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Lab Leader: Anthony Acciavatti ☉

Sarthak Arora ❍ Stephen Baker ❍ Sarah Bergmann ❍ Maciej Boni ❍ Markley Boyer ❍ Ariel Chamberlain ❍ Nikhil Raj Deep ❍ Claire Gorman ❍ Aaron Hirsh ❍ James Smoot ❍ Michael Warner ❍
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Naalas are one of the most ubiquitous features of the Ganga River Basin. A stem, watercourse, sewer, drain, or conduit are but a few of the many functions of naalas. Indeed, naalas are critical hydrological infrastructures for farms and cities alike. This applied research project will focus on how the restructuring of naalas within the Ganga River basin can abate pollution and rejuvenate River Ganga with new forms of civic infrastructure and ecological functions. In a manner like other major river basins across the world, from the Mississippi to the Yangtze, the Ganga River basin confronts many of the challenges that result with industrialization and urbanization in terms of pollution and environmental degradation. While these challenges are not exclusive to Indian rivers, there are three factors that make the Ganga Basin particularly challenging and unique: population density, agriculture, and monsoons. Not only is the basin one of the most densely populated basins in the world, with over 500 million people dwelling within it, but it remains agriculturally productive and undergoes dramatic changes every year due to immense amounts of precipitation during the southwest monsoon. Moreover, climate change is intensifying monsoonal flooding, posing new challenges for the region, including threats of augmented water-borne disease.

Rather than attempt to take on the basin in its entirety, this project looks at the ways in which the naala interfaces with population density, agriculture, and the challenges of climate change.

This multi-disciplinary project takes a two-pronged approach. First, developing new methods of measuring and mapping naalas is crucial. This will involve not only mapping and categorizing the spectrum of morphologies of naalas across the basin, but also documenting adjoining land parcels and mapping larger catchment areas. From this mapping we will compile a taxonomy of naala types in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. From this taxonomy we will identify six naalas that confront many of the issues facing the Ganga basin in terms of pollution abatement and rejuvenation. Second, building on the mapping techniques and the categories, we will then develop new prototypes for how and where to develop new forms of civic infrastructure along a naala. These infrastructures must incorporate the dynamism of the monsoons and development pressures facing second and third tier cities across the basin. They might include, but are not limited to, new parks, bioswales, green bridges, and constructed wetlands. For this project, we have brought together participants with expertise in hydraulic engineering, soil science, GIS (particularly with experience in riparian systems), permaculturalists with familiarity with bioswales and wetlands, anthropologists, and machine learning engineers.

Once green infrastructure has been designed, how can we measure the important consequences of its implementation? We have brought in disciplinary expertise in two additional fields—public health and genomics—to design a research program that will explore and document the potential for green infrastructure along naalas to improve water quality and public health. 

We hypothesize that monsoonal flooding, exacerbated by climate change, is resulting in increased contamination of groundwater, likely stemming from pollution in naalas. Genomics and molecular epidemiology offer promising tools to test this hypothesis. Furthermore, if are able to realize green infrastructure along naalas, genomics, molecular epidemiology, and public health reporting will enable us to document the effects on frequencies of enteric disease. This could identify a scalable solution to improve public health throughout the Ganges basin.