The availability of water as an elixir of life depends on several factors, including land and climate. The Department of Environmental Science and Engineering organised a 2-Day workshop on “How interactions between climate and land use/land cover changes can affect water resources” on March 27 and 28, 2023, in affiliation with the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Kentucky, USA. The workshop was inaugurated by Vice Chancellor Prof. Manoj K Arora. Distinguished academician and researcher, Prof. Alan Ernest Fryar, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Kentucky, was the resource person for the session.

The workshop was conducted with the aim of providing an overview of water resources in India, water resource challenges and hazards, climate change and projected effects, and mitigation and adaptation strategies. Prof. Fryar also explained the groundwater status across India and regional approaches to exploring it as a drinking water resource. He also explained the impact of climate change on groundwater as a fresh drinking water resource and adaptation strategies.

The workshop saw the participation of over 60 faculty, PhD Scholars and UG students from various educational institutions across the district. UG students from the Department of Geology, Hindu College and Chalapathi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Guntur, participated in the session and interacted with Prof. Fryar.

A field visit to the Krishna Riverbank in Amaravati, Guntur, was also conducted as part of the workshop on March 28, where Prof. Fryar interacted with the research scholars and emphasised the importance of field visits and the scientific and systematic way of sample collection from the field. In addition, Prof. Fryar conducted hands-on training on the field instrument (multi-parameter probe, Hanna) for real-time data collection from the river water and groundwater sources in the field.