Effects of Urbanization and Extreme Climatic Events on Water Quantity and Quality
Name of the Speaker: Dr. Tushar Sinha
Title of the Seminar: Effects of Urbanization and Extreme Climatic Events on Water Quantity and Quality
Date and Time: 28 September 2022 (Wednesday), 9:30pm
Online Platform: MS Teams (link to the video of the seminar)
About the Speaker: Dr. Sinha is working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK). Prior to joining TAMUK in September 2014, he has worked as a Research Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University (NCSU) for over 1.5 years and as a Postdoctoral Scientist for about 4 years at NSCU and Arizona State University combined. He received his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering and MS in Civil Engineering from India and Ph.D. in Agriculture and Biological Engineering from Purdue University in 2008. He has worked in hydrologic modelling, climate change impacts on hydrology; water resources management; surface water – groundwater interactions; and geospatial analysis. He has published about 30 journal articles including several high impact journals such as PNAS, Earth’s Future and Journal of Geophysical Research. Dr. Sinha has received funding as PI and Co-PI from multiple federal and state agencies. He has also served as chair of technical sessions at national and international conferences. He has been a recipient of TAMU-K’s College of Engineering Excellence in Research Award in 2018.
Abstract: Rapid urbanization and intensification of extreme climatic events directly affect peak flow and water quality in streams in both urban and mixed-use watersheds. Low Impact Development (LID) strategies such as Green Roof (GR) and Rain Garden (RG) can partially mitigate such effects on stormwater runoff and water quality. However, efficiency of LID strategies in handling moderate to large rainfall events to improve the water quality of a watershed is not well understood. Thus, this talk will discuss how different LID strategies affect peak flow and water quality in urban and mixed-use watersheds. The analysis on effects of different LID strategies showed that during the high rainfall intensity event of 15 cm/day, no significant differences due to LID strategies were observed on the peak flow reduction. However, about 32% reduction in peak flow was attained when all three LID strategies considered in this study (GR, RG and GR+RG in series) under low to moderate rainfall intensities of 2 – 3 cm/day. In addition, better water management strategies are needed to mitigate floods and droughts by co-managing green (wetlands) and grey (dams) infrastructure. A framework to co-manage green and grey infrastructure will be discussed to enhance water resilience under extreme climatic events.
Date/Time
Date(s) - 28/09/2022
9:30 am - 10:30 am
