Extremes, though rare, increase the stress undertaken by water sector owing to the compounding effects of growing population, globalization, and climate change, with implications on food-water-energy security, ecology and environment, critical infrastructures, and emergency preparedness. Recently, India has witnessed an increase in the occurrence of both the hydrologic extremes - floods and droughts; the impacts of which had proved much detrimental to our society and economy, especially due to the lack of any systematic early warning systems and subsequent strategic planning.
Dhanya’s research attempts to generate fundamental scientific understanding of the hydrological extremes along with improvising the hydrological modeling, to provide early-warning methods and adaptation policies for sustainable water resources (WR) management. While confronting this from different angles, her primary focus was to reveal the nonlinear physical linkages between global climatic causative factors and extreme episodes.
Dhanya is presently a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Delhi. She joined IIT Delhi on November 2011 as Assistant Professor, after her graduation from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 2011. Her doctoral research was on Hydro-climatological Modeling using Data Mining and Chaos Theory. Five wonderful years spent in Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore as a Research Scholar and Research Associate enriched her with the nuances of hydroclimatology and chaotic nature of the climate system.
2006-2010: Doctor of Philosophy, Water Resources Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India
2004-2006: Master of Technology, Hydraulics and Water Res. Engg., Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai
2000-2004: Bachelor of Technology, Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, University of Kerala
2023: RJ Garde Young Researcher Award by Indian Society of Hydraulics (ISH)
2023: Young Associate Fellow of Indian National Science Academy (INSA)
2023: Young Associate of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE)
2023: APJ Abdul Kalam HPC Award for Young Researcher in R&D in HPC Application
2023: Fellow of Institution of Engineers India (IEI)
2018: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Women Excellence Award
2017: National Academy of Sciences India (NASI) Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award
HydroX, primarily interested in unveiling different aspects of hydro-climatology, a multidisciplinary field integrating hydrology and climate science. Different facets of the hydrological cycle are focused by better understanding the processes associated, through an integrated approach of data analysis, modeling and theory.
The Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub is a five-year project, launched in February 2019, to improve water security for a resilient future, funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Office: Block IV, Room No: B2
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110016, India.
Email: dhanya@civil.iitd.ac.in
Office Tel.: +91 11 2659 7328
IIT Delhi Main Road, IIT Campus, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
Hauz Khas, New Delhi, Delhi, India
