Surface and groundwater quality characterization of Deoria District,Ganga Plain,India

A water quality investigation was carried out in the Deoria district, Ganga plain, to assess the suitability of surface and groundwaters for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes. As much as 50 representative samples from river and groundwater were collected from various stations to monitor the water chemistry of various ions, comprising Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃ ⁻, SO₄ ²⁻, NO₃ ⁻, Cl⁻, F⁻, and trace metals, such as Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cd, and Pb. The results showed that electrical conductance (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), HCO₃ ⁻, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, and total hardness (TH) are above the maximum desirable limit, and apart from Fe and Mn all other trace metals are within the maximum permissible limit for drinking water. The calculated values for sodium absorption ratio (SAR), salinity, residual sodium carbonate (RSC), and permeability index (PI) indicate well to permissible use of water for irrigation. High values of Na%, RSC, and Mg-hazard (MH) at some stations restrict its use for agricultural purpose. Anthropogenic activities affect the spatial variation of water quality. Economic and social developments of the study area is closely associated with the characteristics of the hydrological network.     

Meteorological Office, Pune-411 005

Natural disasters like floods, tornadoes, tropicalcyclones, heat and cold wavewreak havoc and cause tremendous loss ofproperty all over the world. Most ofthe natural disasters are either dueto weather or are triggered due toweather related processes.Extreme weather events claimed thousands oflives and caused damage on vastscale. Recent super cyclone which affectedOrissa in 1999, Bangladesh cyclone of1970 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 areexamples of some of the more damagingtropical cyclones which affected developingas well as the developed world. Heatand cold waves are also extreme events,which cause enormous losses in terms oflives lost and human discomfort and ailmentsarising out of them. The heat waveof 1995 and 1998 are still fresh in the mindof the Indian public. The estimated lossof human lives due to heat wave in 1998 was morethan 15,000. Economic losses asa result of these disasters and in particular inassociation with tropical cyclones haveincreased enormously over the last three decades.During 1961–1991, total loss oflives from drought alone was 1,333,728 overthe whole world. In terms of economiclosses, there is 8–10 fold increase from thebase figure of 1960. The socio-economicimpact of natural disaster is complex dependingupon the vulnerability of the placeand mitigation strategies that are put in place.Meteorology plays a crucial role in forewarningpeople about the severe/extremeweather systems and a constant endeavour by themeteorological services worldover has gone a long way towards minimizing thelosses caused by natural disasters.The paper summarises the natural disasterstatistics over south Asia and the possibleprediction strategies for combating theirsocio-economic impacts.     

Assessment of rock slope stability by probabilistic-based Slope Stability Probability Classification method along highway cut slopes in Adilcevaz-Bitlis (Turkey)

Rock slope stability is of great concern along highway routes as stability problems on cut slopes may cause fatal events as well as loss of property. In rock slope engineering, stability evaluations are commonly performed by means of analytical or numerical analyses, principally considering the factor of safety concept. As a matter of fact, the probabilistic assessment of slope stability is progressively getting popularity due to difficulties in assigning the most appropriate values to design parameters in analytical or numerical methods. Additionally, the effect of heterogeneities in rock masses and discontinuities on the analysis results is minimized through the probabilistic concept. In this study, slope stability of high and steep sedimentary rock cut slopes along a state highway in Adilcevaz-Bitlis (Turkey) was evaluated on the basis of probabilistic approach using the Slope Stability Probability Classification (SSPC) system. The probabilistic assessment indicates major slope stability problems because of discontinuity controlled and discontinuity orientation independent mass movements. Almost all studied cut slopes suffer from orientation-independent stability problems with very low stability probabilities. Additionally, the probability of planar and toppling failures is significantly high with respect to the SSPC system. The stability problems along the investigated rock slopes were also verified by field reconnaissance. Remedial measures such as slope re-design and reinforcement at the studied locations should be taken to prevent hazardous events along the highway. On the other hand, the probabilistic approach may be a useful tool during rock slope engineering to overcome numerous uncertainties when probabilistic and analytic results are compared.     

Misconceptions about the Hubble recession law

Almost all astronomers now believe that the Hubble recession law was directly inferred from astronomical observations. It turns out that this common belief is completely false. Those models advocating the idea of an expanding universe are ill-founded on observational grounds. This means that the Hubble recession law is really a working hypothesis. One alternative to the Hubble recession law is the tired-light hypothesis originally proposed by Zwicky (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 15:773, 1929). This hypothesis leads to a universe that is an eternal cosmos continually evolving without beginning or end. Such a universe exists in a dynamical state of virial equilibrium. Observational studies of the redshift-magnitude relation for Type Ia supernovae in distant galaxies might provide the best observational test for a tired-light cosmology. The present study shows that the model Hubble diagram for a tired-light cosmology gives good agreement with the supernovae data for redshifts in the range 0<z<2. This observational test of a static cosmology shows that the real universe is not necessarily undergoing expansion nor acceleration. An erratum to this article can be found at     

