologic numerical analysis and model development • Miami Beach Resilience & Vulnerability Analysis • Miami Dade Water & Sewer - Consent Degree Program / PM/CM Team • Resilient Utility Coalition - Organizing Committee
• Evaluating hydrologic modeling alternatives (especially rainfall-runoff models) to be integrated in the analysis of SFWMM – Climate Change / Downscaling strategy; • Data management and processing for the development and calibration of hydrologic models; • Definition of Tidal Boundary Conditions (data gathering and analysis) for Regional Modeling; • Participating in the weekly meetings and discussions about Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Downscaling Modeling.
• Supporting the elaboration of research projects and grant proposals (funding sources); • Teaching water related topics for the students enrolled in the Course FRSHWTR 510: Economics, Policy and Management of Water; • Participating in discussions and meetings about research progress and future steps in water resources projects.