Hydrologic Visualization of Glacier-Driven Watersheds to Enhance Education Exchange Between Students from the US and Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta on Freshwater Sustainability

Abstract:

It has been argued and demonstrated in the past that STEM outreach in the field of hydrology is effective only when it is contextualized using an actual problem that students can visualize in ‘their backyard.’ The Puyallup watershed, which is in the “backyard” of University of Washington (UW) and the Ganges Brahmaputra (GB) Delta (which UW Department of Civil Engineering has institutional access through an MOU with Institute of Water Modeling-IWM, Bangladesh and International Center for Integrated Mountain Development-ICIMOD, Nepal) provide an ideal opportunity to build a unique education program for US and South Asian students on global freshwater sustainability. Using a rich set of geospatial data layers, dynamic hydrologic datasets and a user-driven visualization platform called Hydro-VIZ, we present a plan on how exchange students can witness the differences in human-nature coupling of each region and share notes on the future of freshwater supply for densely-populated deltas. We discuss the development of a set of place-based learning curricular material built around two contrasting regions and the HydroVIZ platform with functionality to explore the human coupling of water sustainability.