Dr. Vamsi Krishna Vema

Brief Details:

Dr. Vamsi Krishna Vema is currently working as Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering, NIT Warangal. He worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, USA, prior to joining the current position, with the focus on reducing nutrient loading in the water bodies using a cover cropping system. Dr. Vamsi Krishna Vema received his Ph.D. and M. Tech degrees in the discipline of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering from IIT Madras. His research is focused on development of the hydrological model and its application for climate resilient watershed management decisions. His research interest includes hydrologic modelling, developing DSS for watershed management, parameterization of watershed models, sensitivity analysis, optimal allocation of resources, decision making under uncertainty, and application of soft computing tools for water resources problems. He is currently involved in two research projects towards interlinking of rivers and Krishna river basin management.

Research: Improving Hydrological Modelling for Effective Water Resources Management

The demand for fresh water to meet the domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs is rapidly increasing. This increasing demand coupled with changing climate patterns necessitates to develop tools and strategies for sustainable water resources management. Various physical processes and their interactions in the natural and engineered environments govern the availability and distribution of fresh water. Hydrological models are tools to simulate the processes of the hydrological cycle and their interactions to aid in effective water resources decision making. My primary research goal is to understand and model these physical processes and their complex interactions within the hydrologic cycle. I am currently focusing on improving hydrological modelling and its application for various water resources management decisions. My research aims at developing new and improving the existing hydrologic watershed simulation models for better representation of the physical processes. Theses improved models are aimed at improving decision making for watershed management, flood modelling, and agricultural water management as is demonstrated in my research studies. In addition to improved hydrological modelling, soft computing and optimization tools are also employed for planning for watershed management decisions. My research, in the long term, is aimed at better representation of the natural systems in the computer simulation models and address the complexity in the associated decision-making process. This talk focuses on development and application of hydrologic model and optimization tools to take effective water management decisions. Further, modelling strategies adopted to improve the efficacy of the hydrologic simulations are also discussed.

Teaching: Estimation of Flood Peak using Rational Method

The design of hydraulic structures such as flow regulation and flow conveyance require information pertaining to design flood. The structures are designed to regulate and convey the maximum flow safely without any adverse effects of high flows or floods. The design flood can be estimated using various methods such as Rational Method, Unit Hydrograph Techniques and Flood frequency studies. Rational method, developed by Thomas James Mulvaney in 1851, is a simple equation that equates the hydrograph peak to factor of inflow in the watershed caused by a rainfall of constant intensity occurring for a long duration (Eq. 1).

Qp=CiA#(1)

In Eq. 1, is the peak discharge, is the rainfall intensity, A is the catchment area, and C is the runoff coefficient. The runoff coefficient depends on the nature of the surface, slope and rainfall intensity. For design flood, the rainfall intensity, is derived from Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves for the corresponding return period and duration.