Professor David Lewis Feldman is an Adjunct Professor of Transboundary Water Cooperation and Policy at UNU-INWEH.
His primary research focus is the intersection of governance, public trust and confidence, technologies, and water management solutions, including the impacts of adopting water supply innovations as a means of both fortifying water resilience and reducing trans-boundary disputes. His work straddles climate change problems, water, drought and flood management, and legal and institutional reform.
At UNU-INWEH, Prof. Feldman examines and teaches confidence building in resolving trans-boundary water disputes. His expertise in this domain encompasses conflict databases and their use as investigative/analytical tools for understanding confidence-building, as well as introducing major principles entailed in building confidence and trust. It also encompasses developing role playing exercises on how to formulate durable, verifiable agreement to diffuse conflict and create sustainable trans-boundary water management regimes.
Over his career, Prof. Feldman has led projects that include tracking sources of contaminants of concern (PFAS) in urban water systems, developing optimal policies for managing urban wastewater by-products, using science diplomacy for resolving trans-boundary water disputes, wastewater reuse, and rainwater harvesting, and the role of risk communication in enhancing societal response to climate-related water hazards such as chronic long-term drought and flooding. He was appointed an Honorary Member of the International Water Resources Association in 2023.
Currently Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning & Public Policy and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, Prof. Feldman also directs Water UCI – a research and education center that works with water utilities, foundations, and government agencies on a variety of water problems at the intersection of technology and policy. He has also testified before the Subcommittee on Water and Environment, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, U.S. House of Representatives on water policy. His PhD. and M.S. in political science are from the University of Missouri (U.S.A), and B.A. from Kent State University (U.S.A.).