We are happy to invite you to a lecture by DR. HIMANSHU KULKARNI, Founder Trustee and the Executive Director, Advanced Center for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM).

The following are the details of the talk:

Day and Date: Friday, 17 February 2023

Time: 4.00 - 6.00 Pm (Ist)

Venue: Room No. D2, Malti And Jal A.d. Naoroji Campus (New Campus), Tiss.

The session will be held in a hybrid mode. You may also attend the talk
using the following link:

Zoom Link: Click Here

Meeting ID: 968 5715 3813
Passcode: 268513

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni has led ACWADAM, a not-for-profit knowledge institution and think-tank working on groundwater since 1998. He is a hydrogeologist by qualification and has been working on aquifers and groundwater across India’s diverse groundwater typology for nearlyforty years. ACWADAM’s work under Dr. Kulkarni has followed the principle of bringing communities closer to their aquifers and managing groundwater as a common pool resource through the process of Aquifer-based Participatory Groundwater Management. Dr. Kulkarni hasworked at Pune University (now SPPU) and with the corporate sector before co-founding ACWADAM (www.acwadam.org [1]). Dr. Kulkarni teaches post-graduate courses on Water Science, Policy and Governance at two leading educational institutions. He has mentored students including supervising PhDs and MSc dissertations in the subject of groundwater science and groundwater management, in addition to publishing his research work. He has been part of numerous international collaborations on the topic of groundwater. Dr. Kulkarni continues to advise various State Governments and the Central Government through advisory positions on various committees of the Government. He was member of the drafting committee of the National Water Policy (Draft 2020) in 2019-20. At various points in his career, he has been a CSIR research scholar, a UNESCO scholar, and a Fulbright Fellow. In 2015-16, he served on the High Level Committee on reforming and restructuring the CWC and CGWB,the two apex institutions dealing with surface water and groundwater under the Ministry of Water Resources of the Government of India. He also served as the Chairman of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Working Group, on invitation from the Planning Commission of the Government of India, in preparation of the 12th Five Year Plan.

SESSION SUMMARY:

An exponential rise in the occurrence of landslides in Western Maharashtra is being reported from various quarters. A combined effectof a changing climate, temporal, and spatial variabilities in precipitation along with changes in land use and land cover are factors that are possibly contributing to the susceptibility of slope failure during the monsoon season. What is worrying is the vulnerability of many rural habitations to such failure and the need to develop both, a vulnerability framework, and an early warning system for potential landslides in Western Maharashtra. In this light, ACWADAM conducted a rapid appraisal in six talukas from Pune, Satara and Raigad districts.

In this context, how and why a long-term effort to sharpen the susceptibility analyses and vulnerability zonation is necessary for the larger region of Western Maharashtra - Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni’s session will delve into these questions by shedding light on the methodology and observations from ACWADAM’s efforts.