Papers by Chitresh Saraswat
Cyber-physical systems in water management and governance
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Urban Rainfall Extremes for Achieving Sustainable Urban Water Development in Hanoi, Vietnam
Urban Planning and Water-related Disaster Management, 2018
In recent decades, the increased frequency of disaster events, particularly hydro-meteorological ... more In recent decades, the increased frequency of disaster events, particularly hydro-meteorological disasters, have threatened human lives and infrastructure. In the context of climate change, urban water management became more complicated because of erratic or heavy rain events or prolonged droughts. Now, sustainable water management and planning requires to visualize the potential impact of climate change on extreme rainfall pattern in order to reduce the climatic vulnerability. This chapter evaluates the impact of climate change on extreme rainfall intensities under different greenhouse gases emission RCP (Representative Concentration Paths) considering future period of 2070–2099 over a baseline period of 1976–2005. The impacts were assessed using rainfall output of 5 General Circulation Models (GCM) under RCP 8.5 (high) and RCP 4.5 (medium) emission scenarios. Bilinear interpolation and quantile mapping technique were applied to extract rainfall data from grid points onto station points and to correct bias of GCM simulations in comparison with the observational data respectively. To derive the rainfall IDF (Intensity-Duration-Frequency) curves, daily rainfall output was temporally downscaled using scaling method. In the study, IDF curves were developed and the performances of the downscaling method were evaluated. The results indicate that the mean of corrected monthly rainfall and the frequency of wet days are considerably closer to observation than the raw rainfall estimates. In addition, the bias correction method accurately captured extreme rainfall values for all 5 GCM and indicated that by the end of the century, under different scenarios the rainfall intensity is increasing for all the durations and the return periods. The results will assist the water manager and urban planner to design the sustainable and robust water infrastructure.
Water Quality Restoration and Reclamation
Achieving water security through availability of sufficient water with good quality for all is th... more Achieving water security through availability of sufficient water with good quality for all is the main agenda of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. The constraints on water availability and deteriorating water quality through global changes threaten secure access to water resources for different uses. Main drivers among these global changes, which are responsible for changes in hydrological cycle, are rapid urbanization, economic development, population burst, land use/land cover changes and climate changes. Effects of theses global changes can be easily seen through the impacts that water bodies bring to the society in the form of flooding and draught, and most important polluted water bodies result in unhygienic environment/ecosystem and health risks due to emerging pollutants. Henceforth, sustainable water resource management is necessary to achieve the goal of water secure future. Despite recent progress in developing new strategies, practices and...
Frontiers in Environmental Science, Mar 24, 2022
Urban water governance aims to ensure equitable access to adequate quality water and related serv... more Urban water governance aims to ensure equitable access to adequate quality water and related services to rapidly growing urban population while protecting the environment. Rapid urbanization and changing climate are posing challenges to the formal and informal institutions responsible for governing and managing water resources. Complexities existing due to the interaction between societal and environmental subsystems of urban water cycle adds pressure on institutional capabilities to cope up with various uncertainties. Emergence of digital technologies has provided the necessary tools in urban water governance to strengthen capabilities through effective monitoring, decision making, and forecasting. The paper examines how sequencing and leveraging the synergies of different digital technologies can help mitigate various problems and challenges faced in urban water governance. The paper analyses three digital technologies, Smart Water Metering Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and Flood Alert System (FAS) using the case studies of Bengaluru and Singapore to understand the transformative capabilities of digitalization in urban water governance. It is assumed that the learnings from this study can be generalized to a large extent. The paper indicates that to unlock the full potential and derive best returns of investment, digitalization needs to have broader objectives. Multipurpose use of digital tools can contribute effectively to the implementation of Integrated Urban Water Management. The results highlighted that societal acceptability of digitalization depends majorly on the mode of implementation and not so much on the technology.
Urban Stormwater Management: Practices and Governance
Water Science and Technology Library, 2020
Water resources in urban areas are either approaching or exceeding the limits of sustainable use ... more Water resources in urban areas are either approaching or exceeding the limits of sustainable use at alarming rates. Depletion of groundwater and increasing floods has become a common issue in rapidly developing urban areas. Therefore, improvement of present water management systems for managing water quality, while at the same time reducing hydro-meteorological disasters, and preserving natural environment in a sustainable manner is a priority that urban water managers should tackle. Accordingly, this chapter presents an overview of stormwater runoff management to guide future optimal stormwater runoff measures and management policies. The study provides commentary to assist policymakers and researchers in the field of stormwater management planning to understand the significance and role of remote sensing and GIS in designing optimal capture measures under the threat of future extreme events including the ones related to climate change. Community attitudes, which are influenced by a range of factors, including knowledge of urban water problem, are also considered. Additionally, the chapter also focuses on effects of different onsite facilities, including those for water harvesting, reuse, ponds and infiltration, are explored to establish adaptation strategies that restore water cycle and reduce climate change-induced flood and water scarcity on a catchment scale. The study brings real-world examples through case studies on Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai stormwater runoff management policies and measures to manage water scarcity and achieve water resiliency.
