Research Areas

Remote Sensing of Hydrological Variables

Retrieval of surface soil moisture using the active microwave data (ENVISAT,RADARSAT)
Validation of the surface soil moisure retrieved using passive microwave data (AMSR-E and SMOS products)
Calibration/validation of the surface soil moisture using the upcoming Indian Satellite RISAT (active microwave)
Calibration/validation of rainfall products retrieved using the Megha-Tropique, an upcoming satellite being launched jointly by ISRO and ESA
Retrieval of Evapotranspiration using the MODIS data

Hydrologic Impacts of Climate Change

Detection and Attribution of Change
Statistical Downscaling
Uncertainty Modeling
Reservoir Operation under Uncertainty
Urban Flooding
Water Quality Modeling
Detection and Attribution of Change

Water Resources Systems

Reservoir Operation
Irrigation Planning
Water Quality Control
River basin Planning
Stream flow Quantity-Quality Modeling
Flood Routing
Floodplain Planning and Management

Assimilation of Remote Sensing Data into Hydrological Models

Perform synthetic experiments to evaluate the effect of updating freuency on the improvments in the model state.
Assimilation of surface soil moisture and ET into a hydrological model using the approaches like Linear Kalman, extended Kalman, and ensemble Kalman filter.
The uncertainty in the model is estimated using the GLUE methodology.
Estimation of the uncertainty in the output after assimilation.
Analysis of the uncertainty because of the non-uniqueness using the GLUE methodology.

Hydrological Modeling

Development of the watershed scale models for the mass and energry transfer.

Groundwater Modeling

Collect the datasets over a longer period of time (~few decades) to model the temporal dynamics of the recharge to groundwater.
Estimate recharge rates using extensive monitoring of field (~ 2-3 wells in 1 KM²)
Estimate the effect of groundwater draft on the groundwater levels.
Integrate the vadose zone models to determine the recharge to groundwater systems.
Optimize the parameters of aquifer by considering the non-uniqueness.
Predict groundwater flow velocity and direction under the stochastic environment.
Predict the long-term impacts of groundwater pumping and land use change.
Predict recharge rates for possible future landuse scenerios.

Agricultural Water Management

Calibrate crop model using the masured agro-hydrological variables.
Simulate the effect of the climate change on water usage.
Simulate the effect of crop on the groundwater levels.

Vadose Zone

Integrate various approaches to model the movement of water and contaminant in the vadose zone.
Optimize vadose zone parameters.
Simulate vadose zone water flow velocity and direction.
Measure and predict vadose zone contaminant concentrations and transport rates.

Watersheds

Watersheds are the fundamental unit for the hydrology. The analysis of the Watershed of different scales (ranging from ~10 KM² to 10,000 KM²) using numerical tools (such as finite element), stastical tools (such as Empirical Orthogonal Function and Wavelet) and extensive field experiments provide the oppurtinity to assess the impacts of land use, groundwater pumping, variability in precipitaion, and climate change on hydrolgogical cycles. Various models are being developed using a state-of-the-art modeling techniques that describes the complex interactions of the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere. This tools aer being used in assessing the impact of land-use changes on stream flow and groundwater etc. The system is also being used to study possible impacts of climate change on the magnitude and timing of runoff and the resultant effect on the timing and availability of water for various needs.

Land-Use Impact Assessment

Quantitative evaluations of the impacts of the land use (e.g. groundwater pumping and landuse change) on the hydrological processes is being done.

Multiphase Flows

Predictive models for NAPL movement in porous / fractured media
Inverse models for NAPL movement in porous media
Flow behavior in coastal aquifers
Modeling of flow and heat transfer in geothermal reservoir
CO₂ disposal in abandoned aquifers

Environmental Hydraulics

Urban Water Distribution Systems
Quantity and quality modeling
Application of Control algorithms and soft computing techniques to water networks
Control systems for urban water networks
Prediction of temporal chlorine and biomass concentration using different algorithms of ANNs
Use of different architectures of ANNs in the temporal prediction of water quality indicators Irrigation Systems and Small experimental watersheds