Rajiv Sinha
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, University of Cambridge, University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee)
0000-0002-3321-8095
About
Rajiv Sinha is a Professor of Earth Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. With a Master’s degree in applied geology from University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) in 1987 and a PhD in sedimentology from University of Cambridge in 1992, Professor Sinha has worked on various aspects of river hydrology and groundwater systems during his career. Apart from his early work on proposing a new source area classification of Gangetic river systems, one of his most significant contributions has been the characterization of geomorphic diversity across the Gangetic plains as a function of the balance between stream power and sediment flux, thus demonstrating the variability in landscape evolution due to the coupling of climate and tectonic factors. Professor Sinha led the fluvial geomorphology group in a very large project on Ganga River Basin Management Plan sponsored by MoEF. He has also worked several other projects in the Ganga basin related to hydrological and sediment transport modeling, environmental flows and flood risk assessment. One of his current research is focused in the Ghaggar plains in NW India where the existence of a large River (Saraswati?) has been hypothesized and the archaeological findings in the area have indicated a large concentration of Harappan sites along the trace of the buried channel. A recent paper by Sinha focused on establishing the subsurface existence of this buried channel using a combination of electrical resistivity surveys and drilling of sediment cores. This work further led to developing a very large research programme on groundwater structure and dynamics in NW India and characterizing the heterogeneity of the alluvial aquifer systems. This significant research has yielded new insights on the alluvial aquifer systems in terms of spatial pattern of groundwater depletion, geomorphic controls on aquifer characteristics and distribution, and process understanding of aquifer deposition. Professor Sinha is currently a member of editorial board for several prestigious international and national journals such as Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (Wiley), The Open Geology Journal (Bentham), Indian Journal of Polar Research (NESA), Journal of Indian Association of Sedimentologists, and Current Science, Bangalore. He was elected as a Fellow of National Academy of Science Allahabad in 2016.
Employment
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Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Professor1994 - Present
Education
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University of Cambridge PhD1989 - 1992
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University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee)1984 - 1987
Projects & Funding
Projects & funding information is unavailable.
Publications (67)
- Connectivity between hillslope and channel sediment stores and links to cascading hazards in the Indian Himalaya Save
- Village mobility and local resource utilisation are adaptation strategies in Nepal’s Koshi Floodplain Save
- Plio-Pleistocene and modern erosion rates in the Himalaya from paired cosmogenic radionuclides Save
- Assessing the field-scale crop water condition over an intensive agricultural plain using UAV-based thermal and multispectral imagery Save
- Supplementary material to "Understanding the Gangotri glacier dynamics: Implications from a fully distributed inversion of equivalent water-volume change" Save
- Understanding the Gangotri glacier dynamics: Implications from a fully distributed inversion of equivalent water-volume change Save
- Spatio-temporal Morphodynamics of Himalayan River in consequence of sand mining using satellite and UAV remote sensing Save
- Spatio-temporal analysis of hydrological connectivity of floodplain wetlands in the Ganga Plains, India Save
- Dynamic risk from sediment cascades in the Indian Himalaya Save
- Improving the Flood Inundation Mapping Technique using Satellite Imagery and Remote Sensing Data: A Case Study of the Bihar Flood Caused by the Koshi Embankment Breach Save