Taher Kahil
Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar
Water Security Research Group
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program
Biography
Taher Kahil joined IIASA as a Research Scholar with the Water (WAT) Program in September 2015. Dr. Kahil obtained his PhD in economics at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) in 2015. His completed PhD dissertation includes the development and use of a hydro-economic model of Spanish basins and the application of cooperative game theory to water resources management. He has been the recipient of a number of scholarships and awards including the FPI-INIA PhD scholarship of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and the award for the best PhD dissertation in economics at the University of Zaragoza.His research interests are in the areas of integrated biophysical economics modeling for basin scale water policy analysis, the economics of water allocation and water quality, and evaluation of adaptation policy interventions to global changes in water and agriculture. At IIASA, Dr. Kahil leads the development of the large-scale hydro-economic modeling framework (ECHO). He is currently involved in a number of international research projects on water-food-energy nexus management, upscaling of sustainable intensification practices, and disaster risk reduction. He has published over 40 publications including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and policy briefs. He is a topic editor at the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (MDPI). Dr. Kahil was appointed Research Group Leader of the newly formed Water Security research group at IIASA, as of January 2021.
Last update: 09 OCT 2020
Publications
Artuso, S., Burek, P. , Catania, C., García Márquez, J., Politti, E., Rotaru, S., Tramberend, S. , Willaarts, B. , & Kahil, T. (2025). From Vision to Action: Co-identifying a Safe Water Operating Space for the Danube basin. IIASA Report. Laxenburg, Austria: IIASA
Soula, R., Chebil, A., Majdoub, R., Kahil, T. , & Albiac Murillo, J..S. (2025). Utilisation des instruments économiques pour réduire l’épuisement des eaux souterraines dans le contexte du changement climatique : cas de l’aquifère de Mahdia-Ksour Essef en Tunisie (Economic instruments for reducing groundwater depletion in the context of climate change: Case of Mahdia Ksour Essef aquifer in Tunisia). Cahiers Agricultures 34 p. 7. 10.1051/cagri/2025003.
Baccour, S., Tilmant, A., Albiac Murillo, J., Espanmanesh, V., & Kahil, T. (2025). Probabilistic Trade‐Offs Analysis for Sustainable and Equitable Management of Climate‐Induced Water Risks. Water Resources Research 61 (2) e2024WR038514. 10.1029/2024WR038514.
Atwood, L., Vigerstøl, K., Wood, S., Karres, N., Joya Barrero, V., Lovdal, A., Fridman, D. , Kumar Sahu, R., Nkwasa, A. , Burek, P. , Catania, C., Kahil, T. , Obersteiner, M. , & Bossio, D. (2025). Archetypes for Nature-Based Adaptation: Aligning Nature-Based Solutions and Enabling Conditions to Address Water Risk in Food Producing Landscapes. The Nature Conservancy and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis