23 Unsolved Problems in Hydrology: Advances from India

JavaScript isn't enabled in your browser, so this file can't be opened. Enable and reload.

Modified Last date to respond is Friday, 03rd November 2023

Email *

Record my email address with my response

23 Unsolved Problems in Hydrology: Advances from India

Context

On 10 July, 2023 the IAHS Bureau established a Working Group on Unsolved Problems in Hydrology (UPH).

https://iahs.info/Initiatives/Working-Groups/Unsolved-Problems-in-Hydrology/

The goal of the UPH community initiative, promoted by the Working Group, is to increase the coherence of the scientific process in hydrology (thus overcoming fragmentation) through providing common research subjects; energies the hydrological community through increasing the awareness that we do not fully understand many hydrological processes; and to enable the community to speak with one voice to increase public awareness and enhance funding opportunities for community projects.

In line with the UPH Global initiative and working group, we all shall attempt to establish regional committee.

We are pleased to announce the "23 Unsolved Problems in Hydrology in India" initiative.
We are launching a wide consultation to identify and review the contributions of the India community to advancing key unsolved problems in hydrology.
This initiative was inspired by the 23 Unsolved Problems in Hydrology (UPH) paper (Blöschl et al. 2019 https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2019.1620507), and the "23 UPH in Africa and Brazil" initiative.
This initiative is currently supported by IAHS and Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI). We hope to further expand and strengthen the community.

Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI)

SECTION A - SOME QUICK INFO ABOUT YOU

1. Name:
*

2. Email:
*

3. Nationality
*

4. Main activity:
*

Researcher

University Professor

Practitioner

Water Policy Analyst

Graduate / Undergraduate student

Other:

5. Main background:
*

Engineering

Life sciences (biology, ecology)

Mathematics and Statistics

Physical Sciences (geology, atmospheric science, meteorology)

Social Sciences (Political, Governance, Economics)

Other:

6. Name of your institute:
*

7. Country of your institute:
*

8. Are you a member of any national or international water related scientific association? For instance, IAHS, EGU, AGU, IWA, Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI), Indian Association of Hydrologists (IAH), Young Hydrological Society (YHS) ?
*

SECTION B - SOME QUICK INFO ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH

9. Your research work focus on the:

Indian Subcontinent (Mainland+Ocean)

Northwestern Region (Includes states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, and parts of Haryana and Punjab.)

Northern Region (Encompasses the northern plains, including states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and parts of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal/Characterized by the Indo-Gangetic plain and a continental climate.

Western Region (Includes Maharashtra, Goa, and parts of Karnataka and Gujarat.)

Eastern Region (Encompasses states like West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, and parts of Bihar and Chhattisgarh.)

Southern Region (Includes South India, consisting of states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.)

Northeastern Region (Encompasses the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh)

Central Region (Includes Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.)

Himalayan Region (Covers the northernmost states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.)

Indian Wester Himalayan

Watershed/Catchment

Glaciers

Oceans

PaleoHydrology

Dams/Hydraulics Structures

Other:

10. Which UPH topic do you work on?
*

TIME VARIABILITY AND CHANGE

1. Is the hydrological cycle regionally accelerating/decelerating under climate and environmental change, and are there tipping points (irreversible changes)?

2. How will cold region runoff and groundwater change in a warmer climate (e.g. with glacier melt and permafrost thaw)?

3. What are the mechanisms by which climate change and water use alter ephemeral rivers and groundwater in (semi-) arid regions?

4. What are the impacts of land cover change and soil disturbances on water and energy fluxes at the land surface, and on the resulting groundwater recharge?

SPACE VARIABILITY AND SCALING

5. What causes spatial heterogeneity and homogeneity in runoff, evaporation, subsurface water and material fluxes (carbon and other nutrients, sediments), and in their sensitivity to their controls (e.g. snow fall regime, aridity, reaction coefficients)?

6. What are the hydrologic laws at the catchment scale and how do they change with scale?

7. Why is most flow preferential across multiple scales and how does such behaviour co-evolve with the critical zone?

8. Why do streams respond so quickly to precipitation inputs when storm flow is so old, and what is the transit time distribution of water in the terrestrial water cycle?

VARIABILITY OF EXTREMES

9. How do flood-rich and drought-rich periods arise, are they changing, and if so why?

10. Why are runoff extremes in some catchments more sensitive to land-use/cover and geomorphic change than in others?

11. Why, how and when do rain-on-snow events produce exceptional runoff?

INTERFACES IN HYDROLOGY

12. What are the processes that control hillslope–riparian–stream–groundwater interactions and when do the compartments connect?

13. What are the processes controlling the fluxes of groundwater across boundaries (e.g. groundwater recharge, inter-catchment fluxes and discharge to oceans)?

14. What factors contribute to the long-term persistence of sources responsible for the degradation of water quality?

15. What are the extent, fate and impact of contaminants of emerging concern and how are microbial pathogens removed or inactivated in the subsurface?

MEASUREMENTS AND DATA

16. How can we use innovative technologies to measure surface and subsurface properties, states and fluxes at a range of spatial and temporal scales?

17. What is the relative value of traditional hydrological observations vs soft data (qualitative observations from lay persons, data mining etc.), and under what conditions can we substitute space for time?

18. How can we extract information from available data on human and water systems in order to inform the building process of socio-hydrological models and conceptualisations?

MODELLING METHODS

19. How can hydrological models be adapted to be able to extrapolate to changing conditions, including changing vegetation dynamics?

20. How can we disentangle and reduce model structural/parameter/input uncertainty in hydrological prediction?

INTERFACES WITH SOCIETY

21. How can the (un)certainty in hydrological predictions be communicated to decision makers and the general public?

22. What are the synergies and tradeoffs between societal goals related to water management (e.g. water–environment–energy–food–health)?

23. What is the role of water in migration, urbanisation and the dynamics of human civilisations, and what are the implications for contemporary water management?

NONE

Required

10. UPH Questions that emerged out of the deliberations in Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI) meeting since 2004. Do you find any of them relevant? Would you like to suggest any edits/reframing of the question? *

What is the role and impact of Vadose zone, dynamics and interaction between surface and groundwater, rainfall intensity and geomorphology?

What is the scientific rationale in the assessment of the groundwater resources from variability in ground water table/ piezometric surfaces with spatial heterogeneity in groundwater dynamics and subsurface aquifer and its geometry.

Role of Environmental flows, flow diversions due to interventions though dams and climate change in transforming major perennial rivers into ephemeral systems.

What are the drivers, controlling factors, and the dynamic behaviour of ENSO and IOD in rain fall prediction and floods? Do they vary with in the continent with time?

What are the reasons and mechanisms for the development of long spells of droughts and their spatial dynamics when the circulation patterns are similar?

What are the factors responsible for the increase in the occurrence of high intensity rain events when the total rainfall, rainy days and the distribution pattern remain similar?

Assessment of submarine groundwater discharges and their impact on the coastal and nearshore aquatic eco systems?

What are the process that drive the fluxes between surface and ground water, ground and surface water across the land and coastal ocean boundary?

Fate of emerging contaminants, microbial population and micro plastics in groundwater systems?

How can we eliminate or separate the uncertainties and gaps in predictive models?

What could be level trade-offs between the societal needs in urban and rural population vis-à-vis the restoration fluvial systems to pre-human interference levels?

What could be the possible adversities in interlinking the rivers with varied transient behaviour?

NONE

Other:

Required

11. Do you have 1-3 relevant references (from your research or not) that contribute to one of the UPHs? Please list it and indicate which UPH it relates to.

12. Do you consider that there is a relevant UPH for India that is not listed in the 23 UPHs? Could you please describe it.

SECTION C- SOME FINAL QUESTIONS

13. Are you interested in getting involved in writing a synthesis on 1 or more UPH topics for India?

Yes

Clear selection

14. Are you due to take part in the forthcoming Association of Hydrologists of India (AHI) meeting in Coimbatore in Nov 2023?

Yes

Clear selection

15. If you have any comments, we'd love to hear them!

Thank you !

Many thanks for your valuable input! We will keep you informed on the 23 UPH India updates.

Best wishes,

P. Rajendra Prasad, Ankit Agarwal,

Elango Lakshmanan and Ashutosh Sharma

A copy of your responses will be emailed to .

Submit

Clear form

Never submit passwords through Google Forms.

This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google. Report Abuse - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy

Forms