On September 4, 2026, the Environmental Science Programme hosted a well-attended lecture on waterway resistance in river basins across the Asian Himalayas. Professor Kattel presented on the water management challenges in the region, along with practical strategies that can be implemented to strengthen resilience.
Professor Giri Raj Kattel
Professor Giri Raj Kattel is a globally recognized scholar in water resources, ranked within the top 0.5% of researchers worldwide. With over 20 years of experience, his work spans the ecology and hydrology of wetlands, lakes, and rivers across both hemispheres. He currently serves as a professor at University of Melbourne and an International Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University.
This lecture provided students with the opportunity to learn about the importance of Himalayan water to local communities, as well as the main factors that decrease water resilience in the area. Water management is challenging worldwide, especially with the intensification of global warming. Yet, Professor Kattel brought a hopeful note that we can implement systems to reduce the damage it can cause. For example, he emphasized the urgency of developing early warning systems (EWS) in the Himalayan region, with the goal of detecting cascading hazards and warning people in time so they can evacuate before an incident.
Q&A session
The lecture felt especially timely after the August 26 flood at the Nepal-Tibet border, triggered by a melting glacier. This incident was a clear example of the water management challenges in the region. Importantly, this is not an isolated case, as other Himalayan rivers face similar risks going forward. Therefore, Professor Kattel’s research on resilience strategies feel even more critical now.
Professor Kattel receiving gift from BNBU’s Chair Professor, Dr. Baojun Xu
He ended his lecture on the note that there are still many challenges ahead for water management in the Asian Himalayas, including the possibility of the region drying out in the future. Therefore, continuous research on the area's hydrological resilience is needed.
Dr. Kattel delivers a lecture to students and faculty members at BNBU
Written by: Julia Miyagawa Braga
Photo by: Julia Miyagawa Braga
Reviewed by: Siu-tai TSIM
