Nagaraja Harshadeep

For many countries like India the transport sector is the most rapidly growing energy end-use category. Choices made now will have impacts lasting well into the middle of the 21st century. The desire for personal mobility in urban areas, typically by means of personal-use vehicles, will comprise much of growing transportation energy demand. Automobile emissions are the fastest increasing source of urban air pollution in most developing cities. In India most urban areas including Delhi already have major air pollution problems that could be greatly exacerbated if growth of the transport sector is managed unwisely. Delhi’s spatial growth over the last 25 years has been rapid and urban sprawl is contributing to increasing travel demand. We propose the development of decision support tools for understanding the different ways to manage this sprawl and plan for a better Delhi in years to come. This paper focuses on a vehicular air pollution information system, to provide some insight abo...

For many countries like India the transport sector is the most rapidly growing energy enduse category. Choices made now will have impacts lasting well into the middle of the 21 century. The desire for personal mobility in urban areas, typically by means of personaluse vehicles, will comprise much of growing transportation energy demand. Automobile emissions are the fastest increasing source of urban air pollution in most developing cities. In India most urban areas including Delhi already have major air pollution problems that could be greatly exacerbated if growth of the transport sector is managed unwisely. Delhi’s spatial growth over the last 25 years has been rapid and urban sprawl is contributing to increasing travel demand. We propose the development of decision support tools for understanding the different ways to manage this sprawl and plan for a better Delhi in years to come. This paper focuses on a vehicular air pollution information system, to provide some insight about t...

Cooperation in International waters in Africa (CIWA) assists riparian governments in Sub-Saharan Africa in addressing constraints to cooperative water resources management and development, with the goal of unlocking the potential for sustainable, climate-resilient growth. By supporting countries to work together to share information, strengthen institutions, and advance sustainable investments, CIWA enables countries to use their transboundary water resources productively and equitably, protect people and property from water-related shocks, and ensure sustainability of the resource base. A cooperative approach to managing shared risks and equitably sharing socio-economic benefits presents countries with opportunities to reduce resource-related conflict and strengthen regional integration, all of which contribute to sustainable economic growth, poverty reduction, and resilience to climate change. CIWA balances support for institutional development and information systems with assista...

The state of Tamil Nadu, India, is in the grips of a water crisis, with demand far outstripping supply. As the economy of the state grows, this crisis is going to become ever more serious. To date the focus of state water policy has been on trying to augment supplies, from within the state (even from desalinization) and from neighboring states. In addition, the water use is regulated in a way that does not encourage the highest value uses. International experience shows that supply-side measures must be complemented by demand-side measures and that practice must move away from fixed, command-and-control allocation policies towards flexible allocation mechanisms, which facilitate the voluntary movement of water from low to high-value uses. This study addresses the question of whether such a change in allocation policies is worth doing. It addresses this question by developing optimization models for each of the 17 river basins in Tamil Nadu (including an assessment of the economic va...

Large river basins present significant challenges for water resource planning and management. They typically traverse a wide range of hydroclimatic regimes, are characterized by complex and variable hydrology, and span multiple jurisdictions with diverse water demands and values. They are often data-poor and in many developing economies are characterized by weak water governance. Rapid global change is seeing significant changes to the pressures on the water resources of large basins, exacerbating the challenge of sustainable water management. Diverse technologies have long supported water resource planning and development, from data collection, analytics, simulation, to decision-making, and real-time operations. In the last two decades however, a rapid increase in the range, capability, and accessibility of new technologies, coupled with large reductions in cost, mean there are increasing opportunities for emerging technologies to significantly “disrupt” traditional approaches to w...