WP 3: Hydrology of the mountainous Karnali catchment under climate and land use changes

I’m Pranisha Pokhrel, a PhD student at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. With a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering specializing in Hydropower and  four years of experience working in Nepal’s Hydropower sector, I’m passionate about water resources. Pursuing a masters at IHE Delft focused in Hydrology and Water resource further fueled my interest in research and now I’m continuing my academic journey as a PhD candidate.  As part of my past works, I have been involved in hydrological analysis of several basins in Nepal for hydropower generation which involves modelling and statistical analysis.

My current research focuses on the impact of climate and land use changes on water availability in the mountainous Karnali catchment of Nepal (WP3 for this project). I’m particularly interested in understanding how these changes affect discharge in the floodplain, and identifying the drivers behind them. It is also interesting to see what are the main divers causing the change as it can be combined effect of both climate change and anthropogenic activities. This project is personally fascinating to me because it involves studying a remote catchment in Nepal where research has been very limited.