Workshops

Scientists (including students), and where possible, members from NGOs and State government, were brought together to discuss the current state of knowledge in a particular area, and to identify the future requirements/ideas for joint research. 

Six IUKWC workshops were held, 3 in the UK and 3 in India. Workshop topics were selected through Open/Focused calls to the members of the Open Network, or where required commissioned by the IUKWC Management Board. Topics needed to address at least one of the IUKWC themes. Workshop leads were selected based on relevance of topic, expertise of the applicant to the topic, and motivations and expected aims. Leads were responsible for developing the agenda and running the event, and IUKWC provided funding and logistical support, as well as agreeing on the agenda, participants for the workshop and marketing the event.

Participants were selected from the Open Network, through calls to participate. A prioritisation criteria was used to take account of the experience/relevance of the applicant’s research area, their motivation and expected contribution to the aims of the workshop and the likely benefit they wished to derive from attendance. The IUKWC ensured a spread of leads and participants across organisations.

Workshop Title Event Dates Activity Leads Location Publications
Safe and Sustainable Technologies and Strategies for Integrated Freshwater Resource Management 25th to 28th June 2019 Dr. Shivaraju Puttaiah and Dr. David Jenkins Mysuru, India

Mysuru Workshop Report

Water Brief 16
Science and Innovation for Catchment Management was held in Coventry 08th to 10th May 2019 Dr. Kapil Gupta and Mr. Ant Parsons Warwick, UK

Coventry Workshop Report

Water Brief 10
Advancing Drought Monitoring,Prediction, and Management Capabilities 18th to 20th September 2018 Dr. Vishnubhotla Chakravarthi and Prof. Peter Atkinson Lancaster, India

Lancaster Workshop Report

Water Brief 13
Integrating precipitation forecasts and climate predictions with basin-scale hydrological modelling in the Himalayas 2nd to 4th May 2018 Dr. Shresth Tayal and Dr. Martin Widmann Dehradun, India Dehradun Workshop Report
Enhancing Freshwater Monitoring through Earth Observation 19th to 21st June 2017 Prof. Mihir Das and Prof. Andrew Tyler Stirling, UK Stirling Workshop Report
Developing Hydro-climatic Services for Water Security 29th Nov to 01st Dec 2016 Dr. A. K. Sahai and Dr. Harry Dixon Pune, India

Pune Workshop Report

Water Brief 01

 

Webinars

IUKWC supported the running of webinars to facilitate collaboration under UK-India projects and interaction with international experts and wider research audience. These webinars were intended to disseminate findings of IUKWC activities, as well as Indo-UK projects, and projects that had potential utility in the other country. They were also used to disseminate findings of IUKWC activities like research exchanges, workshops, pump priming projects, etc. The IUKWC Webinar Series 2020 (run between May and September 2020) aimed to

Webinar title Date Presenter Summary
Approaches Towards Restoration of Urban Lakes: A case study from Bangalore, India 16th September, 2020 Prof. Laurence Carvalho and Dr Priyanka Jamwal The speakers discussed the current status of Bellandur Lake and Jakkur Lake in Bangalore in the context of the presence and absence of treatment interventions, and provided a road map towards improving lake water quality further, to ensure sustainability of their use values. 
Threats to Human Health from Water- Associated Diseases: How Can Remote Sensing Help? 2nd September 2020 Dr Shubha Satyendranath The talk expounded upon several avenues offered by Remote Sensing to understand the dynamics of pathogenic organisms (bacteria or virus) that are associated with water-borne or vector-borne diseases.
Water Resource Planning Under Future Climate and Socioeconomic Uncertainty in the Cauvery River Basin in Karnataka, India 19th August, 2020 Dr AJay Bhave The talk discussed the use of expert elicitation to develop climate narratives, which describe the physically plausible evolution of future precipitation change and relevant climate processes, and semi-quantify the narratives using observations and re-analysis data to construct time series of precipitation change for the CRBK catchment.
Sustainable provision and access to drinking and irrigation water in rural communities, even during times of pandemic – such as with Covid-19 - and the effect of lockdown 6th August, 2020 Dr David Jenkins and Dr Shivaraju Puttaiah The talk centered on the impact of a pandemic on water availability and the related dangers of accessing water in grioups, as well as discussing the role of information sharing, new technologies for water access, and citizen science.
Informing catchment management decisions based on ecosystem services modelling in the Himalayas. 23rd July 2020 Dr Andrea Momblanch and Dr Sumit Sen

The aim of this talk was to contribute to addressing the gap in the implementation of the Ecosystem Services approach, and the development and application of the required models and tools to understand the role played by major change-drivers on ecosystem services, a basis to generate sound information for decision making, e.g. to inform ongoing watershed development projects in India.
Understanding River System and Pollution Management: A case study of Water Quality of the Ganga River around Patna due to Lockdown, a natural remedy? 9th July 2020 Prof. Ramkar Jha In this talk the importance of generating an understanding of the river system for efficient waste and pollution management and the role of river hydraulics in governing the dilution, diffusion, dispersion, reaction and settling of pollutants was highlighted, using the case of River Ganga.
Developing an Interactive Web-Application to Aid Drought Decision-Making in Maharashtra State, India 25th June 2020 Dr Rajendra Pandey, Thomas Chitson and Dr Simon Parry Tha aim of the talk was to enlighten the audience on the process of development of the Manual for Drought Management in Maharashtra state to demonstrate a newly developed web application to aid drought decision making, and to highlight the decisions that the Manual allows water-managers to choose from, and how these affect the declaration of drought.
The latest phase of global climate models for end user: How confident are we in using them for risk analysis and decision support? 11th June 2020 Dr Chadra Rupa Rajulapathi The talk covered developments in the latest phase CMIP6 models, along with the credibility of projections in reproducing historical variability and trends. Biases in precipitation and temperature at global scale were also presented, and limitations in assessing only basic metrics like mean and variance were discussed.
Occurrence of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Aqueous Environment 25th May 2020 Dr Akanksha Singh Kachhawaha The talk highlighted the results of a study conducted on the pharmaceutical contamination found in rivers in India and the UK, which was carried out through the IUKWC Research Exchange Scheme.
Sundarbans – The case of ‘water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink’? 4th February 2020 Dr. Gopal Krishan and Prof. Lalu Das The India UK Water Centre webinar on two pump priming projects that it convened in the Indian Sundarbans, in response to the considerable water resources challenges that the people living on these islands face on a day to day basis
Engaging stakeholders in climate services in India 12th June, 2017 Dr. Zareen Bharucha This event was part of a pump priming project funded by the IUKWC. It brought together academics with experts from the private sector and members of civil society, to explore current practice and potential opportunities for developing inclusive and stakeholder-focussed tools. Speakers touched on the wider context of democratic governance in the Indian water sector and the challenges involved in ensuring sustainable rural livelihoods in the context of a pervasive water crisis. The webinar touched on specific challenges and opportunities, hearing about tools developed in the private and third sectors.