3 Day Hands-on workshop on From Data to Decisions: Applications of Climate, Hydrology and Geospatial Tools

Academic Year: 2025 - 2026
Event Name: 3 Day Hands-on workshop on From Data to Decisions: Applications of Climate, Hydrology and Geospatial Tools
Event Date: 29th-31st May 2026
Event Schedule : 9:00am to 5:00pm
Event Venue : NIT Goa


A 3 Day Hands-on workshop on From Data to Decisions: Applications of Climate, Hydrology and Geospatial Tools was held at NIT Goa from 29th to 31st May 2026. Asst Prof. Vanessa Fernandes and Asst. Prof. Genevieve Fernandes attended the workshop.Session-1 of the workshop was delivered by Prof. K. V. Jayakumar, Visiting Professor and Outreach Advisor at Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad. The session focused on the growing importance of climate and hydrological modelling in understanding and addressing the challenges posed by climate change.Prof. Jayakumar explained how changing climatic conditions are influencing rainfall patterns, river flows, groundwater resources, floods, and droughts across the world. He highlighted the role of climate models in predicting future climate scenarios and hydrological models in assessing water availability and watershed responses under changing environmental conditions.Session-2 was delivered by Dr. Sujeet Desai, Scientist at ICAR–Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute. The session focused on the application of geospatial technologies in promoting sustainable land and water management practices in coastal agricultural regions.Dr. Desai highlighted the importance of coastal agriculture in ensuring food security and discussed the challenges faced by coastal ecosystems, including salinity intrusion, water scarcity, land degradation, and the impacts of climate change. He emphasized how geospatial tools such as Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) can be effectively used to monitor, assess, and manage natural resources.Session-3 was conducted by Dr. Rishi Sahastrabuddhe, Assistant Professor at National Institute of Technology Goa and Associate at University of Exeter. The session provided participants with practical exposure to handling and analyzing climate datasets using MATLAB.The hands-on session focused on the use of MATLAB for importing, organizing, visualizing, and analyzing climate datasets. Participants learned how to process large datasets, perform statistical analyses, generate graphical representations, and interpret climate trends through practical exercises. The speaker demonstrated

MATLAB commands and functions that facilitate efficient data handling and climate-related computations.Day 2, session 1 was delivered by Dr. Anamitra Saha, Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The session focused on understanding how global climate change influences local weather extremes and the assessment of climate-related risks in a warming world.The speaker emphasized the importance of climate risk assessment in identifying vulnerable regions and developing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. Various approaches for analyzing climate data, modelling future climate scenarios, and quantifying uncertainties were presented.Session-2 was conducted by Dr. Gaurav Patel, National Postdoctoral Fellow at Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. The session focused on understanding climate change through the analysis of climate data and the development of actionable plans using ArcGIS.The speaker demonstrated the use of ArcGIS as a powerful geospatial platform for managing, visualizing, and analyzing climate-related datasets. Participants were introduced to various ArcGIS tools and techniques for mapping climate variables, identifying vulnerable regions, and assessing spatial patterns of climate risks. Day 3, Session was delivered by Dr. Rishi Sahastrabuddhe, Assistant Professor at National Institute of Technology Goa and Associate at University of Exeter. The session focused on the emerging field of physics-guided data-driven modelling and its applications in climate science and environmental studies.Dr. Sahastrabuddhe introduced the concept of integrating physical laws and scientific principles with modern data-driven approaches such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.