Dr. Oula Amrouni

Associate Professor/Senior Researcher

National Institute of Marine Science and Technology, University of Carthage (INSTM)

Oula Amrouni, Ph.D., – Dr. Amrouni of INSTM (National Institute of Marine Science and Technology and University of Carthage, Tunisia) is a recognized expert in coastal erosion studies and the impact of dams on the reduction of sediment transport to the North African coast.

Since 2002, Dr Amrouni is scientific member in national and international projects related to the forecast sea-level rise and the management purposes. She was the chief of international and national scientific projects involved in the shoreline retreat and related social and environmental implication such as the aquifer salinization, the wetland quality, etc. Dr Amrouni have also been engaged as an organizing member in several international conferences hosted by Springer (MENA, Arab region) such The Euro-Mediterranean Conference for Environmental Integration (EMCEI-2017) and the 1st Conference of the Arabian Journal (CAJG 2018), and the UNESCO-Friend network in Africa (Senegal, Benin) and the 1st International Ecohydrology workshop in north Africa (ECOTUN Tunisia, 2022).

Since 2016 Dr Amrouni is the Regional Co-coordinator of the MEDFRIEND-WATER IHP UNESCO program and Theme leader of the ‘Coastal Ecohydrology’, which is part of the International MEDFRIEND Hydrology Program.

Since 2000, Dr Amrouni is a volunteer scientist and keynote speaker in Non-Associative Organization (NGO, WWF) engaged in the coastal and marine ecosystem conservation.

TWAS-AREP Young Scientists Training Program “Biodiversity towards Sustainable Food Systems in the Arab Region” online workshop

Monitoring Coastal Ecosystem Evolution for a Sustainable food security

Dr. Oula Amrouni 1

1 National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies, Laboratory of Marine Environment, University of Carthage, Tunisia

Coastal ecosystems are a rich environment which are subject to physical factors and multiple sand/water supplies. They are the most populated areas worldwide with an increasing population growth rate since the 1980s, leading to the overexploitation of the natural resources. The climate changes are well-manifested in those vulnerable areas closely manifested by the decreasing continental water storage and the increasing of the marine storm and submersion events. To understand the response of the coastal ecosystem to the human and natural stressors, we adopt the ecohydrology approach for a lagoon ecosystem in the north African region. The ecohydrology approach is based on as a compiling of well-experimented data as the sediment dynamics, the hydrology of the watershed basin, and the coastal aquifer and the biodiversity and the remote sensing observation in relation with the socioeconomic activities. The ecohydrology concept is focused in our research on the coastal ‘hot spot’ areas on the deltaic-lagoon and sandy barrier areas determined as a very highly vulnerable classes to the sea level rise and marine disasters. The main goal is to establish a shared data base and an innovative Nature Based Solution with the regional communities to enhance the coastal resilience and to better explore the aquatic resource for a sustainable water and food security on the context of the rapid climate change changes in the arid regions.