Recent Advances in Geomatics, Water Resources and Environmental Engineering : Select Proceedings of TRACE 2024

Prof  (Dr.) Nidhi Nagabhatla is a Program Lead ‘ Climate Change and Natural Resource’ at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS). She is a sustainability science specialist and a systems analyst. With close to 25 years of work experience, she has led, coordinated, and implemented transdisciplinary projects in various geographical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. She has worked with many international organisations including the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), World Fish Centre, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Asia Pacific Climate Centre and the United Nations University (INWEH) and has led research and capacity development initiatives. She is also affiliated with leading academic institutes like the Oxford University, United Kingdom (UK) and the Leibniz University, Germany in various roles related to sustainability research, science-policy interfacing and mentoring young professionals. Dr. Nagabhatla is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Earth, Environment & Society McMaster University, Canada, and a Guest Professor at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia. She also serves as research professor at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Ghent
Belgium. She has served as the Chair of The Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (UNEP) and co-leads the ‘Water and Migration Working Group’ of The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She also served on the Technical Committee of The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from 2013- 2018 and was a lead author in the Global Assessment Report. She also served as the Vice-Chair and Chair of the Steering Board for the Young Professional Platform for Agriculture Research and Development (YPARD), FAO from 2011-2018. At present, she is actively involved with working committees of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). Dr. Nagabhatla holds a doctoral degree from the Indian Space Research Organization in Environmental Science, post-doctoral experience working Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a diploma in International Humanitarian Law from The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, India. She holds executive education from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where she affiliates as a Chevening fellow with the Future Leaders Programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK. She has published more than 250 papers as peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, workshop contributions, and policy briefs and serves on the editorial and review committees of numerous international journals.

Prof. (Dr.) S. K. Singh serves as the Professor and Dean, at Delhi Technological University (DTU), Delhi. He has obtained his Ph.D. from Birla Institute of Technology And Science (BITS), Pilani, M.Tech. from IIT (BHU), Varanasi and B.E. from Gorakhpur University having first division with distinction throughout. He has been engaged in teaching, research, administration, and consultancy for the last 33 years and is has been serving as the Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering for the past 22 years at DTU, Delhi. He is also the Independent Director, WAPCOS Limited (A Mini Ratna-I PSU, GOI). He has guided 12 Ph.D. and about 75 M.Tech. thesis and more than 180 UG Projects. He has participated in various national and international conferences, published more than 238 research papers in national and international journals of repute and authored 06 books. He has provided technical assistance as a Member of groups of experts, set up for determining polluting industries in NCT of Delhi. He has also been involved in the examined proposals for establishing degree/diploma level technical institutions in NCT of Delhi and in the evaluation of projects for the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India. Prof. Singh is a Member of the Board of Governors, Central Soil and Materials Research Station (CSMRS), Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, the Chairman, of the Departmental Promotion Committee, Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) (ICAR) New Delhi. He is also a member of the University Court, University of Delhi, an expert member of the Equivalence Committee, UPSC, New Delhi and Advisor at the Selection Committee for recruitment at UPSC, New Delhi and a Technical Expert for various committees of MoEFCC, GOI. He also serves as an Expert Member, DST, GOI, a member, Expert Committee, CAPART, Ministry of Rural Development, GOI. Various professional bodies have felicitated him and presented him with awards including the APJ Abdul Kalam Award 2016, the Rashtriya Shiksha Gaurav Puraskar 2014, the International Felicitation and WEC-IIEE-IAEWP Environmental Award, the Rashtriya Samman Puraskar 2005, the Excellent Services Award, Clean Up The Earth Award and the Eminent Personality Award.

Dr. Soundharajan Bankaru Swamy is currently working as an Associate Professor of Water Resources Management in the Department of Civil Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. His previous work experience includes Heriot-Watt University, UK (2012-2016) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) (2011-2012). His major research areas of interest include analysis and assessment of climate change impacts on water resources, irrigation water management, planning and management of water resources systems, urban water systems and water-energy-food nexus.

Prof. (Dr.) Madhuri Kumari is currently working as a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, U.P. She completed her M.Tech in Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering from IIT, Banaras Hindu University and B.E in Civil Engineering from Andhra University and was awarded Gold Medal and received her Ph.D. from The Energy Resource Institute (TERI) for her work on geostatistical modelling for prediction of rainfall in Indian Himalayas. She has vast industry experience of 11 years and an academic experience of around 11 years. Her major areas of research interest include data analytics, the application of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing (GIS&RS) for solving engineering problems, water resources engineering and management, hydrology, hydroinformatics, and irrigation engineering. She is the editor of two books published by Springer. She has worked as Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF and CC) funded project on a spatial decision support system for river Yamuna. She has worked as a governing council member for the Indian Building Congress. She is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineers Council of India. She is a member of several professional bodies like IEEE, Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET, UK), ISTE, Indian Society of Hydrologists, Indian Geotechnical Society, Indian Building Congress and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE India). She also serves as the Hon. Secretary of WISE India. She has attended several conferences, published technical papers and delivered many talks in the field of civil engineering.

Dr.  Shailendra Kumar Jain is currently working as an associate professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida. He obtained his B.E. (Civil) from Engineering College Kota, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, and M. Tech. and Ph.D. from IIT, Delhi. He has extensive experience of more than 20 years in teaching and research and holds expertise in the field of water resources and environmental engineering. His major areas of research interest include municipal solid waste management, green buildings and wastewater management. He has attended and presented papers at numerous national and international conferences.