Sustainable Urban Water Management in Fast Growing Cities

Professor Rajiv Gupta is a distinguished senior professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, India. With an impressive teaching career spanning over 40 years, he firmly established himself as a prominent character in the academic realm. His versatile career includes more than 15 years of experience in institutional development and decision-making. He has taken on various roles, including the dean of different units and the unit chief responsible for maintenance. Additionally, he served as a group leader in various domains at the BITS Pilani.

Professor Gupta’s dedication to education culminated in his status as a senior professor and earned years of exceptional contributions to BITS Pilani. His influence extends to guiding 16 doctoral candidates, 30 dissertations, nurturing academic and research growth. Actively involved in Water management systems in rural areas from the last twenty years and Implemented the schemes at different villages.

Biswanath Dash , pursues an interdisciplinary research agenda that falls at the intersection of Science Technology Studies (STS) and Disaster Studies. He carries research experience over two decades and has conducted studies in areas such as integrating climate change adaptation (CCA) with disaster risk reduction (DRR), Adaptation of Incident Response System (IRS) in India, Development of Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MHEWS) etc. Before joining BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, he served at several leading institutions in India such as the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi; Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management, Mumbai; LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie; and UNDP, Chennai. His recent contributions include an investigation into integrated water resource management for Bangladesh and Nepal. In addition to his academic exploration, Biswanath has been involved in several outreach programs such as training of senior government officers in various disaster management courses, contributions to national guidelines, policy analysis.

Dr. B. Soundharajan holds a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (2011), where his doctoral research focused on optimizing irrigation scheduling under water deficit conditions using crop growth simulation models. Currently an associate professor at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India, Dr. Soundharajan has previously held academic and research roles at Heriot-Watt University, UK, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia, and Washington State University, USA. His research expertise spans irrigation water management, hydrology, and climate change mitigation, and he has been involved in international collaborations with institutions from Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK.

Throughout his career, Dr. Soundharajan has received several prestigious awards, including the TWAS-UNESCO Associate Award (2022–2025), the Amrita Innovation & Research Publication Merit Award (2021), and the Climate Change 2011 Award from Brown University, USA.