India's Waters: Advances in Development and Management is a critical study of the development and management of India's waters. Its central theme is that the current methods in use are an extension of the colonial-era system, which, despite vast growth, has remained essentially the same in terms of developmental concepts, technological activities, and performance. A revolution on several fronts is possible, and this book details the author's own plans for these advancements.
First the book briefly addresses both the physiographic and hydrologic characteristics of India and its waters, and the current official proposals for their development. Next, the author presents new concepts and policies for development of India's waters, followed by his proposed technological revolution. The author illustrates how India's aforementioned unique characteristics enable use of some novel technologies that are unique globally. This fact is key to his proposed revolution, which asserts that water availability can be more than doubled. Even more importantly, water can be placed in the hands of the farmer. On the subject of hydroelectric development, the author explores a novel technology of interspatial intertemporal pumped storage development that would increase both hydroelectric potential and peaking power almost five times over.
On a related note, the book explains advances in water resource developmental planning in terms of a new societal environmental systems management that far surpasses the much vaunted integrated water resources development. The author also talks about the challenges of climate change, demonstrating how his revolutionary technological proposals could be applied to deal with this serious issue.
Professor Chaturvedi is a globally recognized pioneer of water resources engineering in India, along with collaborations he has led in the U.S., Sweden, the former Soviet Union, Italy and the United Kingdom.He is a unique combination of a professional engineer and an academician. He has designed and has been on the Board of Consultants of several major projects in India. He is the founder of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and Applied Mechanics at IIT Delhi, where he was the Dean (Research) later. On retirement from IIT Delhi in 1985, he joined the Planning Commission, Government of India until leaving for the U.S. to join the University of Texas, Austin in 1989. Dr.Chaturvedi has published three books.He is currently working in the area of sustainability science as an independent scholar, guiding research at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and engaged in writing three books on the subject spending about a year and half at Harvard University recently.Dr.Chaturvedi is a founding member and Fellow of the IWRA and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He has been identified as Distinguished Alumni of his Alma Mater, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.Professor Chaturvedi and his wife, Professor Vipula Chaturvedi, established the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Foundation, providing support for projects that advance science and the human condition.