A comparative study of sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines,vote feature intervals,and logistic regression in landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS

Landslide susceptibility assessment using GIS has been done for part of Uttarakhand region of Himalaya (India) with the objective of comparing the predictive capability of three different machine learning methods, namely sequential minimal optimization-based support vector machines (SMOSVM), vote feature intervals (VFI), and logistic regression (LR) for spatial prediction of landslide occurrence. Out of these three methods, the SMOSVM and VFI are state-of-the-art methods for binary classification problems but have not been applied for landslide prediction, whereas the LR is known as a popular method for landslide susceptibility assessment. In the study, a total of 430 historical landslide polygons and 11 landslide affecting factors such as slope angle, slope aspect, elevation, curvature, lithology, soil, land cover, distance to roads, distance to rivers, distance to lineaments, and rainfall were selected for landslide analysis. For validation and comparison, statistical index-based methods and the receiver operating characteristic curve have been used. Analysis results show that all these models have good performance for landslide spatial prediction but the SMOSVM model has the highest predictive capability, followed by the VFI model, and the LR model, respectively. Thus, SMOSVM is a better model for landslide prediction and can be used for landslide susceptibility mapping of landslide-prone areas.     

Hydrostratigraphic framework and hydrogeological behaviour of the Mancha Oriental System (SE Spain)

The Mancha Oriental System (MOS) has a surface area of 7,260 km², making it one of the largest carbonate aquifer systems in Spain. The system sustains about 1,000 km² of irrigated crops and supplies groundwater to 275,000 inhabitants. The economic transformation brought about by the development of extensive irrigated cropland has led to a water-balance disequilibrium of about 75 million m³/year. This input–output deficit has negative consequences in the quantity and quality of the available resources, in the river–aquifer relationship, and in the associated ecosystems as well. To understand the hydrogeological behaviour of the system, it is necessary to design a conceptual model. Further, the conceptualisation of a groundwater flow system is a requirement of the European Water Framework Directive for the characterisation of groundwater bodies. The robustness of the conceptual model depends heavily on the user capability of representing the real system. In this work, a multidisciplinary approach has been used to represent the three-dimensional geological framework and the groundwater flow conceptualisation of the MOS. Data management and three-dimensional visualisation have been carried out by means of geographical information system (GIS) tools and software for contouring and three-dimensional surface mapping.     

Improved values for the solar micro- and macro-turbulent filter functions

The contributions of any arbitrary photospheric velocity field to (macroturbulent) line displacement, and to (microturbulent) line broadening can be expressed by the macro- and micro-turbulent filters f _M (k) and f _t(_k), where _k is the wavenumber of the energy spectrum in which the line-of-sight component of the velocity field can be decomposed. As a correction to a previous computation of f _M and f _t we give in this Note improved values for the filter functions for weak lines in LTE. An example of the way to use the filter functions is given.     

The first field-based descriptions of pumping-induced saltwater intrusion and upconing

Development of the ideas about the equilibrium between freshwater and saline water has received considerable attention in the literature, but little has been written so far about the earliest scientific works about well salinization. Based on a review of the literature from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, this historical note explores how insights into groundwater abstraction and saltwater intrusion developed, and examples of the earliest field studies are provided. Fundamental research was driven by the need for increasing water supply, but the progress of science did not lead to sustainable management practices everywhere. Research outcomes were shared between scientists of different countries, marking the beginning of coastal hydrogeology as a scientific specialization in the first decade of the 20th century.     

Processes of initial collision and suturing between India and Asia

The initial collision between Indian and Asian continents marked the starting point for transformation of land-sea thermal contrast, uplift of the Tibet-Himalaya orogen, and climate change in Asia. In this paper, we review the published literatures from the past 30 years in order to draw consensus on the processes of initial collision and suturing that took place between the Indian and Asian plates. Following a comparison of the different methods that have been used to constrain the initial timing of collision, we propose that the tectono-sedimentary response in the peripheral foreland basin provides the most sensitive index of this event, and that paleomagnetism presents independent evidence as an alternative, reliable, and quantitative research method. In contrast to previous studies that have suggested collision between India and Asia started in Pakistan between ca. 55 Ma and 50 Ma and progressively closed eastwards, more recent researches have indicated that this major event first occurred in the center of the Yarlung Tsangpo suture zone (YTSZ) between ca. 65 Ma and 63 Ma and then spreading both eastwards and westwards. While continental collision is a complicated process, including the processes of deformation, sedimentation, metamorphism, and magmatism, different researchers have tended to define the nature of this event based on their own understanding, an intuitive bias that has meant that its initial timing has remained controversial for decades. Here, we recommend the use of reconstructions of each geological event within the orogenic evolution sequence as this will allow interpretation of collision timing on the basis of multidisciplinary methods.