Toward Sustainable Solutions for Water Security
Water Science and Technology Library, 2020
The book began with multifaceted concept of urban water security in the context of global environ... more The book began with multifaceted concept of urban water security in the context of global environmental changes. It was followed by discussion on emerging challenges such as climate change, urbanization, population and their implications on different dimensions of urban water security. Considering the inadequacy of current water management systems, there is a need of transition towards sustainable and innovative solutions, mainly in developing countries. The sustainable solutions presented in the various chapters are summarized here. It is shown in this chapter, how the arguments of this book bring different contours of urban water security. The chapter also argues that different solutions represented here deserve an equal weight when considering their application in real-world situations. Accordingly, a synthesis of key lessons is provided for better integration of the solutions for long-term urban water security in urban context.
Comparing digitalization of urban water processes and services in Singapore and Bengaluru
<p>Digitalization is claimed to revolutionize water utilities in many urban areas across th... more <p>Digitalization is claimed to revolutionize water utilities in many urban areas across the world, contributing to urban water security. &#160;It involves the use of Information Technology, Data Analysis and Electronic Monitoring in urban water governance with significant improvements in quality water services and customer satisfaction. However, a holistic success story where digitalization of each and every urban water process and service, is found only in a handful of cities. The challenge in most cases is not the availability of an appropriate digital technology but the implementation of the technology. In our study, we try to find the constraints faced in the implementation processes by assessing the required enabling conditions of digitalization as well as the outcomes. Two cities, Singapore and Bengaluru as case studies were selected to compare the implementation process of Smart Water Meters, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Flood Early Warning. Singapore is a developed city in terms of water with an excellent water management system that provides remarkable water-related services. On the other hand, Bengaluru, a rapidly growing city in India and known for its information technology and digital industry, has embarked on the path towards digitalization in water. The comparison of the implementation of these three technologies provides interesting insights that we have extended to generalized inferences about the implementation of digitalization in urban water. We have found that the enabling conditions such as the existence of enabling technologies, management capacity and conducive policy framework are crucial for implementation. Interestingly, outlining the target problems that digitalization is expected to address is equally important for achieving favourable outcomes. The inferences developed in this study will help the adoption of digital technology by urban water utilities, especially in the developing world and in turn strengthen water security.</p>
Urban Water Security Challenges
Water security is a new concept for the sustainable water management. Rapid urbanization and clim... more Water security is a new concept for the sustainable water management. Rapid urbanization and climate change have become a burden for water security managers. It is important to understand and investigate various challenges and impacts of global environment changes for managing water-related problems like frequent urban floods; groundwater water depletion; surface and groundwater pollution; land subsidence and aquatic ecosystems. Urbanization leads to more impervious surface causing increased storm runoff and decreased groundwater recharge resulting in greater floods and groundwater table depletion. Similarly, climate change is reported for alteration of rainfall pattern with more extreme rainfall events and longer dry days resulting in greater floods and lower groundwater table. Therefore, haphazard urbanization, climate change, population growth and change in lifestyle have badly affected urban water environment. In many cases, urbanization rate is quite higher in comparison to cap...
Urban Water Governance: Concept and Pathway
Ineffective water governance is a significant factor in causing water insecurity and hampering th... more Ineffective water governance is a significant factor in causing water insecurity and hampering the goal of sustainable development in developing countries. The water resources in South Asia are under increasing pressure from population growth, urbanization and industrial growth along with socioeconomic water demand in the region. Urban water governance is pertinent in decision-making and policies designed based on the determinants of sustainability (society, economic and environmental). Due to the complexity of the decision-making system, fragmentation, poor coordination and lack of holistic planning, developing adaptive capacity in the developing region is underexplored. In this background, this chapter reviews the concept of urban water governance and its pathways to achieve adaptive water Governance in India. The main question here is which urban water governance pathway suits the Indian context and what are the barriers to implementing adaptive water governance in India. The ana...
Urban Water Security: Background and Concepts
Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. Issues like urbaniza... more Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. Issues like urbanization, population growth, socioeconomic change, evolving energy needs and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on utilization of freshwater resources. It is argued that achieving water security is the key to sustainable development. The focal point of water security evolves from ensuring reliable access of enough safe water for every person at an affordable price to lead a healthy and productive life along with maintaining the water-related ecosystem services for future generations. Although total water demand at global scale is well within available water resources, the shortages prevail at spatial and temporal scales. The constraints on water availability and water quality threaten secure access to water resources for different uses. Despite recent progress in developing new strategies, practices and technologies for water resource management, their dissemination and implement...
