Irrigation Engineering Expert: Research Engineer

Objective/Purpose of the Assignment:

The consultant will be responsible for supporting the Department of Irrigation (DOI) to revise its engineering guidelines, undertake case analysis to further understand how irrigation works can be made more resilient to climate change, and train department staff both centrally and through regional events. DOI will revise a number of its 23 volumes.

Scope of the Work:

A number of irrigation projects are challenged due to unreliable water availability. The DOI needs a better understanding of how to address the uncertainties related to climate change projections in the context of engineering design and planning processes. Inadequate drainage in irrigation systems as posed flooding hazard to communities during intense rainfall. While most people can identify, qualitatively, that rainfall patterns have changed, how to incorporate this into what is essentially a quantitative engineering design is more challenging. This is exacerbated by fairly poor and sparse meteorological data, and therefore engineers often base their assessment of water supply on anecdotal and local observations of water supplies. This has proven unreliable however, either because of ‘shocks’ of declining water tables or because sampling methods are biased towards peak rainfall times, and fail to consider minimum seasonal water availability, which is a critical factors in designing cost effective and reliable irrigation supplies. The work of the consultant will include detailed identification of hot-spots and case analysis to review the design and decision making process improvements which could be made.

Detailed Tasks to be performed by the consultant:

• Work with the Department and national consultant to identify case analysis scope, terms of reference. Provide support to the national consultant in undertaking the case analysis.
• Review and assess current engineering designs, standards and guidelines to withstand current and future climate change risks.
• Drawing from international experiences, provide recommendations on adjustments that can be made to the above in order to better incorporate considerations of climate change risks and natural hazards.
• Upon agreement with the Department, make changes to the engineering guidelines
• Review international experiences to indicate cost implications from existing case studies and models to follow.
• Contribute to training and capacity building activities.
• In light of Nepal’s Climate Change Policy and the knowledge developed through the TA, assist DOI to review its policy and make recommendations for policy revisions.

Outputs:

• Revised engineering guidelines
• Terms of Reference for Case Analysis
• Policy Recommendations.

Skills required:

• Advanced degree in engineering research, particularly for irrigation infrastructure and water supply.
• Experience in the development of engineering guidelines, particularly for irrigation design, manuals and standards.
• Knowledge of the fragile mountainous environmental conditions relevant to engineering specifications is needed, including of water supply.
• Some exposure to climate change risk management is also needed.
• Strong ability to work in teams and multi-disciplinary/sectoral projects is required.
• Some experience in Nepal is an asset.