Rabi Mohtar

Areas of Expertise

• Development of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus framework linking science and policy
• Characterization of the soil-water medium using thermodynamic modeling
• Efficacy of non-traditional water, and applications for sustainable integrated water management such as implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Developing and outlining policies and strategies for global resources security, especially for arable soils and water, are critical for the healthy future of our planet.

Professional Summary

Developing the tools to provide societies and their policy makers the information to address these needs by addressing global resource challenges on topics including: development of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus framework linking science and policy, characterization of the soil-water medium using thermodynamic modeling; efficacy of non-traditional water, and applications for sustainable integrated water management such as implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developing and outlining policies and strategies for global resources security, especially for arable soils and water, are critical for the healthy future of our planet. Facing the challenges of climate change, understanding and optimizing agricultural practices, managing agricultural and ecological systems, are key points that require development. Mohtar founded A&M’s Water-Energy-Food Nexus Initiative and the Water-Energy-Food-Heath Nexus Renewable Resources Initiative at the American University of Beirut, where he currently serves as Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. Mohtar also works to realize these interests as a Governor of the World Water Council, an Executive Board member of International Water Resources Association (IWRA), and a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers ASABE).

Selected Publications

1. Amjad T Assi, Rabi H Mohtar, Erik F Braudeau, Cristine LS Morgan. (2019) Quantification of Available Water Capacity Comparing Standard Methods and a Pedostructure Method on a Weakly Structured Soil. Transactions of the ASABE 62(2)289-301. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. doi: 10.13031/trans.13073
2. Adnan Degirmencioglu, Rabi H Mohtar, Bassel T Daher, Gulden Ozgunaltay-Ertugrul, Omer Ertugrul. (2019). Assessing the Sustainability of Crop Production in the Gediz Basin, Turkey: A Water, Energy, and Food Nexus Approach. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin. 28(4/2019) (2511-2522)
3. AT Assi, J Blake, RH Mohtar, E Braudeau. (2019) Soil aggregates structure-based approach for quantifying the field capacity, permanent wilting point and available water capacity. Irrigation Science, 37(4)511-52 Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Doi.org/10.1007/s00271-019-00630-w
4. Sang-Hyun Lee, Rabi H Mohtar, Seung-Hwan Yoo. (2019) Assessment of food trade impacts on water, food, and land security in the MENA region. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 23(1), pages 557-572. Copernicus GmbH. doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-557-2019
5. MI Kulat, RH Mohtar, F Olivera. (2019) Holistic Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Guiding Water Resources Planning: Matagorda County, Texas Case. Frontiers in Envrionmental Science. DOI:10.3389/fenvs.2019.00003.
6. Assi, Amjad T., Rabi H. Mohtar, and Erik Braudeau. (2018). Soil Pedostructure-based method for calculating the soil-water holding properties. MethodsX., 5:950–958. doi:10.1016/j.mex.2018.08.006
7. Mohtar, R.H. (Editor). 2019. Opportunities in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach: Innovatively driving economic development, social wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. Special Issue, Science of the Total Environment. ISSN: 0048-9697. Elsevier.
8. Mohtar, R. H., & Daher, B. (2019) Lessons learned: Creating an interdisciplinary team and using a nexus approach to address a resource hotspot. Science of The Total Environment, 650, 105-110. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.406.
9. Aldaco-Manner, L., Mohtar, R., & Portney, K. (2019) Analysis of four governance factors on efforts of water governing agencies to increase water reuse in the San Antonio Region. Science of The Total Environment, 647, 1498-1507. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.366.
10. Daher, B., Lee, S., Kaushik, V., Blake, J., Askariyeh, M. H., Shafiezadeh, H., Mohtar, R. H. (2019) Towards bridging the water gap in Texas: A water-energy-food nexus approach. Science of The Total Environment, 647, 449-463. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.398.
11. Dargin, J., Daher, B., & Mohtar, R. H. (2019) Complexity versus simplicity in water energy food nexus (WEF) assessment tools. Science of The Total Environment, 650, 1566-1575. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.080.
12. Loy, S., Assi, A. T., Mohtar, R. H., Morgan, C., & Jantrania, A. (2018) The effect of municipal treated wastewater on the water holding properties of a clayey, calcareous soil. Science of The Total Environment, 643, 807-818. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.104.
13. Mohtar, R. H., Shafiezadeh, H., Blake, J., & Daher, B. (2019) Economic, social, and environmental evaluation of energy development in the Eagle Ford shale play. Science of The Total Environment, 646, 1601-1614. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.202.
14. Tahtouh, J., Mohtar, R., Assi, A., Schwab, P., Jantrania, A., Deng, Y., & Munster, C. (2019). Impact of brackish groundwater and treated wastewater on soil chemical and mineralogical properties. Science of The Total Environment,647, 99-109. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.200.
15. Daher, Bassel, Bryce Hannibal; Kent Portney; Rabi H Mohtar (2019) Towards Creating an Environment of Cooperation between Water, Energy, and Food Stakeholders in San Science of the Total Environment 651 (2019) 2913–2926.  DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.395.
