River health in the Ganges

Over 400 million people rely on the economic, cultural and environmental functions of the River Ganga in India. Degradation of the river system has affected flow, water quality, ecology and human development. To rehabilitate the river we need to better understand the interactions between the many services the river system provides. 

In this project we combined bio-physical and social research methods to map water quality, ecology and ecosystem services on a representative section of the river system, the Ramganga. We assessed drivers of societal vulnerabilities, like poverty and governance in relation to river management and pollution.