Effect of canal on land use/land cover using remote sensing and GIS

The monitoring of land use/land covers (LULCs) is an indispensable exercise for all those involved in executing policies to optimize the use of natural resources and minimize the ill impacts on the environment. The study here aims at analyzing the changes that occurred in LULC over a time span from 1990 to 2005 using multi date data of a part of Punjab. The digital data consisted of two sets of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data and one set of IRS-1C data. Utilizing hybrid classification technique for interpretation and on field validation, it has been found that canal irrigation leads to changes in LULC as there is a change in cropping pattern as well as increase in water logged area.     

Influence of allochthonous input on autotrophic–heterotrophic switch-over in shallow waters of a tropical estuary (Cochin Estuary), India

Bacterial productivity (BP) and respiration (BR) were examined in relation to primary productivity (PP) for the first time in a shallow tropical ecosystem (Cochin Estuary), India. The degree of dependence of BP (6.3–199.7 μg C L⁻¹ d⁻¹) and BR (6.6–430.4 μg C L⁻¹ d⁻¹) on PP (2.1–608.0 μg C L⁻¹ d⁻¹) was found to be extremely weak. The BP/PP (0.05–8.5) and PP/BR (0.02–7.9) ratios widely varied in the estuary depending on the season and location. There was a seasonal shift in net pelagic production from autotrophy to heterotrophy due to terrestrial organic matter input through rivers which enhanced the bacterial heterotrophic activity and very high pCO₂ (106–6001 μatm) levels. The heterotrophic zones were characterized by low PP but high bacterial production and respiration leading to oxygen undersaturation and exceptionally high pCO₂. We propose that the CO₂ supersaturation caused by increased bacterial respiration (in excess of PP) was a result of bacterial degradation of allochthonous organic matter. This indicates that sources other than planktonic compartment need to be explored to understand the C-cycling in this estuary. These results are of particular relevance to tropical ecosystems in general, where the bulk of world's river discharges occur.     

High pressure-temperature studies on an olivine tholeiite and a tholeiitic picrite from the pavagarh region,Gujarat, India

Experimental studies have been performed on an olivine tholeiite and tholeiitic picrite at pressure and temperature ranges of 20–40 kb and 1200–1300°C. The lower and upper limits of basalt-eclogite transition zone for tholeiitic picrite are 23 kb and 31·67 kb at 1200°C, and 24·67 kb and 33·67 kb at 1300°C, whereas for olivine tholeiite, these are 27 kb and 32·33 kb at 1200°C, and 28·70 kb and 33·70 kb at 1300°C. While the assemblages for both samples below the transition region are Pl+Px+Mt, they are Pl+Gt+Px+Mt within it. The eclogite field has Gt+Px+Mt. The ratio of garnet to plagioclase increases from the transition zone to the eclogite field and with the disappearance of plagioclase, the percentage of garnet increases to 30 in the eclogite field. Comparison of our results with previous studies on basalt-eclogite transition shows that the transition zone found by us occurs at higher pressure-temperature conditions. Seismic studies of the region below the Deccan Traps show an increase in velocity (1–4%) at depth. It is suggested that after partial melting, during ascent of the basaltic liquid, a significant portion of it crystallizes within the upper mantle as pockets of eclogite. As eclogite is more dense than peridotite, their presence should cause a similar increase in the seismic velocity below the Deccan area.     

Application of geospatial modelling technique in delineation of fluoride contamination zones within Dwarka Basin,Birbhum, India

Dwarka River Basin is one of the fluoride affected river basin in Birbhum, West Bengal. In the present research work, various controlling factors for fluoride contamination in groundwater i.e., geology, aquifer type, groundwater table, soil, rainfall, geomorphology, drainage density, land use land cover, lineament and fault density, slope and elevation were considered to delineate the potential fluoride contamination zones within Dwarka River Basin in Birbhum. Assigning weights and ranks to various inputs factor class and their sub-class respectively was carried out on the basis of knowledge driven method. Weighted overlay analysis was carried out to generate the final potential fluoride contamination zones which are classified into two broad classes i.e., ‘high’ and ‘low’, and it is observed that major portion of the study area falls under low fluoride contamination category encompassing 88.61% of the total area which accounts for 759.48 km² and high fluoride contaminated region accounts for 11.40% of the total study area encompassing an area of about 97.67 km². Majority of high fluoride areas fall along the flood plain of Dwarka River Basin. Finally, for validation 197 reported points within Dwarka having fluoride in underground water are overlaid and an overall accuracy of 92.15% is observed. An accuracy of 83.21% and 84.24% is obtained for success and prediction rate curve respectively.     

