Recent Developments in Water Resources and Transportation Engineering

Prof. Nidhi Nagabhatla is Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Coordinator: Climate Change and Natural Resources program at United Nations University ( CRIS) . She is Sustainability Science Specialist and System Analyst. With >23 years of work experience, she has led, coordinated, and implemented transdisciplinary projects in various geographical regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Americas working with international organizations, viz., IWMI, World Fish Centre, IUCN, Asia Pacific Climate Centre, and United Nations University (INWEH) leading research and capacity development initiatives. She is also affiliated with leading academic institutes: Oxford University (UK) and Leibniz University (Germany) in various roles, mostly related to sustainability research, science-policy interfacing, and mentoring young professionals. She is Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth, Environment & Society McMaster University, Canada, and Guest Professor at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia. She served as Chair of The Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (UNEP) and co-leads the 'Water and Migration Working Group' of The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She also served on the Technical Committee of The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) from 2013 to 2018 and was Lead Author in the Global Assessment Report. She also served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Steering Board for Young Professional Platform for Agriculture Research and Development (YPARD), FAO from 2011 to 2018. Currently, she is actively involved with three expert working committees of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). She holds a doctoral degree from the Indian Space Research Organization in Environmental Science, post-doctoral experience working Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a diploma in International Humanitarian Law from The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, India. She holds executive education from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where she affiliates as a Chevening Fellow with the Future Leaders Programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK. She has published more than 200 papers as peer-reviewed journal articles, chapters, conference papers, workshop contributions, and policy briefs and serves on the editorial and review committee of numerous international journals. Prof. Yusuf Mehta is Professor in Department of Civil Engineering of Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering and has extensive experience in pavement systems and management. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999 and M.S. in Civil Engineering from The Oklahoma University in 1995. He is registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey. He has publications in refereed journals and international conferences. He has managed multiple projects of New Jersey Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration USDOT, and New York State Department of Transportation. He received Aviation Research Award and New Jersey DOT Research Implementation Award in the year 2012. He was recognized for his exemplary teaching by Mid-Atlantic American Society of Engineering Education in 2008. He received Louis J. Pignataro Memorial Transportation Engineering Education Award in 2013 for outstanding record of achievement in transportation engineering research, and undergraduate and graduate engineering education. He is Associate Editor of American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Transportation Engineering. He is part of Editorial Board, Modern Traffic and Transportation Engineering Research (MTTER). He is Member of American Society of Civil Engineers, Transportation Research Board, American Society for Engineering Education, and Association of Asphalt Paving Technologist. Dr. Brijesh KumarYadav is Head of Hydrology Department of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He received his Ph.D. in 2008 from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in collaboration with UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands. He holds several memberships in established bodies of hydrology, International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS); International Society for Porous Media (INTERPORE); American Geophysical Union (AGU); International Association of Engineers (IAENG), Indian Association of Hydrologists (IAH), Indian Association of Water Resources Society (IWRS), and Association of Global Groundwater Scientists (AGGS). He was awarded Ramanujan Fellow by Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. He is Chief Editor of quarterly E-journal of Association of Global Groundwater Scientists (AGGS) 'Journal of Ground Water Research (JGWR)' since 2021. He is Editor of several renowned journals. He has guided number of Ph.D. scholars. He is Active Researcher and has received several grants from Government of India for carrying out research and consultancy in area of bio-remediation, soil-water flow, and groundwater arsenic. He has published over 100+ publications in refereed journals and international conferences. Dr. Ambika Behl is Head and Principal Scientist at Flexible Pavement Dept, Central Road Research Institute, Govt. of India. She obtained her Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, in 2016 and M.Tech. in 2004 from Punjab University. Her major areas of research interests include pavement engineering materials and sustainable road construction technologies. She has around two decades of experience in industry and academia in various capacities. She has several memberships of professional bodies like IRC, Transportation Group of India. She works actively on improvement of the materials and technologies to make long lasting future ready roads. She has won several appreciation and accolades in the area of waste material application in pavement system. She has published several research articles in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Dr. Madhuri Kumari received her Ph.D. from The Energy Resource Institute (TERI) for her work on geostatistical modeling for prediction of rainfall in Indian Himalayas. She completed her M.Tech. in Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, and B.E. in Civil Engineering from Andhra University and was awarded Gold Medal. She is working as Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, U.P. She has vast industry experience of 11 years and academic experience of around 11 years. Her research works in area of rainfall modeling have been published in reputed journals. Her research interests include data analytics, application of Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing (GIS&RS) for solving engineering problems, water resources engineering and management, hydrology, hydroinformatics, and irrigation engineering. She has been Editor of two books published by Springer. She has worked as Co-PI for MoEF&CC-funded project on spatial decision support system for River Yamuna. She has worked as governing council member of Indian Building Congress. She is registered Professional Engineer, Engineers Council of India. She is Member of several professional bodies like IEEE, Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET, UK), ISTE, Indian Society of Hydrologist, Indian Geotechnical Society, Indian Building Congress, and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE India). She is serving as Hon. Secretary of WISE India. She has attended several conferences, published technical papers, and delivered talks in the field of civil engineering.