Landscape-Based Approach for Sustainable Water Resources in Urban Areas
Water security in urban areas is a highly challenging issue. Urban areas have caused dramatic cha... more Water security in urban areas is a highly challenging issue. Urban areas have caused dramatic changes in the freshwater environments by activities such as damming, channel modification, increase in impervious surfaces, disconnected waterways and increasing pollutants. Accordingly, this chapter argues for a landscape-based approach for water security through better human–nature connections with areas that are related with better urban water security. It is argued that wise management of urban water landscapes can enhance conditions that support water supply, habitat provision, natural sewage treatment and spaces for recreations and cognitive interactions among others. The chapter brings case studies from Japan, India and the Philippines for exemplifying key human–nature interactions that can ensure urban water environments through ecosystem-based land-use practices.
Numerical Modeling and Simulation for Water Management
Global change processes like increasing population, haphazard urbanization and climate change hav... more Global change processes like increasing population, haphazard urbanization and climate change have resulted huge pressure on natural resources. In this context, it is natural to think of how water cycle will be altered by such global change processes. Currently, more than half of the global population resides in urban areas, and thus, urban water security is of great concern. Hydrologic simulation models enable to assess various implications of the global change processes on water resources variables. Various hydrologic models are available for simulating the water resources variables. Each of the hydrologic models has some specific features. The hydrologic models are largely used for investigating impacts of urbanization and climate change on water resources variables like runoff, groundwater recharge, etc. Hydrologic models are categorized into various ways. Based on length of simulation time, a model can be of continuous or event-based type. Hydrologic models are also popularly c...
Impact of COVID-19 on Agro-Food Industry and Transitions Towards Food Security
Water, 2021
Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. The effects of human... more Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. The effects of human activities on land and water are now large and extensive. These reflect physical changes to the environment. Global change such as urbanization, population growth, socioeconomic change, evolving energy needs, and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on water resources systems. It is argued that achieving water security throughout the world is the key to sustainable development. Studies on holistic view with persistently changing dimensions is in its infancy. This study focuses on narrative review work for giving a comprehensive insight on the concept of water security, its evolution with recent environmental changes (e.g., urbanization, socioeconomic, etc.) and various implications. Finally, it presents different sustainable solutions to achieve water security. Broadly, water security evolves from ensuring reliable access of enough safe water for every person (at an affordable...
Urban Water Governance: Concept and Pathway
Water Science and Technology Library, 2020
Ineffective water governance is a significant factor in causing water insecurity and hampering th... more Ineffective water governance is a significant factor in causing water insecurity and hampering the goal of sustainable development in developing countries. The water resources in South Asia are under increasing pressure from population growth, urbanization and industrial growth along with socioeconomic water demand in the region. Urban water governance is pertinent in decision-making and policies designed based on the determinants of sustainability (society, economic and environmental). Due to the complexity of the decision-making system, fragmentation, poor coordination and lack of holistic planning, developing adaptive capacity in the developing region is underexplored. In this background, this chapter reviews the concept of urban water governance and its pathways to achieve adaptive water Governance in India. The main question here is which urban water governance pathway suits the Indian context and what are the barriers to implementing adaptive water governance in India. The analysis showed that water institutions' non-responsiveness, coordination/interaction issues, lack of collaboration, limited information access and communication between various levels of formal institutions and absence of capacity building and challenges to ensure fairness in distribution are the identified barriers. Furthermore, this chapter argues that the implementation of adaptive water governance through hybrid governance configuration is in the experimental phase in India and shows promising results. Evaluating the success of polycentric arrangement is too early now. Addressing the constraint herein, improving the dimension of the adaptive system mentioned in the section will enhance the strength of the urban water governance system to handle uncertainty in the future. The chapter contributes to the current discourse of the water governance pathways to achieve water security in developing countries in support of the water goal (SDG 6) of the United Nation's sustainable development goals.
APN Science Bulletin, 2019
Climate change adaptation through optimal stormwater capture measures Urban water management has ... more Climate change adaptation through optimal stormwater capture measures Urban water management has become more challenging and expensive in the global change context. The major shortcomings of existing research on water management systems are the neglect of uncertainty in climate change, inadequate knowledge of infrastructural response sensitivity, the lack of holistic water management framework and limited consideration of local aspects in adaptation strategies formulation. The main goals of this research are to (1) analyse climate change impact on extreme precipitation patterns, and (2) conduct iterative stormwater simulation for alternative on-site stormwater capture measures for climate change adaptation and sustainable urban development. Impacts of climate change were investigated by considering precipitation projections of multiple GCMs (Global Climate Models) over Yato Watershed, Tokyo. Precipitation IDF curves of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100-year return periods for present and future climates revealed that, for all return periods and durations, the precipitation intensities are significantly greater for the future climate than the present climate. The HEC-HMS tool enabled simulation of flood hydrographs for current and future climate conditions. The simulated results indicated that there would be an increase of 11-20% in peak discharge at the Yato Watershed outlet at the end of this century. It was observed that Kinuta Park is in a strategic location which can be used to construct a storage facility of 180,163.14 m 3 for reducing flood events. The study proposes maintaining the stability of the water cycle of the urban catchment as an alternative for sustainable water management.
