Talk by Professor Abhijit Mukherjee on South Asia regional water modelling

Delineating groundwater for future South Asia: where science meets human practices and policy intervention

The talk starts at 11.15 with time for discussion from 11.45. Those having to leave at 12.00 can do so but we will continue the discussion for those interested.

Abstract. The significance of ensuring groundwater security is nowhere more evident than in South Asia. A huge groundwater-dependent population, uncertain climate-reliant recharge processes, transboundary upstream water sources, major geogenic-sourced, non-point contaminants, prolific anthropogenic pollutants, archaic irrigation methods and human practices, and indiscriminate land use changes with urbanization, have rendered the South Asian groundwater scenario to become a global paradigm for water scarcity, for both quantity and quality. While the region hosts some of the richest fluvial aquifers of the world, the abstraction of the “largest groundwater volume in human history” has led to the “groundwater drought”, caused by overdraft across major parts of the area. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of groundwater scenarios in South Asia based on several empirical research projects. More specifically, I will develop an understanding of how natural process and human policies interplay building on results from analysis of the most recent trends of groundwater quantity and quality in the region.

Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee is a Professor at the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and the School of Environmental Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur), India. Dr. Mukherjee holds a PhD in Hydrogeology from the University of Kentucky, USA and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He was also the Physical Hydrogeologist at the Alberta Geological Survey in Canada. Prof. Mukherjee’s main research areas are physical, chemical and isotope hydrogeology, including water policy applications to society. He has published more than 140 International journal articles. He serves /has served in an Editorial role in several leading International geoscience and environmental science journals. For his work, among several accolades, Prof. Mukherjee has been conferred the National Geoscience Award, Kharaka Award by International Association of Geochemist, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (India’s highest science award), and AGU D.L. Memorial Medal in 2023. He is a Fellow to the Geological Society of America, Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Geophysical Union. Also, he is presently also serving in the Council of the Geological Society of America.