Evaluation of natural resource potential in semi-arid micro-watershed, eastern Rajasthan, using remote sensing and geographic information system

The natural resources are considered more efficient and appropriate for necessary survey and investigation for the assessment, subsequent planning and implementation of various developmental programmes. Hence, it is necessary to increase the land and water resources levels for future demands. Morphometric, land use/land cover and hydrogeomorphic analyses have been carried out by visual interpretation method of remote sensing data of IRS, 1D-LISS III and IRS, P6-LISS III, and FCCs of band combination 2, 3 and 4. The interpreted data is supplemented as well as cross checked by field visits. The remote sensing and GIS tool could be helpful in getting the precise and valuable spatial information in understanding the present scenario contemplating with the past data and predicting the future trends. Morphometric analysis was done to determine the drainage characteristics of Bankukara watershed. The drainage pattern of the study area is predominantly dendritic to sub-dendritic in nature; however, locally structurally controlled drainage pattern is also seen. The development of stream segments is affected by slope and local relief. The bifurcation ratio indicates that the drainage pattern is structurally controlled. The land use/land cover change detection for 2001 and 2005 showed an increase in uncultivated land by 1.37%, dense forest by 0.17%, wasteland by 1.46% and rock quarry by 0.10%. There has been a decrease in the area under cultivated land by 1.99%, open forest by 0.12%, open scrub by 0.54% and water body by 0.40%. Hydrogeomorphic units identified through visual interpretation of FCC include alluvial plain, valley fills, plateau, buried pediment, pediments and intermontane. Based on land use/land cover change detection and hydrogeomorphological mapping, the Bankukara watershed has qualitatively been categorized into four groundwater potential zones, viz. good to very good, moderate to good, poor to moderate and very poor to poor.     

Foundation design considerations for a pile supported critical facility

A large reinforced concrete structure supported on piles extending to bedrock is evaluated using a seismic soil–structure interaction analysis. The physical structure, the supporting pile system, analysis model and analytical methodology used are described. Important considerations in the design of the foundation pile system using the seismic analysis loadings and deformations are discussed.     

Planar Gardner solitons and double layers in dusty electronegative plasmas with kappa distributed electrons

A theoretical investigation has been made on the Dust ion-acoustic (DIA) Gardner solitons (GSs) and double layers (DLs) in electronegative plasma consisting of inertial positive and negative ions, super-thermal (kappa distributed) electrons, and negatively charged static dust. The standard reductive perturbation method is employed to derive the Korteweg-de Vries (K-dV), modified K-dV (mK-dV), and standard Gardner equations, which admits solitary waves (SWs) and DLs solutions. It have been found that GSs and DLs exist for α around its critical value α _c , where α _c is the value of α corresponding to the vanishing of the nonlinear coefficient of the K-dV equation. The parametric regimes for the existence of both the positive as well as negative SWs and negative DLs are obtained. The basic features of DIA SWs and DLs are analyzed and it has been found that the polarity, speed, height, thickness of such DIA SWs and DLs structures, are significantly modified due to the presence of two types of ions and spectral index (κ) of super-thermal electrons. It has also been found that the characteristics of DIA GSs and DLs, are different from that of the K-dV solitons and mK-dV solitons. The relevance of our results to different interstellar space plasma situations are discussed.     

Hot plasma waves in Veselago medium around Reissner-Nordström black hole

We investigate the general relativistic magnetohydronadynamic (GRMHD) equations for hot plasmas in a Veselago medium around the Reissner-Nordström (RN) black hole. Using the 3+1 formalisms of spacetime, we write the GRMHD equations and perturb them linearly. These are then Fourier analyzed for the magnetized and nonmagnetized plasmas in rotating and nonrotating backgrounds. We derive dispersion relations and analyze the wave properties by the graphs of wave vector, refractive index and change in refractive. The results confirm the presence of Veselago medium for rotating magnetized/nonmagnetized and nonrotating nonmagnetized plasmas.     

Vp‐Vs relationship and amplitude variation with offset modelling of glauconitic greensand‡

The relationship between V_p and V_s may be used to predict V_s where only V_p is known. V_p/V_s is also used to identify pore fluids from seismic data and amplitude variation with offset analysis. Theoretical, physical, as well as statistical empirical V_p‐V_s relationships have been proposed for reservoir characterization when shear‐wave data are not available. In published work, the focus is primarily on the V_p‐V_s relationship of quartzitic sandstone. In order to broaden the picture we present V_p‐V_s relationships of greensand composed of quartz and glauconite by using data from the Paleocene greensand Nini oil field in the North Sea. A V_p‐V_s relationship derived from modelling is compared with empirical V_p‐V_s regressions from laboratory data as well as from log data. The accuracy of V_s prediction is quantified in terms of root‐mean‐square error. We find that the V_p‐V_s relationship derived from modelling works well for greensand shear‐wave velocity prediction. We model the seismic response of glauconitic greensand by using laboratory data from the Nini field. Our studies here reveal that brine‐saturated glauconitic greensand can have a similar seismic response to that from oil‐saturated quartzitic sandstone and that oil‐saturated strongly cemented greensand can have a similar amplitude variation with offset response to that from brine‐saturated weakly cemented greensand.     