Water, 2019
Rapid changes in land use and land cover pattern have exerted an irreversible change on different... more Rapid changes in land use and land cover pattern have exerted an irreversible change on different natural resources, and water resources in particular, throughout the world. Khambhat City, located in the Western coastal plain of India, is witnessing a rapid expansion of human settlements, as well as agricultural and industrial activities. This development has led to a massive increase in groundwater use (the only source of potable water in the area), brought about significant changes to land management practices (e.g., increased fertilizer use), and resulted in much greater amounts of household and industrial waste. To better understand the impacts of this development on the local groundwater, this study investigated the relationship between groundwater quality change and land use change over the 2001–2011 period; a time during which rapid development occurred. Water quality measurements from 66 groundwater sampling wells were analyzed for the years 2001 and 2011, and two water qual...
Achieving water security and availability for all is among the principle agenda of the UN-Sustain... more Achieving water security and availability for all is among the principle agenda of the UN-Sustainable Development Goals. To achieve the goal of water security, particularly in rapidly expanding cities, identification of safe and sustainable water resources is an absolute necessity. The paper conducts an exploratory investigation in the hydro geochemical characteristics of groundwater and thereby, assess the suitability of groundwater as an alternative and reliable resource for public water supply in the Indian city of Surat. A total of 33-groundwater samples, selected on the basis of aquifer depth, land use signatures, were collected from open, bore, dug wells and hand pumps. After the hydrogeochemical analysis, the study evaluated the present state of the groundwater quality and determined the spatial distribution of groundwater quality parameters such as hardness, electrical conductivity, Cl −, pH, SO42-, and NO3 − concentrations. An interpolation ...
Sustainability of Water Quality and Ecology, 2017
Water pollution remains a challenging issue for the sustainable development of Kathmandu Valley d... more Water pollution remains a challenging issue for the sustainable development of Kathmandu Valley despite several infrastructural, awareness-raising and policy measures. The paper assesses the sustainability of the surface water resources of Kathmandu valley by analyzing the water quality parameters such as Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). The case study of Bagmati River pollution is analyzed for current and future wastewater production and treatment scenario based on the two important indicators of aquatic health. The DO and BOD were simulated to assess river pollution along a 25 km stretch between Sundarijal and Chovar. Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model was used to simulate the current (year 2014) and future (year 2020 and 2030) river water quality conditions. The results showed that the water quality of the Bagmati River is relatively better during monsoon season due to higher river flow in comparison to the dry season. A comparison of simulated DO and BOD values for 2020 and 2030 with 2014 values indicated that the water quality of the Bagmati River within Kathmandu Valley will not significantly improve as a result of the planned wastewater treatment plants requiring additional countermeasures. The study pointed out the inefficiencies of the current practice of discharging untreated sewage into the surface water and causing largely in the river water and unsuitability of river water of water from the Gaurighat to the Chovar area. It is recommended to integrate river water pollution management and maintain ecologically to achieve the healthy urban development.
Water Science, 2017
High fluoride (F −) groundwater causes fluorosis which might at severe stages lead to deformation... more High fluoride (F −) groundwater causes fluorosis which might at severe stages lead to deformation of bones, bilateral lameness. The concentration of F − ranged from 0.4 to 4.8 mg/L. This study suggests that high HCO 3 − and Na + in alkaline medium along with water-rock interaction plays important role in enrichment of F − in groundwater. Na-HCO 3 is the dominant water type followed by Ca-HCO 3 suggesting dominance of Na + , Ca 2+ and HCO 3 − ions in groundwater. Factor analysis of water quality parameters suggests that four principal components account for 74.66% of total variance in the dataset. Factor 1 shows higher positive loading for pH, HCO 3 − negative loading for F − , Ca 2+ , SO 4 2− depicting ion-exchange and HCO 3 dominant water type responsible for F enrichment in groundwater. Saturation index for selected minerals suggests that most of the samples are oversaturated with calcite and undersaturated with fluorite. Calcite precipitation leads to the removal of Ca 2+ from solution thus allowing more fluorite to dissolve. These released Ca 2+ ions combine with CO 3 2− ions to further enhance the precipitation of CaCO 3 .
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Papers by Chitresh Saraswat