On the role of spatial resolution on snow estimates using a process‐based snow model across a range of climatology and elevation

Hydrological processes in mountainous settings depend on snow distribution, whose prediction accuracy is a function of model spatial scale. Although model accuracy is expected to improve with finer spatial resolution, an increase in resolution comes with modelling costs related to increased computational time and greater input data and parameter information. This computational and data collection expense is still a limiting factor for many large watersheds. Thus, this work's main objective is to question which physical processes lead to loss in model accuracy with regard to input spatial resolution under different climatic conditions and elevation ranges. To address this objective, a spatially distributed snow model, iSnobal, was run with inputs distributed at 50‐m—our benchmark for comparison—and 100‐m resolutions and with aggregated (averaged from the fine to the large resolution) inputs from the 50‐m model to 100‐, 250‐, 500‐, and 750‐m resolution for wet, average, and dry years over the Upper Boise River Basin (6,963 km²), which spans four elevation bands: rain dominated, rain–snow transition, and snow dominated below treeline and above treeline. Residuals, defined as differences between values quantified with high resolution (>50 m) models minus the benchmark model (50 m), of simulated snow‐covered area (SCA) and snow water equivalent (SWE) were generally slight in the aggregated scenarios. This was due to transferring the effects of topography on meteorological variables from the 50‐m model to the coarser scales through aggregation. Residuals in SCA and SWE in the distributed 100‐m simulation were greater than those of the aggregated 750 m. Topographic features such as slope and aspect were simplified, and their gradient was reduced due to coarsening the topography from the 50‐ to 100‐m resolution. Therefore, solar radiation was overestimated, and snow drifting was modified and caused substantial SCA and SWE underestimation in the distributed 100‐m model relative to the 50‐m model. Large residuals were observed in the wet year and at the highest elevation band when and where snow mass was large. These results support that model accuracy is substantially reduced with model scales coarser than 50 m.     

Hydroclimatic significance of stable isotopes in precipitation from glaciers of Garhwal Himalaya,Upper Ganga Basin (UGB), India

Stable isotopic composition of precipitation as preserved in continental proxy climate archives (e.g., ice cores, lacustrine sediments, tree rings, groundwater, and organic matter) can sensitively record fluctuations in local meteorological variables. These are important natural climatic tracers to understand the atmospheric circulation patterns and hydrological cycle and to reconstruct past climate from archives. Precipitation was collected at Dokriani Glacier to understand the response of glaciers to climate change in the Garhwal Central Himalaya, Upper Ganga Basin. The local meteoric water line deviates from the global meteoric water line and is useful for the identification of moisture source in the region. The data suggest different clusters of isotopic signals, that is, summer (June–September) and winter (November–April); the mean values of δ¹⁸O, δD, and d ‰ during summer are ?13.03‰, ?84.49‰, and 19.78 ‰, respectively, whereas during winter, the mean values of δ¹⁸O, δD, and d ‰ are ?7.59‰, ?36.28‰, and 24.46 ‰, respectively. Backward wind trajectory analysis ascertains that the major source of precipitation during summer is from the Indian Summer Monsoon and during winter from the westerlies. Regression analysis has been carried out in order to establish interrelationship between the precipitation isotopic signatures and meteorological variables such as air temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation. Temperature and precipitation have good correlation with the isotopic signatures of precipitation with R² values >.5, suggesting that both temperature and amount effects prevail in the study region. Multiple regression analysis found strong relationships for both the seasons. The relationship of deuterium excess with δ¹⁸O, relative humidity, and precipitation are significant for the winter season. No significant relationships of deuterium excess were found with other meteorological variables such as temperature and radiation. The correlation and regression analysis performed are significant and valuable for interpretation of processes in the hydrological cycle as well as for interpretation of palaeoclimate records from the region.     

