Person:
Wishart, Marcus
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
WATER RESOURCES,
DAMS AND DEVELOPMENT,
TRANSBOUNDARY WATERWAY GOVERNANCE
Degrees
Departments
Water Global Practice of the World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Dr. Marcus Wishart is a Lead Water Resource Specialist with the World Bank Group. He has over 25 years of experience working in more than 20 countries across Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Marcus co-leads the World Bank’s global program on enhancing the safety and resilience of dams and downstream communities and specializes in innovative solutions to complex problems relating to the development of large hydraulic infrastructure and risk informed approaches to decision making under uncertainty. He has led a number of diverse, multi-disciplinary teams through complex infrastructure projects and advises on institutional and policy issues relating to the management and sustainable development of water resources. Marcus holds a PhD from Griffith University in Australia, an MSc from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a BSc with Honours from the University of Adelaide, and has published over 100 academic papers, books and reports on a range of infrastructure and water related topics.
Publication Search Results
1 - 2 of 2
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Publication
Laying the Foundations: Essential Elements for Assuring the Safety of Dams and Downstream Communities
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-07-16)Assuring the safety of dams is central to protecting downstream communities, infrastructure, and the environment. Dam safety is also important for securing water for productive purposes and sustaining economic development. With a global portfolio of more than 58,000 large dams, issues associated with the safety of dams and downstream communities are becoming increasingly important, particularly given aging infrastructure, increasing downstream populations, shifting demographics, and changes in climate and weather patterns. The foundation for effective dam safety assurance is an appropriate and well-designed regulatory framework that captures the legal, institutional, technical, and financial elements in the reality of a particular jurisdiction. Establishing and maintaining a regulatory framework that is fit for purpose is, therefore, necessary for ensuring the quality of dam design, construction, and operation and maintenance. The framework also ensures that safety measures are reflective of the risks inherent in managing these structures and the context in which they are developed. Such frameworks need to be developed as part of a holistic strategy for water management that is integrated in basin and regional planning processes. The objective of this policy note is to provide guidance to policy makers and practitioners on the essential elements for establishing regulatory regimes for assuring the safety of dams and downstream communities. -
Publication
Laying the Foundations: A Global Analysis of Regulatory Frameworks for the Safety of Dams and Downstream Communities
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-11-19)Dam safety is central to public protection and economic security. However, the world has an aging portfolio of large dams, with growing downstream populations and rapid urbanization placing dual pressures on these important infrastructures to provide increased services and to do it more safely. To meet the challenge, countries need legal and institutional frameworks that are fit for purpose and can ensure the safety of dams. Such frameworks enable dams to provide water supplies to meet domestic and industrial demands, support power generation, improve food security, and bolster resilience to floods and droughts, helping to build safer communities. Laying the Foundations: A Global Analysis of Regulatory Frameworks for the Safety of Dams and Downstream Communities is a systematic review of dam regimes from a diverse set of 51 countries with varying economic, political, and cultural circumstances. These case studies inform a continuum of legal, institutional, technical, and financial options for sustainable dam safety assurance. The findings from the comparative analysis will inform decisionmakers about the merits of different options for dam safety and help them systematically develop the most effective approaches for the country context. By identifying the essential elements of good practices guided by portfolio characteristics, this tool can help identify gaps in existing legal, institutional, technical, and financial frameworks to enhance the regulatory regime for ensuring the safety of dams and downstream communities.