Mr. Munir’s thesis is entitled ‘Role of sediment transport in operation and maintenance of supply and demand based irrigation canals - Application to Machai Maira Branch Canals'. Professor Schultz was his supervisor and Dr. Chu Thai Hoanh his co-supervisor.

UNESCO-IHE's 100th PhD degree

This PhD defence brings the total number of PhD degrees awarded, since the first graduation in 1994, to a total of 100! Out of the 100 successful promotions, six candidates received a PhD degree with cum laude.

Since the Institute started its PhD programme in the early 1990's, more than 200 researchers were registered. In 1994, the Institute awarded its first PhD degree to Khin Ni Ni Thein, currently Professor and Senior Strategic Officer at the International University College GROUP T in Leuven, and Senior Advisor at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). A film interview with Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein, who received UNESCO-IHE’s 1st PhD degree, is accessible here.

About Mr Munir's research

A majority of the irrigation canals in Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) are upstream controlled with supply based operation and now gradually moving towards demand based operation. The irrigation canals under study are automatically downstream controlled with demand based operation. Sedimentation is a major operation and maintenance problem in IBIS canals. Various techniques are applied to manage sediments which start with the silt exclusion, silt ejection, canal design and operation and finally end with the removal of deposited sediments. The story of sediment management becomes more complicated for downstream controlled demand based irrigation canals.

In demand based operation the irrigation canals cannot run always at full supply discharge like in supply based irrigation canals, but instead the discharge keeps on changing depending upon the crop water requirements in the canal command area. Such type of canal operation is not always favourable for sediment transport as at small discharges, flow velocities fall quite low which lead to excessive sediment deposition in the canal prism.

This study has been designed to investigate the hydrodynamic relationships which can prevent sediment deposition in downstream controlled demand based irrigation canals, while catering the crop water requirements of the command area. It has been found that the maintenance needs can be minimized by managing sediment transport through better canal operation and management.

The following video shows Mr. Munir’s explaining his PhD research in a nutshell. For more information on his research see the bottom of this web-page.

SLIDESHOW EVENT

UNESCO-IHE's PhD programme

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD degree at UNESCO-IHE, click here for more information. If you would like to know about the research themes, and the current research subjects at the institute, click here.