International Journal of River Basin Management

River Resilience: Environmental Flows to River Health through the Lens of Ecosystem Services

The concepts of environmental flows and river health have gained considerable importance in recent times. River flows and, in turn, river health have been seriously adversely impacted by several reasons including indiscriminate changes in land use, overexploitation of rivers, indiscriminate mining of river sand, unsustainable fishing practices etc. As a result, ecosystem services rendered by river landscapes are badly affected. In this context, it is extremely important to build public awareness on the consequences of unsustainable utilisation of riverine resources and evolve strategies for maintaining and restoring riverine ecosystems at the basin scale.

Topics proposed in this Collection include, but are not limited to, environmental flows, river health, river ecosystem services, river health restoration, river resilience, reservoir optimization, climate change and human-water feedbacks, and policies and regulations in water sector to improve river basin health and resilience.

Contributors to the Collection will be experts in the related domains in the water sector from all over the world. High quality research articles relevant to the themes of the International Conference on "River Resilience: From Environmental Flow to River Health Through the Lens of Ecosystem Services", being jointly organized by the National Institute of Technology Calicut, India and the TU Delft, The Netherlands, will be considered for the Collection. 

 Guest Editor Details:

• Dr. Mantha S. Phanikumar is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research emphasizes water quality and environmental flow and transport processes. Recent questions addressed involve fate and transport of chemical and biological agents (e.g., nutrients, algae, bacteria, viruses) in different hydrologic units in the Great Lakes region of North America (watersheds, rivers and streams, lakes and groundwater). His research combines data from field observations with computational models to gain insights into complex biophysical processes, make predictions in managing natural resources and frame policy. Two general research themes of current interest are: (a) Coastal processes and water quality in the Great Lakes and (b) Integrated hydrologic modeling in large river basins.
• Dr. Saket Pande, a hydrologist and water economist with advanced education in Hydrology and Economics (B.Tech, IIT Delhi, 2000; Ph.D., Utah State University, 2005), specializes in integrating hydrologic and economic principles to address real-world challenges. Currently at TU Delft since 2010, Dr. Pande’s research focuses on using applied probability to tackle calibration uncertainty in basin-scale hydrology, emphasizing model complexity control for robust predictions. His work also explores the economic implications of hydrologic uncertainties and the dynamics of decision-making and welfare economics. Dr. Pande has collaborated on multidisciplinary projects addressing climate change impacts on water, food security, and human well-being in regions like Benin, Ethiopia, and Sudan. He has developed innovative statistical and GIS tools to unify diverse data into comprehensive models and has recently conceptualized coupled human-water systems for water-scarce regions like India and Australia. With expertise spanning hydrology, applied statistics, and economic theory, Dr. Pande is dedicated to solving interdisciplinary challenges with a global impact.
• Dr. Santosh G Thampi is a Professor (HAG), in the Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kerala, India. His core expertise are Environmental Hydraulics and Environmental Hydrology. Recent achievements include leading a ₹345 lakh NRCD project for the Periyar River Basin's management and framing Environmental Flow guidelines under the SPARC initiative. His ground-breaking research in hydrology and water quality modelling is published in high-impact journals. He has mentored numerous Ph.D. scholars on topics like Climate Change impacts and Nanomaterial-based Water Treatments, Environmental Flow, River, Estuaries and Lake Health assessment, Dam Risk Assessment and Mitigation, Climate Change induced Compound Extreme Events. A recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from NIT Calicut and international accolades, his work spans consultancy for major civic bodies, innovative modelling of hydrologic extremes, and capacity-building programs under DRIP.