IMPORTANCE OF INCORPORATION OF GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS IN WATER RESOURCES AT GRADUATE AND POST-GRADUATE COURSES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Abstract

Water is a very crucial element to sustain life on earth. The availability of water varies both spatially and temporally. India being a water stress country, the per capita availability of water is reducing with time. It is predicted that by 2050 around 54% of the country will be water scarce. The changing climate along with the ever-increasing population is putting additional stress on water availability. The science of water, its availability and distribution on earth and its atmosphere, is generally regarded as hydrology. The important aspects of hydrology and hydraulic or more broadly water resources are taught as the subject or optional subjects the branch of Civil Engineering at almost all engineering institutes/colleges at the undergraduate level. It is also one of the specializations for post-graduate level studies. It is, by now, well proven that the geospatial technology play crucial role in water resources assessment, planning and management. However, the young minds (graduate and post-graduate students) are just being trained for typical hydrology using traditional means and approaches. The advancement and potential of geospatial technology has drawn the attention of academician, and it has been started as a subject mostly at the post-graduate courses. Recently, some of the institutions have started courses on geo-informatics at the graduate level. However, the hydrology and geospatial technology are generally taught as two separate subjects under different course at different levels mostly under the broad subject of Civil Engineering. The present paper emphasis on needs and ways of updating Civil Engineering course curriculum by focusing on incorporation of applications of geospatial technology in hydrology as regular subject.