Radial basis function neural network for hydrologic inversion: an appraisal with classical and spatio-temporal geostatistical techniques in the context of site characterization

This paper investigates three techniques for spatial mapping and the consequential hydrologic inversion, using hydraulic conductivity (or transmissivity) and hydraulic head as the geophysical parameters of concern. The data for the study were obtained from the Waste Isolation and Pilot Plant (WIPP) site and surrounding area in the remote Chihuahuan Desert of southeastern New Mexico. The central technique was the Radial Basis Function algorithm for an Artificial Neural Network (RBF-ANN). An appraisal of its performance in light of classical and temporal geostatistical techniques is presented. Our classical geostatistical technique of concern was Ordinary Kriging (OK), while the method of Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) constituted an advanced, spatio-temporal mapping technique. A fusion technique for soft or inter-dependent data was developed in this study for use with the neural network. It was observed that the RBF-ANN is capable of hydrologic inversion for transmissivity estimation with features remaining essentially similar to that obtained from kriging. The BME technique, on the other hand, was found to reveal an ability to map localized lows and highs that were otherwise not as apparent in OK or RBF-ANN techniques.     

Pollutant dispersion characteristics in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

Air pollution is a major environmental concern in major cities around the world. The major causes of air pollution include rapid industrialization/urbanization and increased non environment-friendly energy production. This paper analyses the atmospheric pollutant such as carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM) dispersion characteristics of Dhaka city. The yearly and diurnal variations of pollutant concentration are described by taking into consideration of both meteorological and emission source parameters highlighting washout effect due to rainfall and inversion phenomena. Concentration of PM (both PM2.5 and PM10) and CO in the ambient air are measured for a period of one year with Airmetric Minivol air samplers and Gas Chromatographic (GC) technique, respectively. The trend over the year shows an increase in the monthly average hourly PM and CO concentrations in winter months (November to March) when both PM10 and PM2.5 annual average concentrations (about 130 and 95 ??g m^?3, respectively) exhibit levels exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines as well as exceed more than twice the national standards of annual PM10 (50 ??g m^?3) and PM2.5 (15 ??g m^?3) concentrations. Such high pollutant concentrations may have significant health implications for residents of Dhaka city. It is also found that the PM concentration increases with the increase of wind speed during dry winter season and is also influenced by transboundary air pollution. The data and subsequent recommendations can be useful in formulating air quality management strategies for the Dhaka city.     

Geophysical interpretation of the Rashidpur structure Surma Basin,Bangladesh

The Rashidpur structure is located in the southern part of the Surma Basin, Bangladesh. This paper presents an integrated interpretation of seismic and other geophysical data considering the available geologic information in terms of hydrocarbon potential of this structure. The study area lies within a gravity high and a high magnetic intensity. Fifteen seismic sections of the study area have been analyzed to interpret the subsurface geology, structure and stratigraphy. Based on the analysis of seismic sections and correlation with well data, four prominent reflecting horizons have been identified. The litho-stratigraphy of the Rashidpur structure is prepared on the basis of well information. The lithological sequences encountered in the Rashidpur structure range in age from Miocene to Plio-Pliestocene. The gas producing sands of the structure are within Bokabil to Bhuban Formations of the Miocene age. The seismic study indicates that the Rashidpur structure is a narrow, NS elongated anticline affected by a major reverse fault on the eastern flank. It is an asymmetrical anticline with the axis swinging slightly to the east on the northern plunge and thus attaining a slight concavity to the east. There are various geophysical indications of hydrocarbons in this structure.     

Hydrogeochemical evaluation and statistical analysis of groundwater of Sylhet,north-eastern Bangladesh

Acta Geochimica - To investigate the hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater 23 shallow, 30 intermediate and 38 deep wells samples were collected from Sylhet district of Bangladesh, and...     

Numerical Investigation of the Optimum Location for Vertical Drains in Gravity Dams

The seepage beneath a concrete dam causes an upward force acting to the dam foundation, known as uplift. Previous literatures show that implementation of drainage wells in gravity dam foundations causes a reduction in uplift forces. The main aim of these wells is to drain excess seepage flow bypassed from the cutoff wall and to reduce the uplift force. The location of the drains in the foundation plays a key role in reducing the pressure. In the present study, effect of the location of drain pipes from the upstream face of the dam (s), space among them (n) and drain’s diameter (d) in uplift force reduction is investigated. The processes of the study have been performed by the Seep/w software based on the finite element method. Results show that the use of a drain system reduced the uplift forces developed beneath the floor of the structure. If the drain is located close to the face of the dam, it may not be effective in reducing the uplift. On the other hand, shifting it too much away from the upstream face of the dam will lead to increased total uplift. It is, therefore, desirable to find out the location of the drain such that the total uplift is optimum. Optimum location of the vertical drains is not fixed, and by increasing vertical drains distances from each other and also decreasing drain diameter, optimum location would be shifted to the downstream. For example introduction of system of pipe drains to the floor of gravity dams reduced the uplift force acting on the floor by up to 80% for d/l = 0.0004, n/l = 0.024 and s/l = 0.08. This reduction in uplift becomes up to 65% for d/l = 0.0004, n/l = 0.048 and s/l = 0.12. The best location of the drain is such that the total uplift is minimum and this is presented in both design charts and algebraic equations in this study.