Physico-chemical analysis of surface and groundwater around Singrauli Coal Field, District Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, India

The present study was carried out in Singrauli area of the north India to know the water quality at selected sites. Physico-chemical parameters like pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), bicarbonate, hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulfate, copper, iron, cobalt, manganese, zinc, and chromium were analyzed in 27 water samples. Locations selected for sampling were based on the preliminary field survey carried out to understand the overall impact of mining and industrialization on the surface and groundwater resources of Singrauli. Base map, drainage map, and land use/land cover of the study area were prepared from Survey of India topographic map 63 L/12 on 1:50000 scale and satellite data of IRS P6 LISS III 4th May 2010. Land use were categorized into 15 categories out of which major area occupied by open forest covers 20.33 %, uncultivated land 20.25 %, cultivated land 12.60 %, dense forest 11.00 %, and other categories cover 35.82 %. The results obtained are compared with World Health Organisation standards for drinking water quality. The physico chemical analysis shows alkaline nature of water, soft to moderately soft, TDS and total alkalinity exceeds the desirable limit. The major ions in water like calcium, and magnesium are within desirable limits, and sulfate and potassium exceed in limit at some locations, whereas sodium and chloride show higher values. The minor ions like copper and zinc show values within desirable limits whereas iron, cobalt, and chromium show higher values than the desirable limits which deteriorate the quality of water.     

Risk assessment of soil erosion in semi-arid mountainous watershed in Saudi Arabia by RUSLE model coupled with remote sensing and GIS

Soil erosion is the most important factor in land degradation and influences desertification in semi-arid areas. A comprehensive methodology that integrates revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model and GIS was adopted to determine the soil erosion risk (SER) in semi-arid Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. Geoenvironmental factors viz. rainfall (R), soil erodibility (K), slope (LS), cover management and practice factors were computed to determine their effects on average annual soil loss. The high potential soil erosion, resulting from high denuded slope, devoid of vegetation cover and high intensity rainfall, is located towards the north western part of the study area. The analysis is investigated that the SER over the vegetation cover including dense vegetation, sparse vegetation and bushes increases with the higher altitude and higher slope angle. The erosion maps generated with RUSLE integrated with GIS can serve as effective inputs in deriving strategies for land planning/management in the environmentally sensitive mountainous areas.     

Quantum corrections for ABGB black hole

In this paper, we study quantum corrections to the temperature and entropy of a regular Ayón-Beato-García-Bronnikov black hole solution by using tunneling approach beyond semiclassical approximation. We use the first law of black hole thermodynamics as a differential of entropy with two parameters, mass and charge. It is found that the leading order correction to the entropy is of logarithmic form. In the absence of the charge, i.e., e=0, these corrections approximate the corresponding corrections for the Schwarzschild black hole.     

Bayesian uncertainty quantification for flows in heterogeneous porous media using reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

In this paper, we study the uncertainty quantification in inverse problems for flows in heterogeneous porous media. Reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms (MCMC) are used for hierarchical modeling of channelized permeability fields. Within each channel, the permeability is assumed to have a log-normal distribution. Uncertainty quantification in history matching is carried out hierarchically by constructing geologic facies boundaries as well as permeability fields within each facies using dynamic data such as production data. The search with Metropolis–Hastings algorithm results in very low acceptance rate, and consequently, the computations are CPU demanding. To speed-up the computations, we use a two-stage MCMC that utilizes upscaled models to screen the proposals. In our numerical results, we assume that the channels intersect the wells and the intersection locations are known. Our results show that the proposed algorithms are capable of capturing the channel boundaries and describe the permeability variations within the channels using dynamic production history at the wells.     

Delineation of groundwater potential zones in Kakund watershed,Eastern Rajasthan,using remote sensing and GIS techniques

The remotely sensed data provides synoptic viewing and repetitive coverage for thematic mapping of natural resources. In the present study hydrogeomorphological mapping has been carried out in Kakund watershed, Eastern Rajasthan for delineating groundwater potential zones. IRS-1D LISS III Geocoded FCC data in conjunction with Survey of India toposheet (1:50000 scale) and field inputs were used for thematic mapping. Geomorphic units identified through visual interpretation of FCC include: alluvial plain, plateau, valley fills, intermontane valleys, burried pediment, residual hills, and linear ridges. In addition, lineaments were mapped since they act as conduit for groundwater recharge. Majority of the lineaments trends NE-SW and a few along NW-SE directions and are confined to the southern and southeastern parts of the watershed. Based on hydrogeomorphological, geological and lineament mapping the Kakund 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. The study reveals that only 10.97% of the area has good to very good, 35.41% area with moderate to good, 49.04 % of the area has poor to moderatel, while remaining 4.57% has poor to very poor groundwater potential.     

Spatial distribution analysis and susceptibility mapping of landslides triggered before and after Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake along Upper Bhote Koshi,Nepal

The 2015 Mw7.8 Gorkha earthquake triggered thousands of landslides of various types scattered over a large area. In the current study, we utilized pre- and post-earthquake high-resolution satellite imagery to compile two landslide inventories before and after earthquake and prepared three landslide susceptibility maps within 404 km² area using frequency ratio (FR) model. From the study, we could map about 519 landslides including 178 pre-earthquake slides and 341 coseismic slides were identified. This study investigated the relationship between landslide occurrence and landslide causative factors, i.e., slope, aspect, altitude, plan curvature, lithology, land use, distance from streams, distance from road, distance from faults, and peak ground acceleration. The analysis showed that the majority of landslides both pre-earthquake and coseismic occurred at slope >30°, preferably in S, SE, and SW directions and within altitude ranging from 1000 to 1500 m and 1500 to 3500 m. Scatter plots between number of landslides per km^?2 (LN) and percentage of landslide area (LA) and causative factors indicate that slope is the most influencing factor followed by lithology and PGA for the landslide formation. Higher landslide susceptibility before earthquake is observed along the road and rivers, whereas landslides after earthquake are triggered at steeper slopes and at higher altitudes. Combined susceptibility map indicates the effect of topography, geology, and land cover in the triggering of landslides in the entire basin. The resultant landslide susceptibility maps are verified through AUC showing success rates of 78, 81, and 77%, respectively. These susceptibility maps are helpful for engineers and planners for future development work in the landslide prone area.     

Electromagnetic response of a layered transitional earth-infinite cable

Summary A harmonic steady-state analysis is dealt with for a layered earth with transition zone in the presence of an infinite cable carrying a.c. currents. Simplified relations are derived for the case when the transition zone rests directly on an infinitely resistive basement.Presently with the Bundesanstalt für Bodenforschung, Hannover (3 Hannover-Bucholtz, Alfred-Bentz-Haus, W-Germany) under the German Academic Exchanges Service programme.