Professional Staff

“My interests and focus are on contributing to the creation of value, increasing resiliency, and reducing risks for dams, hydropower, and water infrastructure assets, as well as their areas of influence. I chose Kleinschmidt because through its projects, we can make a significant positive impact on environmental sustainability, public safety, and climate change mitigation.”

Hernando’s professional focuses on the creation of value, increasing resilience, and minimizing risks of hydropower and water infrastructure assets and their associated areas of influence. He is enthusiastic about implementing modern optimization methods for informed decision-making, drawing from team collaboration, geospatial modeling, and data analytics. Hernando has two master’s degrees, both from Georgia Institute of Technology, the first in Civil Engineering (Track: Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Water Resources) and the second in Geographic Information Science and Technology (MS-GIST).

With over 12 years of experience in the hydropower sector, Hernando has developed holistic and specialized skills in dam safety management, hydraulic engineering, hydrology, sediment transport, risk assessment, and dam break analysis. He has contributed to projects, civil works, and studies to maintain, improve safety, and extend the lifespan of more than 22 hydropower plants.

He has performed field inspections and reports for dams, spillways, tunnels, intakes, penstocks, and other components of hydraulic infrastructure. Hernando has prepared comprehensive technical reports detailing the findings of these inspections, which insurance companies and national authorities have utilized. He has experience in the optimization and implementation of operational procedures and emergency-contingency plans for hydraulic infrastructures. Hernando is proficient in the use of AutoCAD, ArcGIS, HEC-RAS, and Revit software. Also, he uses R Studio and Excel for Data Analytics. In the recent years Hernando has been working on the identification of suitability location Solar Farms, Wind Farms and Hydropower Plants, using GIS and Remote Sensing data.