Research for oceans, rivers and lakes

SDG 14.1 · UPES report on SDG 14: Life Below Water

SDG 14.1Research for oceans, rivers and lakes

UPES researchers study and protect aquatic life, from dugongs and river dolphins to the plankton that shape the Arabian Sea, and develop ways to keep plastics and other pollutants out of water.

The figures below cover UPES research publications on oceans, rivers, lakes and water quality from 2021 to 2025 (source: Scopus, October 2026).

140life-below-water research publications, 2021–2025
2,855citations to these papers
20.4citations per paper
102journal articles and reviews

What the research covers

Number of 2021–2025 papers on each theme (a paper can appear under more than one).

ThemePapers
Coasts, oceans and marine hazards65
Water quality, treatment and monitoring55
Microplastics and plastic pollution43
Aquatic life, algae and fisheries39
Rivers, lakes and wetlands24
Climate change and the water cycle14

Most cited work on water and aquatic life

  1. Micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) as emerging pollutant in ground water: Environmental impact, potential risks, limitations and way forward towards sustainable management (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2023), cited 196 times.
  2. Adsorptive behavior of micro(nano)plastics through biochar: Co-existence, consequences, and challenges in contaminated ecosystems (Science of the Total Environment, 2023), cited 161 times.
  3. Multi-hazards coastal vulnerability assessment of Goa, India, using geospatial techniques (Ocean and Coastal Management, 2014), cited 130 times.
  4. A discussion of microplastics in soil and risks for ecosystems and food chains (Chemosphere, 2023), cited 127 times.
  5. Smart IoT and Machine Learning-based Framework for Water Quality Assessment and Device Component Monitoring (Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2022), cited 124 times.

The full list of 182 publications since 2007, with links, is on the life-below-water research publications page (also available as a spreadsheet).

Research spotlights

Surveying dugongs and river dolphins

UPES robotics alumnus Sajal Sharma piloted unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles for the Wildlife Institute of India's surveys of Gangetic river dolphins and dugongs, a vulnerable marine mammal, and helped map their habitats.

UPES SDG 14 report (PDF) · Read more

Blooms, oxygen and the Arabian Sea

Marine microbiologist Dr Subhajit Basu studies phytoplankton blooms and harmful algae in the Arabian Sea. He co-authored a Nature Communications study linking massive Noctiluca scintillans blooms to spreading low-oxygen waters, with effects on food webs and fisheries.

Nature Communications, 2014 · Read more

Cleaner water, less waste

A ₹73 lakh microalgae plant led by Prof Bhawna Yadav Lamba, built with the NGO Vikalp Nai Dishayen, reclaims wastewater and recovers resources instead of releasing pollution.

UPES blog · Read more

Student innovation

  • Watching the environment from above. As a student project, Sajal Sharma built an unmanned aerial vehicle for environmental health monitoring, and later built water testing kits and flow meters in his work with the Wildlife Institute of India.
  • Water and the sea. Students have built prototypes for solar-powered desalination and sustainable aquaculture, and researchers work on wind and wave energy.

Patents and intellectual property

UPES holds 2,314+ intellectual property rights, made up of 813 patents, 943 designs and 558 copyrights, with 139 granted (December 2025).

Prof Ashish Mathur gives a keynote on sensing technologies for water quality monitoring at IFAWET-2025
Low-cost sensors to detect contamination in water, presented at IFAWET-2025, co-hosted by UPES.

Sources and further reading