Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation – Experiences from an implementation perspective

Abstract
Over the past decade, Climate Change has been the catch phrase used by many funding agencies for investments in developing and under developed nations, especially in water resource management. However, there exists a huge gap in understanding current water stress drivers and how climate change impacts these drivers. As a result, even though funds and portfolios for climate change action plans are huge, actual positive impacts on the ground are less. The speaker, in this interactive session, will share his experiences on the development of climate change action plans, their shortcomings and how they can be improved using a holistic approach. The speaker will bring case studies from Asia, in particular India and Nepal, and will cover water issues in rural, urban, coastal and natural settings. The speaker will also share his experiences on authoring a World Bank report titled, “Climate change science, knowledge and impacts on water resources in South Asia.”

About the speaker
Pennan Chinnasamy obtained his Masters degree in Physics from Wesleyan University, CT, followed by a doctoral degree, with focus on hydrology, from Missouri University, USA. After his post doc with ATREE, he joined the International Water Management Institute as a Researcher, and was stationed in Nepal and Indian offices, where he focused on climate change impacts on under developed and developing nations. He then joined Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as a Senior Researcher developing real time flood predicting models for the city state. He recently joined as an Assistant Professor with IIT Bombay, under the Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) department, where his work will primarily focus on water resources in rural regions.Over the past eight years,Pennan has experience working in NGOs, national and regional government agencies and academic institutions, focusing on sustainable surface and groundwater management plans, climate change impacts and hydrological simulation models. His work has been recognized in many internationally peer reviewed journals, policy briefs and government reports (e.g. EPA, NEA- Nepal, World Bank), which are being used to formulate scientifically validated best management plans.