Innovative Trends in Hydrological and Environmental Systems : Select Proceedings of ITHES 2021

This book presents select proceedings of the International Virtual Conference on Trends in Hydrological and Environmental Systems (ITHES 2021). Various topics covered in this book include urban hydrology, hydrological extremes, statistical analysis of hydro-meteorological data, impacts of climate change, hydrological modelling, groundwater studies, water resource management and applications of RS & GIS in hydrology. The book also discusses various topics on applications of CFD in water resources and environmental engineering, water and wastewater treatment, solid waste management and air quality. The book will be a valuable reference for beginners, researchers, and professionals interested in environmental civil engineering, especially hydrological and environmental systems.

Dr. Anil Kumar Dikshit is Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) Professor in the Environmental Infrastructure & Clean Tech (EICT) Group and In-charge of GIS Laboratory for Environmental Management & Sustainability (GEMS) of the Environmental Science and Engineering (ESE) Department at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. He did his graduation and masters' in civil engineering in 1985 and 1987, respectively, and completed Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University, USA in the year 1994. The areas of his teaching interest are environmental systems planning and management; environmental impact assessment; water supply and wastewater engineering; environmental engineering; and solid and biomedical waste management while the areas of research interest include environmental infrastructure; clean technology; urban, biomedical, hazardous and electronic solid waste management; environmental modeling, optimization, impact assessment, sustainability and life cycle assessment; and GIS applications to water and environment related problems. He has more than 30 years of experience in Teaching, Research and Consultancy at IIT Kanpur, Cornell University, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay. He has also taken several short assignments as visiting professor at Kigali Institute of Science & Technology, Rwanda; University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa; Nanyang Technological University, and National University of Singapore, Singapore; Malardalen University, Sweden; and Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. He has guided 40 masters' and 22 doctoral scholars while 5 research scholars are working on their PhDs. He has also worked on more than 150 national and international research and consultancy projects. He is having research collaboration with German, French, US, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Norway and Thailand Universities and Institutions and has organized 10 International Conferences, 8 Workshops and 30 Training Courses. He is prolific speaker and has delivered more than 300 invited talks at various national and international forums. The results of academic research work have provided 1 patent, 7 books, 11 chapters in edited books, 100 reports, 135 publications in international & national journals, 140 in international & national conferences while many more papers are under review. In addition, more than 20 prototypes / equipment related to various environmental pollution management topics; academic versions of more than 10 environmental modeling and simulation software(s); and about 7 GIS applications on environmental management problems have been developed under his guidance. He is associate editor, reviewer or editorial board member for many peer-reviewed environmental journals.

Dr. Balaji Narasimhan is currently a Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai.  He obtained his B.E (Agricultural Engineering) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore; M.S. from University of Manitoba, Canada and PhD from Texas A&M University, USA.  Balaji Narasimhan is a Hydrologist with expertise in modelling the impact of landuse and climate change on hydrology using GIS, remote sensing and hydrologic / hydraulic / crop growth models with experience of over 20 years.  He has published over 35 scholarly articles in reputed international journals. He received the Young scientist award at the 2013 International SWAT conference at Toulouse, France for his contribution in the development of algorithms for the SWAT model. He is one of the coordinators involved in the development of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan and is the lead investigator in the development of a hydrological flow health condition report for the entire Ganga River Basin.  Balaji Narasimhan was also a Member of “Think Tank” for development of Water Resources Information System (WRIS), Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India.  He was involved in a large team project to develop a flood forecasting system for Chennai city, following the floods of 2015, funded by the Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt. of India.​

Dr. Bimlesh Kumar is currently a Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati. He obtained his B.E. (Civil Engineering) from Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology Muzaffarpur, Bihar, and M.E. and Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Bangalore. His major areas of research interests include river hydraulics and sediment transport. He has published more than 100 papers in respected international journals. Dr. Bimlesh Kumar received the R. J. Garde research award in 2015. 

Dr. Ajey Kumar Patel is currently an Assistant Professor at Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal. He obtained his B.Tech (Civil Engineering) from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), Kanpur; M.Tech (Environmental Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee; Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Bangalore. Ajey Kumar Patel is an Environmental Engineer with expertise in modelling surface aeration system including both experimental and CFD models, urban flood modelling, water hammer analysis and water distribution network analysis. He has published over 30 papers in various peer reviewed journals and international conferences.