Understanding Bangalore as a coupled social-hydrological system

Abstract

With partners at IISc and IIM-B, an interdisciplinary team of ecological economists, social scientists and hydrologists has been using the framework of urban metabolism – treating cities as living entities that require materials and energy for maintenance and growth – in first understanding the flows of water in the city. The presentation will cover work to date documenting how Bangalore has grown, status of water supply, critical knowledge gaps, and how coupled social-ecological models can be used to understand the dynamic connections between our use of water and the health of the city’s ecological foundations.

About the speaker

Vishal is an hydrologist and environmental modeler with 15 years of experience in water resources modeling and management, forest ecology and conservation, and appropriate technology. With SEI’s US centre in Davis, California, Vishal has worked on climate and non-climate impacts on water resources systems at basin scale, water balances of Himalayan glaciers, and urban water in the US, India and East Africa. His main interest is in bridging science and policy.

Vishal is a native of Bangalore and an alum of ATREE, with whom he studied impacts of landuse change in the Western Ghats. He received his PhD in Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University, Ithaca in 2007.