The Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub is a five-year project, launched in February 2019, to improve water security for a resilient future, funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
This Water Hub aims to adopt a systems approach in the delivery of sustainable water security within the four program sites: Colombia, Malaysia, Ethiopia, and India by the end of 5-year. The Water Hub of India, in which Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and School of Planning & Architecture (SPA) Delhi are collaborating, has identified NCT of Delhi as the case study area.
The Hub’s activities are focused on promoting integrated sustainable development and management of water resources by using state-of-the-art technologies. Suggested research shall also engage in the creation of a framework in collaboration with the other collaboratories for planning, monitoring, and assessment of water using an integrated approach.
The HUB brings together an internationally leading team of researchers and is structured around six Work Streams (WS).
IIT Delhi: Hydrological modelling (Surface and Groundwater); Supply-Demand modelling and analysis; Water supply and Sewerage system analysis; Urban flood modelling; water quality monitoring and analysis; GIS framework development.
SPA Delhi: Socio-economic analysis of water in urban setup (NCT of Delhi); water policy and governance; values of water.
To achieve the water security in NCT of Delhi, IIT Delhi team is developing and demonstrating a four-level systems’ approach.
These four scales have been identified because, the raw surface water supply to NCT of Delhi comes from upper Yamuna basin, groundwater supply comes from aquifers of NCT of Delhi. Barapullah pilot area has been identified to analyze the supply demand dynamics by evaluating the water related infrastructure to identify multiple/alternate solutions for the stakeholders to choose the appropriate one. Simultaneously, water related risks shall also be addressed. This framework is being tested on a micro-level at IIT Delhi campus.
Serve research outputs in user friendly manner for stakeholders. Scales at Yamuna (up to Etawah), NCT of Delhi, Barapullah and IIT Delhi campus.
+GIS based framework for monitoring and evaluation of present/planned interventions in Delhi Urban Water System carried out under "Mailey Se Nirmal Yamuna NGT Order".
+One-stop window to climate related information focussing on climate change which provides access to country data (India). Summarizes key climate and climate-related information.
+Generate scenarios for reducing the flooding in a sequential manner for ease of implementation. Real-time flood awareness system using citizen science and remote sensing.
+Showcasing HUB IIT Delhi India collaboratory research products
Community Outreach Materials (Videos, blogs....).
In order to address the water logging issues in urban areas, IIT Delhi has developed a mobile
application based on the citizen science approach.
In this application, communities and individuals are facilitated to report the real-time
incidence of flooding, in and around their surroundings, by capturing the water logging
information and sending it to a central server.
Situated on the western bank of the Yamuna River, in the southern part of the NCT of Delhi,
the Barapullah Basin is the pilot region for the India Collaboratory team. Lying in the
floodplain of the Yamuna River, the total catchment area of the basin is 376.27
km2, with
large, urbanised areas.
There is a clear inadequacy in three water networks – water supply, sewage systems, and
storm water management, demonstrating that the water sources in Delhi could be unsafe. Some
of the main risks to water security identified by the team are population growth, climate
variability, poverty, and urbanisation.
The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) is a pilot region for the Barapullah
Basin and NCT of Delhi. Covering an area of around 320 acres, the campus serves as a mini
township model suitable for testing various water components and frameworks that could be
replicated for larger regions.
Some initiatives implemented on campus over the past two decades include wetland
conservation, sewage treatment plants, and rainwater harvesting, amongst many others. The
campus also serves as an ideal location for testing drainage systems, with hydraulic
modelling contributing to analysis of the landmass capacity to absorb rainfall, showing thus
far that with increased urbanisation the landmass capacity is ultimately reduced.
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