Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management
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Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management |
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Job generation
through synergy between the Earth, Space and Information Sciences U. Aswathanarayana Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management, Hyderabad, India [email protected] The broad basing and end-use of orientation of geoscience instruction that the author has been advocating (Aswathanarayana, 2003) has been taken up and improved upon, by a reputed institution. The University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, under the visionary leadership of its Vice-Chancellor, Kota Harinarayana, is developing a School of Earth and Space Sciences, linked to the Super-Computing facility in the University. The hallmarks of the proposed school would be synergy, inclusivity and globalism. The School will use the synergy between the earth (including oceanic and atmospheric realms), space and information sciences to bridge the digital divide, and promote knowledge-driven and job-led (as different from job-less approach of the Industrialized countries) economic development of the country. The proposed School will endeavour to (i) provide the basic science underpinnings for the Earth, Space and Information Technologies, (ii) develop new methodologies for the utilization of natural resources (water, soils, sediments, minerals, biota, etc.) in ecologically-sustainable, employment-generating and economically-viable ways, (iii) mitigate the adverse consequences of natural hazards, such as, global change-related water problems and disasters, through preparedness systems, etc. For these reasons, the approach of the School would be of particular relevance to the developing countries. Water will constitute the core concern of the School. India has 17 % of humans, 30 % of the domesticated animals, 4 % of land, but only about 2 % of the water resources of the world. Besides, with increasing population, the amount of water resources available per capita keeps on becoming less with each passing year. As a consequence of the approximately three-fold increase of population from 360 million in 1951, to 1030 million in 2001, the fresh water availability decreased from 6000 m3 per capita per annum in 1951 to1869 m3 in 2001. There is little doubt that ecologically-sustainable, socially-equitable and economically-viable management of water resources of the country holds the key to the quality of life (drinking water, sanitation and health), food security and industrial development of the country. The School will be focused on Use-inspired basic research (a la Pasteur) and Pure applied research (a la Edison) in the inter-disciplinary areas of earth and space sciences which are relevant to the needs of the country, such as, climate predictability, since India is heavily dependent on the monsoon system, and satellite remote sensing of soil moisture, which is important to agriculture since it is the principal source of livelihood in India, etc. As cadres with interdisciplinary background for purposes of research and jobs, are currently not being produced in Indian universities, the School will also offer two-year M.Tech. (Four semesters, devoted to Theory, Tools, Applications and Dissertation, respectively) courses in Earth and Space Sciences. To start with, there will be eight Applications clusters, devoted to Water Resources Management, Agriculture, Ocean Studies, Energy Resources, Urban studies, Environment, Natural Hazards and Mineral Resources Management. More clusters could be added, as need arises. Table 1 illustrates how the synergy between the earth, space and information sciences in the case of water resources management cluster, can be made use of to generate employment. The School will have three special characteristics: (i) Broad-spectrum entry: The School will accept candidates from a variety of disciplines, such as, Earth Sciences/ Atmospheric sciences/ Marine Science / Agriculture/ various kinds of engineering – civil, environmental, resource, computer engineering, etc. Hence, provision will be made for a large number of supplementary courses, which may be taken a la carte, depending upon the background of as particular candidate, (ii) Emphasis on computer skills: For obvious reasons, the course work offered by the School will have a strong Information Technology bias. It will include System Analysis and computer languages, Data Visualization concepts and tools, Computer Networks and Data Communications, Computer graphics, Distributed Applications development, Virtual reality systems, Parallel computing, etc., and (iii) Sponsorship: Most of the candidates are expected to be sponsored by the Central and state governments, public corporations, industrial houses, etc. Each candidate will receive customized training depending upon the needs of the sponsoring agency, through customized course work and dissertation topic. The School will also offer a number of highly focused short-term refresher courses to enable cadres to update their knowledge and skills and improve their employment opportunities. The activities of the School are sought to be integrated with the socio-economic development of the country. The graduates of the School would be able to find employment in macro-projects (such as Inter-basin water transfers, Operational crop condition assessment over large areas, Provision of urban facilities in rural areas, Development of infrastructural facilities, such as multi-lane highways, Tourism, etc.), and in micro-projects such as rainwater harvesting, micro-enterprises based on value addition to natural resources, marketing of remote sensing products (e.g. precision agricultural advice to the farmers on cropping patterns taking into account the soil moisture, and selective application of N-fertilizer and herbicide to minimize costs, while reducing atmospheric contamination of nitrogen). The teaching programmes, the hiring of faculty and supporting personnel, equipment, etc. would be built around the Application Clusters. Each of the clusters would have at least one in-house faculty who could be a specialist in that particular field, say, Ocean Studies, and one Visiting Faculty from India or abroad who could link that field with other related disciplines. This way, a candidate opting for a given cluster would receive instruction not only in the Conceptual framework, Tools and Applications of that cluster, but also where the particular cluster for which he opted, fits in into the overall framework. References Aswathanarayana, U. Technologies for utilizing natural resources create new job opportunities in the geosciences in the Developing countries, Eos, Trans. AGU, 84, no.36, 9 Sept. 2003 [Top] [Home] |
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