Indo French Centre for Water Sciences (IFCWS)

 

The Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences (IFCWS) is a Joint International Laboratory (JIL) between the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) set up in 2001 in the IISc campus, Bangalore. The long-term goal of IFCWS is to develop a framework for Environmental Geosciences to study the issues pertaining to water.

IISc is a premier research institution of the country, which offers training at Masters and PhD level. The mandate of IRD encompasses three thrust areas for South countries: Research, training and consultancy. IRD is also a funding agency via AIRD and facilitates the overseas deputation of scientists for long periods of time.
The collaboration based upon complementary skills has been primarily established at IISc with the departments of Civil Engineering and Materials Engineering. It now encompasses the Centre of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), the Centre of Earth Sciences (CEaS) and Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES). In France the collaboration involves Geosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET), the Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS) and the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE).

Three research projects are under investigation in Karnataka, which follow the guidelines proposed by the Indian partners. Two projects have been engaged since 2001 while the third one was recently initiated in 2007. The first, with respect to water and soil resources, namely Watershed Project, aims to understand the relative influence of both environmental and anthropogenic factors. The Kabini river basin, Karnataka Plateau has been chosen to set up a field laboratory including small experimental watersheds and gauging stations on sub-basins. Along with the field laboratory of the Nyong river Basin, South Cameroon, the Indian site has been labelled as Environmental Research Observatory by INSU, France (ORE-BVET; http://bvet.omp.obs-mip.fr/). The second project, namely Mining Project, deals with the environmental impact of metal mining from sulphide ores at the Chitradurga mining site. The third project aims to understand the resource management of coastal aquifers of Karnataka with collaboration of NITK. This has been taken up at Surathkal on the seashore of the Arabian Sea.

The IFCWS activities draw support from two technical platforms connected to LMTG and LEGOS, Toulouse and CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence for quality checking and training:

· The analytical platform aims to provide a basic and indispensable tool for water and soil analyses, especially regarding the long-term geochemical survey carried out in the frame of the Environmental Research Observatory. The analytical data are cross-validated using the know-how available at LMTG,

· The Geographical Information System platform equipped with several workstations and software allows managing the satellite and ground datasets for the various team usages.

IFCWS serves also as an exchange and training platform for students and scientists from both countries. The team includes students at PhD and Post-graduate level. The project assistant staff is trained by LMTG engineers.
The fruitful Indo-French scientific collaboration under the aegis of IFCWS has resulted in several joint international publications, exchange of scientists and research students, conferment of PhD and master degrees and the successful completion of an IFCPAR sponsored project on environmental impact on metal mining.

The shared experience in research and education gained at the Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences (IFCWS) provides the nucleus for the newly established Joint International Laboratory at IISc (July 5th, 2010). This JIL is an excellent way to strengthen the collaboration already established between IISc and IRD.

This will facilitate:

· Reinforcing the current projects of the IFCWS on (i) the influence of environmental factors and human activities on water and biogeochemical cycles in the Tropics (Watershed Project) and (ii) the environmental impact of metal mining (Mining Project),

· Proposing two new projects opening towards Social and Space Sciences,

· Continuing the development of the technical platform for the geochemical analyses, indispensable to the progress of the observatory of the environment programme (ORE-BVET),

· Enabling the garnering of research funds through national, bilateral and international programmes,

· Training both Indian and French Masters and PhD students,

· Organizing international conferences, seminars and lectures using IISc infrastructures/cyberuniversity,

· Developing South-South collaborations between India and IRD partners in Africa and South America.