Walter Clay Lowdermilk (July 1, 1888 – May 6, 1974) was a soil conservationist who worked in countries throughout the world to help protect and reclaim lands in order to better feed their population.
Lowdermilk worked with the Belgian Relief Effort (B.R.E., active 1914-16 in Belgium and France) after World War I, in China in the 1920s to help avert famine, with the Soil Conservation Service, in fascist Italy in the 1930s, in the United States, and in Mandatory Palestine planning land and water use.
In the latter he was impressed by the advanced techniques that the Zionist settlers, and later the State of Israel, took to develop water efficient agriculture and land use.
A 1944 outline of local water development became known as the "Lowdermilk plan" and was of importance for the later National Water Carrier of Israel.
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