Why Does the River Need to Flow from the Mountains to the Sea?
In this talk, hydro-ecologist Jagdish Krishnaswamy contested the idea that rivers flowing into the sea are a waste. Through examples, he illustrated how the flow of rivers helps maintain a rich biodiversity along its course which is essential for ecological balance. He further built a case for reducing our water consumption in key sectors such as agriculture and putting back more water into our rivers. He highlighted the need for the conservation of remaining free-flowing rivers or less regulated to preserve their functions and services.
About the Hydro-ecologist
Jagdish Krishnaswamy has a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India and a MS in Statistics and Decision Sciences and a Ph.D in Environmental studies, Duke University, North Carolina, USA. His research and teaching interests include ecohydrology, landscape ecology, conservation planning, ecosystem services and applications of bayesian approaches in understanding complex changes in the environment over space and time.
He has coordinated the establishment of instrumented catchments in the Western Ghats and in the Himalayas to study the impacts of land-cover and climate variability on hydrological processes. Jagdish has recently become involved in defining and assessing ecological flow requirements of rivers in the Western Ghats and the Ganga basins with as special focus on endangered species such as the gharial and river dolphin.
Connected Exhibits and Programmes
Animas by Brian House - exhibit presenting the pollution of a river in Colorado
Deep Dive - workshop to use open-source satellite data to analyst water systems