Thinking in Systems about Brahmaputra : Implications for resilience of Himalayan rivers
REGISTRATION
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SYNOPSIS
The Brahmaputra River Basin (BRB) in the Himalayan landscape has seen a range of issues at multiple scales related to water sharing and dams, political mobilizations related to ethnic identity and sovereignty, flood and riverbank erosion, and population displacement. Current disciplinary knowledge fails to explain persistent policy paradoxes such as the continuation of embankment breaches while the river channel may be stabilizing as well as sudden shifts in problem situations, from annual floods to landlessness. This talk will look at the potential of the systems perspective to integrate existing knowledge from multiple disciplines like hydro-geomorphology to public policy with experiences from fieldwork and focus group discussions. The modelling process indicates opportunities and challenges for a shared understanding of flood disaster, the role of feedback relationships between local governance and flood control effectiveness and also illustrates a need for studies integrating the dynamics of land along with flows of water and sediment in river channels. Model-based experiments also illustrate the importance of policy alternatives at different scales i.e., farm-level cropping pattern, land and water integration in national disaster policy, and flood plain zoning for resilience in the basin.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Navarun Varma is Lecturer (Resident Fellow) and Asst. Director of External Programs in Residential College 4 of NUS-University Town College Program. He has a decade of experience in research and teaching interdisciplinary topics related to disaster studies, social-ecological resilience and environmental policy and governance. He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Water Resources Development. As an educator, his goal is to mainstream systems perspective into disaster education and he is very active in designing innovative pedagogies with students for creating simulated-learning environments. His co-edited book: “Emerging pedagogies for policy education: Insights from Asia” by Palgrave MacMillan is forthcoming.