Dr. Binay Kumar

Dynamic Geoinformatics Scientist with a proven track record at the Centre For Development Of Advanced Computing. Excelled in pioneering research, leveraging skills in geospatial analysis and project management. Known for exceptional analytical abilities and fostering team collaboration, significantly advancing the field through innovative technology use and interdisciplinary projects.

Determined and well-rounded individual with more than 24 years working as Scientist within geospatial industry. Commissioning of India’s first-of-its-kind indigenously designed and developed GIS-based GLOF Early Warning System in Sikkim; Development of first-of-its-kind open source GIS based Water Budgeting System for Sikkim and Mountain Springs Characterization and Spring Aquifer Recharge studies in Sikkim; are some of the unique solutions conceived and developed with immense societal benefits, having long and far reaching impact on life, property and society.

• Member of NDMA's Committee of Disaster Risk Reduction (CoDRR) on GLOF Risk Reduction.
• Nominated Member of the Expert Committee for Study and Evaluation of Vulnerable Glacial Lakes in Sikkim for suitable mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods constituted vide Govt. of Sikkim Extraordinary Gazette No. 367 dated 28 Aug 2019
• Member of the expert Working Group to study the risk of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) at South Lhonak Lake of Sikkim constituted by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India
• Recipient of 7th eNorth East Award 2019-2020 Special Mention (Runners Up) Award for project titled, '''GLOF Early Warning System,” under Category: Environment, Climate Change Mitigation & Disaster Management
• Recipient of SKOCH Order-of-Mer
  it for project
  Glacial Lake Management & GLOF Early War
  ning System
  
• Received Indian Society of Remote Sensing Best Paper Publication Award for Year 2012 for the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Generation for Lunar Surface using Chandrayaan-1 TMC Triplet Data

• Life Member of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Dehradun
• Life member of Indian Society of Geomatics, Ahmedabad
• Fellow of Society of Earth Sciences, Lucknow
• Reviewer for Journal of Geomatics (Indian Society of Geomatics, Ahmedabad, India)
• Reviewer for International Journal of Geography and Regional Planning (Academic Journals)
• Reviewer Arabian Journal of Geosciences (Springer)
• Reviewer Environmental Earth Sciences journal (Springer)
• Guest Faculty at SP Pune University for Invited/Guest Lecture

Summary of selected research project

a) Project Title: Strengthen climate change resilience by better understanding the characteristics of aquifers and springs located in the mid-hills of the Sikkim Himalaya

Funding Agency: Rural Management and Development Department, Govt. of Sikkim

Date of completion: Sep 2021

Project Summary: The objective of the study aims at understanding the nature and characteristics of mountain aquifers. Augmenting aquifer recharge and spring discharge is another very challenging task in mountainous terrain due to varying fragile ecosystem, slope conditions and lithological units and requires ascertaining spring aquifer geometry, depth and groundwater movement direction. For the first time, electrical resistivity surveys were carried out in mountainous undulated terrain of Sikkim Himalayas for the above purpose. The geophysical data was analyzed for understanding the sub-surface hydrogeological behaviour of the region. Spring water sample analyses were carried out to find out various trace elements concentration to ascertain the quality of spring water for human consumption. These data were correlated with the geology to establish a scientific basis for spring augmentation and development. Local villagers were engaged for adopting suitable measures towards spring aquifer augmentation and rejuvenation under Participatory Spring Conservation programme of Rural Development Department, Govt. of Sikkim.

b) Project Title: Mapping of Glacier Lakes and Development of GIS based Glacier Lake Management Information System for the State of Sikkim

Funding Agency: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India

Date of completion: Sep 2016

Project Detail: The aim of the project is to develop and set GIS based Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Early Warning System in Sikkim. The GIS based GLOF management system will be helpful in visualizing the hazardous glacial lakes which are vulnerable from the GLOF point of view. The flood simulation model runs the simulation for various GLOF scenarios. The model is capable of presenting Flood Simulation, Inundation information and Flood Arrival Time in near real time. The early warning system will help local authorities in sounding alerts and evacuate the areas likely to get flooded in case of any GLOF event.

C-DAC has developed a Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) Early Warning System in India. The GIS-based decision support system has been fully developed on open source technology. The objective of the system is to create, analyze, manage and monitor glacial lakes, simulate flood if the water level in the glacial lake drops beyond a pre-defined threshold, and use the predicted flood inundation information to sound GLOF early warning. The GLOF EWS is a highly innovative and unique solution for disaster management associated with GLOFs, which enables the concerned officials to plan mitigation measures in case of an impending GLOF.

c) Project Title: Development of Software Solution and Hydrogeological Decision Support System for Integrated Hydro geologic Modeling for Water Budgeting in Sikkim

Funding Agency: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India

Date of completion: Dec 2018

Project Detail: C-DAC’s Jal Dhara is a first-of-its-kind Integrated Hydrogeological Spatial Decision Support System (HDSS) developed for budgeting and management of water resources. Ground water emanating in the form of spring is an integral part of the livelihood of the mountain people. The HDSS has been designed to provide the information and run user-defined queries on Water Budget Analyses Information. The module provides estimates on - requirement of water by different strata, water requirement estimation and status of water – surplus/deficit. The Water Augmentation module has been designed to get - recharge zones; suitable locations for construction of water storage structures and suggesting water recharge structures.

The study focusses on development of software solution for integrated hydrogeological modeling which can be used for water budgeting and management of available water resources. The software solution establishes the local micro catchment level rainfall-recharge relationship, develop appropriate water use plans matching with the utilizable groundwater reserves, establish need for conservation of groundwater and need for increased recharge and is helpful in creating awareness on groundwater resource management in Sikkim.

d) Project Title: National Supercomputing Mission Project on River Flood Forecasting

Funding Agency: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India

Date of completion: On-going

Project Detail: The objective of the project to develop a system for effectively predict and forecast the flood during monsoon season at lease 2-3 days in advance and predict the areas likely to get submerged due to flood event. The project is being carried out for Mahanadi River Basin and the pilot study is being done at Delta Region of the Mahanadi River Basin. Reservoir Operations module – being jointly developed with Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh aims at Optimizing storage reservoir operations using AI/ML/DL techniques aims at ensuring all planned reservoir objectives are met without compromising ecological water requirements. The model suitably calculates the optimal balance between water release and reservoir storage volume, reservoir inflow and outflow characteristics, uncertainties associated with reservoir operations and behavior of reservoir in cascading reservoir system.

e) Project Title: Preparation of Generalized Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) Atlas over the Krishna River Basin using GIS and development of tool for Storm transportation and calculation of storm depth.

Funding Agency: Central Water Commission (CWC), Govt. of India

Date of completion: Dec 2009

Project Detail: Scope of the project included interpolation of PMP values of all rain gauge stations to entire Krishna basin, preparation of seasonal and annual rainfall maps, severe rainstorm map, digital drainage map and isohyetal patterns of all historical rainstorms. Interactive software for estimation of storm parameters for the study area and a tool for storm transposition on the digital map were also developed.

f) Project Title: Glacier Inventory Mapping of Himalayan Region and generation digital database of glaciers

Funding Agency: Space application Centre (ISRO), Govt. of India

Date of completion: March 2010

Project Detail: Glacier Inventory Mapping and creation of digital database of glaciers under GIS environment for part of Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra basins bordering neighbouring areas.

List of Research publications:

A. Publication in Books/Chapter:

B. Publication in Journals:

C. Conference Papers / Journals Proceedings: