U.S. & Indian Universities Partner To Create Sustainable GeoCommunities

Envisioning sustainable communities

“While we talk about Sustainable Development Goals and new technologies,” says Shashank Priya, VP for Research & Innovation at the University of Minnesota (UMN), “the goal is to improve people’s lives, particularly among communities that have new challenges from climate change that are compounding already difficult circumstances.”

He’s referring to an international, multi-university project designed to transform communities into Sustainable GeoCommunities by marrying local thinking with a global perspective that invokes the principles of geodesign. GeoDesign considers geographic information, culture, demographics, natural resources, and climate and invites community participation that is vital to co-developing solutions that are sustainable, resilient, and, potentially, scalable across different regions.

Sustainable GeoCommunities

GeoDesign forms the basis of a community-based program called Sustainable GeoCommunities, that the University of Minnesota (UMN), along with the University at Buffalo (UB), in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technologies at Kanpur, Mumbai, Delhi, and Goa as well as with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, a university with seven campuses across five Indian states, is launching to help solve local problems like access to clean water, healthcare, good transportation and more.

The Sustainable GeoCommunities program aligns with a broader initiative by the US and Indian Governments to expand bilateral research and higher education partnerships to strengthen the US-India relationship.

Local Problems Impact Communties

The basic problems that affect the quality of daily life of residents in a community are local and related to geography, climate, natural resources, healthcare, educational institutions, employment opportunities, transportation, governance, and wireless connectivity.

In Rajasthan, open wells are a common way for village communities to access water. Indian women will draw water from a well that they carry back to their villages in jugs on their heads, often walking long distances through the Thar Desert.

Shashank Priya explains that a local problem could be the lack of clean water that leads to complex health issues, climate change that causes drought-like conditions that force adaptations in local agricultural practices, the absence of public transportation and good roads that make it difficult for residents to access healthcare and employment opportunities, and the lack of wireless connectivity and electricity that restricts a population’s access to opportunities in education and networking.

“While all local communities are unique and geographically distributed, there are commonalities that can be scaled and applied to help people,” he added.

A U.S.-India University Task Force

Last year, the Association of American Universities (AAU), of which UMN and UB are members, created a Task Force on Expanding US-India University Partnerships. The task force recently released recommendations such as creating an Indo-US Global Challenges Institute to focus on five high-impact areas of mutual interest including sustainable agriculture and food security, and sustainable energy and the environment that the Sustainable GeoCommunities program can address.

“We are excited to collaborate with the UMN and scholars from top research universities in India to apply our unique problem-solving approach to community challenges,” said Venu Govindaraju, Vice President, Office of Research and Economic Development at the University of Buffalo. “It’s an innovative approach, utilizing AI and machine learning to tackle real-world issues in disadvantaged communities globally.”

Developing Solutions

These sustainable communities connected across the globe through the common theme of geodesign will develop and apply innovative solutions, and then test, measure and validate their effectiveness. In time, policy recommendations will emerge from successful pilots to help implement promising solutions broadly. For example, an ultra-cheap sensor can provide a simple display of the contamination type and range in a community’s water source. Such a sensor could provide real-time guidance to the community on whether the water is suitable for drinking or not.

“Community-oriented sustainability solutions require collaboration that transcends institutions and disciplines. IITK is excited to be part of this group from different universities in the US and India and looks forward to working together to develop a solutions-driven approach to solving real-world sustainability problems,” said Ashish Garg, professor-in-charge at the Kotak School of Sustainability at IITK.

Human-centered Design

“ Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is honored to be part of this consortium and we are eager to contribute for a larger societal benefit. For more than a decade, Amrita has actively engaged with 1200+ communities in India through our Live-in-Labs Program , offering sustainable solutions through participatory and human-centered design methods,” added Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh, Provost for Strategic Initiatives, International, Research & Innovation, at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

Shashank Priya and other Sustainable GeoCommunities leaders have launched a seed funding program for researchers at the partner institutions to brainstorm ideas and begin working with local communities on the science and solutions needed for local, regional, and global problems.

Over the next few years, they envision the program developing into a framework for state, national, and global partnerships and philanthropic efforts that provide training opportunities for national and global cohorts from developing countries in innovative science and geodesign techniques.

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