In addition to execution of flood management work and collection of hydro meteorological data, the Water Resources Department established a River Research Station (RRS) in 1958, comprising of two numbers of research division comprising Soil Research Division and Hydraulic Research Division to carry out necessary sub-soil investigation and hydraulic model studies for flood and erosion management projects.
In 2013, with an aim to establish a Centre of Excellence for Knowledge and Technology in the field of Water Resources Management in North East India, the River Research Station was converted to the Assam Water Research and Management Institute (AWRMI).
The Major Activities of Assam Water Research and Management Institute (AWRMI) are:
Soil laboratory activities includes physical identification of soil samples, grain size analysis, dry and wet sieving, hydrometer, specific gravity, atterberg's consistency, liquid, plastic limit, plastic index, moisture content, wet and dry densities, void, porosity, submerged and saturated densities, unconfined compression test, cohesion, angle of internal friction(0), consolidation parameters, standard proctor compaction test (OMC & MDD), Angle of repose(0) etc.
The RRS functioned well till the late nineties and a lot of work on investigation and physical modelling was being conducted by this centre.
In August, 2014, a Data Centre has been set up at AWRMI which will be a repository for existing data relevant to Brahmaputra and Barak Rivers and its tributaries.
The basic objective of the data centre is to digitize the hydro meteorological data like HFL, LWL, discharge, cross sectional area, velocity, precipitation, suspended sediment load etc.
AWRMI is being developed to take up Research and Development activities and Capacity Building of in-service officers of Water Resources Sector in Assam.
In-house capacity building trainings on engineering, project management, life skills development, etc. are carried out.
In order to cope up with the present scenario of water related issues like climate changes and other water related disaster etc. the AWRMI is proposed to be upgraded to a centre of excellence. In these contacts the centre of excellence is formed as a society. To house the centre of excellence, construction of a green building is under progress. This green building is going to be the first of its kind in the entire Northeast region. Further this centre of excellence is planned to be upgraded to a regional Data and Research centre covering the entire Northeast region.
