Title

Sustainable Water Management using Geospatial Technology

Bio

Dr. Debapriya Dutta completed his Ph.D from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and joined the National Agricultural Research Service of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He served as Scientist in the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun,. He joined the Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) Division of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India in 1994 as Senior Scientific Officer-I and was serving in the same Department as Scientist ‘F’ / Director, till May, 2008. Thereafter, he was appointed as the Counselor (Science and Technology) in the Embassy of India, Washington D.C. during 2008-2012. At this responsibility, he handled the India and USA Science and Technology Cooperation at Policy, Projects and Programme levels in the sectors of health, energy, climate and environment and education. During September, 2012-2015, he assumed the responsibility of Director, Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (IFCPAR), a bilateral organization to promote collaborative research between India and France in cutting edge Science and Technology. Currently, he is serving as Head and Adviser/Scientist ‘G’ in the Science for Equity Empowerment and Development (SEED), State Science and Technology Programme (SSTP) and National Geospatial Programme (NGP) divisions of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

Dr. Debapriya Dutta was deputed to the Blackland Soil and Water Research Institute, University of Texas, Texas, USA as UNDP visiting scientist during 1998. He completed his Post Doctoral Fellowship in Geo-information Management from the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), the Netherlands in 2003-2004. He was awarded Senior Professional Research Fellowship on “Groundwater Governance” from International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka in 2006-2007.

His areas of expertise and research interests are application of Geo-informatics for Natural Resources Management (Focus on Land and Water), Watershed management technologies, Geo-information Management and Capacity Building for Local Level Planning and International S&T cooperation in the context of Sustainable Development Goals. He has number of publications in national and international journals and has authored three books.

Abstract

Geospatial Technology has been evolved as a great enabler for natural resource management. In the present talk, examples of its utility for sustainable water management will be presented at different hydrological units and levels of governance. For example, Gravity anomaly determined from GRACE Satellite Data has been utilised for regional water management. Understanding the importance of small watershed as unit of rural development, a coordinated project on “Hydrology of small watershed” was developed and implemented by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. For sustainable management of small watershed standardized methodology, minimum instrumentation and data requirement for the Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) suitable for 5 different agro- ecological regions of India was developed. A standard methodology for capacity building of the local Watershed Development Team in data collection, GIS-based tools, and bio-physical indicators were also developed. The Geospatial tools were also applied for urban water management in slum areas of Mumbai. Similarly, at a policy level Spatial Data Infrastructure concept has helped in sustainable water management.