Kiran Bala Behura | Crop Water | Best Researcher Award

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Ms. Kiran Bala Behura | Crop Water | Best Researcher Award

College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, OUAT, Bhubaneswar | India

Kiran Bala Behura is currently pursuing a PhD at the College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Bhubaneswar, having previously earned a Master’s degree in Soil and Water Conservation Engineering (where she was a gold-medalist) and a Bachelor of Technology in Agricultural Engineering from OUAT. She has gained practical research experience as a research scholar at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar where she worked on seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers of Puri district, Odisha, and as a trainee at institutions including the Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (Dehradun), Indian Institute of Remote Sensing/ISRO (Dehradun and Ahmedabad) and the KSCSTE-Centre for Water Resources Development & Management. Her research interests centre on remote sensing and GIS applications for evapotranspiration estimation and water-salinity intrusion in coastal aquifers, groundwater quality assessment in eastern India, and mapping of rice fallow areas for second cropping opportunities. She has authored peer-reviewed work such as “Evaluation of Actual Evapotranspiration from Rice Fields of Odisha Using Remote Sensing Based Surface Energy Balance Approach” and “Hydrogeochemical Assessment of Groundwater Quality and Salinity Intrusion in Coastal Aquifers of Eastern India.” She was awarded the Best Poster Award at the 58th ISAE Annual Convention & International Symposium in 2024 and her MSc gold medal recognises academic excellence. Through combining geospatial techniques, hydrogeochemistry and agricultural-water engineering, Behura contributes to sustainable water resource management and climate-smart agriculture in coastal and rice-dominated regions of India.

Profile: Orcid

Featured Publications

Behura, K. B., Mohanty, S., Pratim, P., & Ghosh, S. (2025, March 22). Hydrogeochemical assessment of groundwater quality and salinity intrusion in coastal aquifers of eastern India. Journal of Agricultural Engineering (India).

Behura, K. B., Raul, S. K., Paul, J. C., Mohanty, S., Jena, P. P., Dwibedi, S. K., Ghosh, S., Singh, L. K., Devi, S. R., & Singha, A. K. et al. (2025, March 4). Comprehensive analysis of methods for estimating actual paddy evapotranspiration—A review. Frontiers in Water.

Xinguo Chen | Precision Agriculture | Best Paper Award

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Dr. Xinguo Chen | Precision Agriculture | Best Paper Award

North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power | China

Dr. Xinguo Chen is an Assistant Researcher at the North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, specializing in agricultural hydrological remote sensing and sustainable water resource management. He earned his Ph.D. in 2021 from Northwest A&F University, where he developed expertise in crop evapotranspiration, drought mechanisms, and climate change impacts on agriculture. With over 23 peer-reviewed publications in SCI and Scopus-indexed journals, his research has been widely recognized, accumulating more than 908 citations and reflected in an h-index of 17. Dr. Chen has successfully led two major research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund and the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Agricultural Water Resources, while also contributing to seven additional national and provincial/ministerial-level projects. His scholarly contributions extend to serving as a reviewer for prestigious journals such as Agricultural Water Management, Remote Sensing, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, and Journal of Environmental Management. He has also authored one book and engaged in industry consultancy projects aimed at improving water use efficiency. Dr. Chen’s research continues to advance agricultural resilience, remote sensing innovation, and water-efficient crop management to support sustainable food security.

Profiles: Scopus | Orcid

Featured Publications

Chen, X., Huang, Y., Liu, M., Ren, D., Li, Y., & Huang, Q. (2025). Improving crop evapotranspiration estimation in the Yellow River Basin: A modified SEBAL model approach and spatiotemporal trend analysis. Agricultural Water Management.

Chen, X., Huang, Q., Xiong, Y., Yang, Q., Li, H., Hou, Z., & Huang, G. (2023). Tracking the spatio-temporal change of the main food crop planting structure in the Yellow River Basin over 2001–2020. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

Chen, X., Li, Y., Yao, N., Liu, D. L., Liu, Q., Song, X., Liu, F., Pulatov, B., Meng, Q., & Feng, P. (2022). Projected dry/wet regimes in China using SPEI under four SSP‐RCPs based on statistically downscaled CMIP6 data. International Journal of Climatology.

Brocca, L., Tullo, T., Melone, F., Moramarco, T., & Morbidelli, R. (2012). Catchment scale soil moisture spatial–temporal variability. Journal of Hydrology.

Ceccon, C., Panzacchi, P., Scandellari, F., Prandi, L., Ventura, M., Russo, B., Millard, P., & Tagliavini, M. (2010). Spatial and temporal effects of soil temperature and moisture and the relation to fine root density on root and soil respiration in a mature apple orchard. Plant and Soil.