16. Mroue, A. M., Mohtar, R. H., Pistikopoulos, E. N., & Holtzapple, M. T. (2019). Energy Portfolio Assessment Tool (EPAT): Sustainable energy planning using the WEF nexus approach – Texas case. Science of The Total Environment,648, 1649-1664. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.135
17. Rahbeh, Michel, Rabi Mohtar, Raghavan Srinivasan. (2019) Numerical and conceptual evaluation of preferential flow in Zarqa river basin, Jordan. Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology. 19(2). April 2019, Pages 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecohyd.2019.04.001
18. Sang-Hyun Lee, Makoto Taniguchi,Rabi H. Mohtar, Jin-Yong Choi, Seung-Hwan Yoo. (2018) An Analysis of the Water-Energy-Food-Land Requirements and CO2 Emissions for Food Security of Rice in Japan. Sustainability 2018, 10(9), 3354; DOI: 10.3390/su10093354.
19. Erik Braudeau, Hassan Boukcim, Amjad T. Assi, and Rabi H. Mohtar (2018) Hydrostructural Pedology, New Scientific Discipline Allowing for Physical Modelling of ‘Green Water’ Dynamics in the Soil-Plant-Atmosphere System. Agriculture and Ecology Research International. DOI: 10.9734/JAERI/2018/43822
20. Sang-Hyun Lee, Jin-Yong Choi, Seung-Hwan Yoo & Rabi H. Mohtar. (2018) Water Footprint for Korean Rice Products and Virtual Water Trade in a Water-Energy-Food Nexus. Water International (RWIN) 43(6)871-886. Doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2018.1515570
21. Mohtar, Rabi H. The Wicked Problem of Soil and Water Quality. in Wicked problems facing integrated water quality management: what IWRA experts tell us. James E. Nickum, Henning Bjornlund &Raya Marina Stephan (editors). Water International, 2018. Vol. 43, No3, 336-348. Doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2018.1452879.
22. Rabi Mohtar and Amjad Assi. 2018. The Role of New and Green Water Resources in Localizing Water and Food Security Under Arid and Semiarid Conditions. in The Oxford Handbook of Food, Water and Society. Edited by Tony Allan, Brendan Bromwich, Tony Colman, and Martin Keulertz. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190669799.013.45
23. Anne Dare and Rabi H. Mohtar 2018. Farmer perceptions regarding irrigation with treated wastewater in the West Bank, Tunisia, and Qatar, Water International, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2018.1453012
24. Raya Marina Stephan, Rabi H. Mohtar, Bassel Daher, Antonio Embid Irujo, Astrid Hillers, J. Carl Ganter, Louise Karlberg, Liber Martin, Saeed Nairizi, Diego J. Rodriguez, & Will Sarni (2018): Water–energy–food nexus: a platform for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, Water International, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2018.1446581
25. Bassel Daher, Rabi H. Mohtar, Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos, Kent E. Portney, Ronald Kaiser, Walid Saad. 2018. Developing Socio-Techno-Economic-Political (STEP) Solutions for Addressing Resource Nexus Hotspots. Sustainability 2018, 10, 512; doi:10.3390/su10020512.
26. Bassel Daher, Sanghyun Lee, Rabi H. Mohtar, Jeremiah O. Asaka, and Stacy D. VanDeveer. 2018. Security, climate change, and the resource nexus. Chapter 4 in Routledge Handbook of the Resource Nexus. Editors Raimund Bleischwitz, Holger Hoff, Catalina Spataru, Ester van der Voet, Stacy D. VanDeveer. Routledge, UK and NY, 26 pages. ISBN: 978-1-138-67549-0.
27. Rabi H. Mohtar and Bassel Daher. 2017. Beyond zero sum game allocations: expanding resources potentials through reduced interdependencies and increased resource nexus synergies. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering. 18:84-89. DOI 1016/j.coche.2017.09.002
28. E Karan, S Asadi, R Mohtar, M Baawain. 2017. Towards the optimization of sustainable food-energy-water systems: a stochastic approach. Cleaner Production. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.051
29. Mohtar, R.H., A Call for a New Business Model Valuing Water Use and Production: the Water, Energy and Food Nexus Holistic System Approach. Water International. Volume 42, Issue 6: Groundwater and Climate Change – Multi-Level Law and Policy Perspectives. Pgs 773-776. DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2017.1353238
30. Mohtar, R.H., Section Editor. 2017. Nexus of Food, Water, Energy. Current Sustainable Renewable Energy Reports, Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2017. Springer International Publishing AG 2017. Online ISSN 2196-3010. DOI: 1007/s40518-017-0074-4.
31. Mohtar, Rabi H., Invited Commentary: Preface to the Issue. In Nexus of Food, Water, Energy. Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep DOI: 10.1007/s40518-017-0074-4. Springer International Publishing AG
32. Lal, R., H. Mohtar, A.T. Assi, R. Ray, H. Baybil, M. Jahn. 2017. Soil as a Basic Nexus Tool: Soils at the Center of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. In Nexus of Food, Water, Energy (R. Mohtar, Section Ed.). Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep. DOI 10.1007/s40518-017-0082-4.
33. Smith, D. W., M. Welch, K.E. Bennett, J. Padgham, Rabi Mohtar. Building a WEF Nexus Community of Practice (NCoP). In Nexus of Food, Water, Energy (R. Mohtar, Section Ed.). Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep. DOI 10.1007/s40518-017-0080-6.
34. Daher, B., Saad, W., Pierce, S.A., Hulsmann, S. and Mohtar, R. H. et al. Trade-offs and Decision Support Tools for FEW Nexus-Oriented Management. In Nexus of Food, Water, Energy (R. Mohtar, Section Ed.). Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep. DOI: 10.1007/s40518-017-0075-3.
35. McCarl, B.A., Y. Yang, R. Srinivassan, E.N. Pistikopoulos, Mohtar, R.H. Data for WEF Nexus Analysis: a Review of Issues. In Nexus of Food, Water, Energy (R. Mohtar, Section Ed.). Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep. DOI 10.1007/s40518-017-0083-3.

All Publications

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