Prof. E.R.N. Gunawardena has more than 40 years of experience in teaching, research and consultancy in water resources and watershed management before retiring as a Senior Professor. He has an M Sc and PhD in Soil and Water Engineering from Cranfield University, UK. He has served as the Head of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He was a member of the Global Water Partnership's South Asia group and served as the first Project Director of the Crossing Boundaries Project – a regional capacity building initiative in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) at the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies based in Hyderabad, India.