A class of regular and well behaved charge analogue of?Kuchowicz’s relativistic super-dense star model

We obtain a well behaved class of charge analogues of neutral superdense star model due to Kuchowicz, by using a particular electric field, which involves a parameter K and vanishes when K=0. The members of this class are seen to satisfy the various physical conditions e.g. c ² ρ≥3p≥0, dp/dr<0, dρ/dr<0, along with the velocity of sound, dp/c ² dρ<1 and the adiabatic index ((p+c ² ρ)/p)(dp/(c ² dρ))>1, for the interval 0<K<1 with the maximum mass 6.8374M _Θ and the radius 23.4679 km with the central red shift Z _c =0.75364. In the interval, 0<K≤0.1179, the velocity of sound and the ratio p/c ² ρ are found monotonically decreasing towards the pressure free interface, which presents a relevant model for massive star like Neutron star or pulsar with the maximum mass as 4.1474M _Θ and the radius 20.5481 km with the central red shift Z _c =0.6654.     

Charged analogue of Vlasenko-Pronin superdense star in general relativity

In this article we have derived a set of three static spherical symmetric well behaved solutions of Einstein-Maxwell field equations is obtained for a specific choice of electric field involving a parameter K. The solutions so obtained can be seen as a charge analogue of the neutral solution due to Vlasenko and Pronin. The physical features of solutions so obtained and that of Vlasenko and Pronin are investigated subject to the reality and the causality conditions i.e. Pressure, density (greater than pressure), pressure-density ratio and velocity of sound (less than the velocity of light) are positive and monotonically decreasing and the electric intensity is monotonically increasing in nature away from the centre. The maximum mass and radius occupied by the neutral solution are 2.1434 M _Θ and 16.7300 km respectively. For the charged solution, overall maximum mass and corresponding radius are found to be 6.8714 M _Θ and 20.6166 km respectively (for K=1.343).     

A class of charged analogues of Durgapal and Fuloria superdense star

We obtain a new class of charged super-dense star models after prescribing particular forms of the metric potential g ₄₄ and electric intensity. The metric describing the superdense stars joins smoothly with the Reissner-Nordstrom metric at the pressure free boundary. The interior of the stars possess there energy density, pressure, pressure-density ratio and velocity of sound to be monotonically decreasing towards the pressure free interface. In view of the surface density 2×10¹⁴ g/cm³, the heaviest star occupies a mass 5.6996 M _⊙ with its radius 17.0960 km. The red shift at the centre and boundary are found to be 3.5120 and 1.1268 respectively. In absence of the charge we are left behind with the regular and well behaved fifth model of Durgapal (J. Phys. A 15:2637, 1982).     

Removal of hazardous hexavalent chromium from aqueous solution using divinylbenzene copolymer resin

This paper presents the removal of hazardous hexavalent chromium from liquid waste streams using divinylbenzene copolymer resin Amberlite IRA 96. Important sorption parameters such as contact time, pH, resin dosage and initial metal concentration were studied at 30?°C. The kinetic study was conducted using pseudo-first and pseudo-second-order kinetics at 30?°C. The sorption process was found to be pH dependent. Maximum removal was obtained at pH 2 under optimized conditions. The sorption process was rapid and 99?% of the removal was achieved in first 30?min. The equilibrium data were fitted to both Langmuir and Freundlich models. The better regression coefficient (R ²) in Freundlich model suggests the multilayer sorption process. The value of Gibbs free energy for sorption process was found to be ?12.394?kJmol^?1. The negative value indicated the spontaneity of the sorption process. Scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy studies were conducted to find the role of surface morphology during sorption process. The Fourier transform infrared study was conducted to identify the functional groups responsible for interaction between the resin and chromium. Desorption and regeneration studies were also carried out.