CDFSIM: Efficient Stochastic Simulation Through Decomposition of Cumulative Distribution Functions of Transformed Spatial Patterns

Simulation of categorical and continuous variables is performed using a new pattern-based simulation method founded upon coding spatial patterns in one dimension. The method consists of, first, using a spatial template to extract information in the form of patterns from a training image. Patterns are grouped into a pattern database and, then, mapped to one dimension. Cumulative distribution functions of the one-dimensional patterns are built. Patterns are then classified by decomposing the cumulative distribution functions, and calculating class or cluster prototypes. During the simulation process, a conditioning data event is compared to the class prototype, and a pattern is randomly drawn from the best matched class. Several examples are presented so as to assess the performance of the proposed method, including conditional and unconditional simulations of categorical and continuous data sets. Results show that the proposed method is efficient and very well performing in both two and three dimensions. Comparison of the proposed method to the filtersim algorithm suggests that it is better at reproducing the multi-point configurations and main characteristics of the reference images, while less sensitive to the number of classes and spatial templates used in the simulations.     

Flood hazard assessment with multiparameter approach derived from coupled 1D and 2D hydrodynamic flow model

Hydrodynamic flow modeling is carried out using a coupled 1D and 2D hydrodynamic flow model in northern India where an industrial plant is proposed. Two flooding scenarios, one considering the flooding source at regional/catchment level and another considering all flooding sources at local level have been simulated. For simulating flooding scenario due to flooding of the upstream catchment, the probable maximum flood (PMF) in the main river is routed and its flooding impact at the plant site is studied, while at the local level flooding, in addition to PMF in the main river, the probable maximum precipitation at the plant site and breaches in the canals near the plant site have been considered. The flood extent, depth, level, duration and maximum flow velocity have been computed. Three parameters namely the flood depth, cross product of flood depth and velocity and flood duration have been used for assessing the flood hazard, and a flood hazard classification scheme has been proposed. Flood hazard assessment for flooding due to upstream catchment and study on local scale facilitates determination of plinth level for the plant site and helps in identifying the flood protection measures.     

Arbitrary amplitude double layers in a four component dusty plasma with kappa distributed electron

Dust acoustic double layers are studied in a four component dusty plasma comprising positively and negatively charged dust grains, Boltzmann distributed ions and kappa distributed electrons. The conditions for existence of double layers are studied in detail using Sagdeev’s method. Large amplitude double layers are obtained for a range of values of the plasma parameters.     

Spectroscopic study of rocks of Hutti-Maski schist belt,Karnataka

Recent developments in sensor technology have given an onset for studying the earth surface features based on the detailed spectroscopic observation of different rocks and minerals. The spectroscopic profiles of the rocks are always quite different than their constituent minerals however, the spectral profile of a rock can be broadly reconstituted from the spectral profile of each constituent minerals. Interpretation of rock spectra using the spectra of constituent minerals based on relative spectral matching can bring out interesting information on the rock. Present study is an effort toward this and it highlights how visible-near infrared-shortwave-infrared (VNIR-SWIR) rock spectroscopy acts as an useful tool for understanding the rock-mineralogy in indirect and rapid way. It has also been observed that spectral signatures of rocks; studied in present case, are related to spectral signatures of constituent minerals although absorption features of constituent mineral in the rock are also modified by the other minerals juxtaposed in the rock fabric. However, each rock of the study area has their significant absorption features, but many of the absorption signatures are closely spaced, as altered rock has significant absorption at 2305 nm whereas amphibolite has its important absorption signature in 2385 nm and metabasalt has its significant absorption at 2342 nm. Therefore spectral measurement of high spectral resolution with appreciable signal to noise ratio (SNR) only can detect rocks from each other based on the absorption signatures mentioned above (each of which is 10 to 20 nm apart from the other) and therefore spectroscopy of rock is an innovative technique to map rocks and minerals based on the spectral signatures.     

Violent morphologies: Landscape, border and scale in Ahmedabad conflict

Conflicts produce violence through death, confinement, torture, and control of spaces of everyday life. This paper investigates how spatial morphologies, like landscapes, borders and scales, are re-ordered and re-imagined to materialize violence. A Hindu–Muslim conflict in the globalizing city of Ahmedabad, India in 2002 is used as a case study. The conflict unfolded in a dying industrial city, now being re-envisioned through neoliberal urban entrepreneurialism into a ‘global city’. During and after the riots, the majority Hindu community, and the local Hindu fundamentalist government, annihilated the life spaces of the minority Muslim community. Through a combination of Hindu rioting and urban renewal, landscapes were destroyed, new spaces produced, borders re-imagined, and new ones imprinted on the landscape, to segregate previously co-existing communities. Local government and Hindu ideologues creatively juxtaposed neoliberal economic polices, global discourses of Islamophobia, local ethnocentrism to alter the spatial morphologies of Ahmedabad. Justice entails the democratization of space by altering the violent morphologies of Ahmedabad.     

Demarcation of fluoride vulnerability zones in granitic aquifer,semi-arid region,Telengana, India

This study has been carried out in the granitic aquifer of Maheshwaram watershed, Telengana, India. In this study, groundwater sample data of 8 years were analyzed for the fluoride content with other chemical quality parameters. The correlation and factor analysis were employed to understand the mechanisms for fluoride (F) enrichment as well as the hydrochemistry of the area. These analyses addressed that the observed groundwater quality was due to water-rock interaction in the aquifer and fluoride is coming from the dissolution of fluorite and other silicate minerals like biotite and hornblende by the groundwater. Land use/land cover (LULC) study from 2002 to 2008 revealed there were significant positive changes in build-up land and negative changes in vegetation cover after 2003. The main agriculture (paddy) has been reduced to 0.97 km² in 2008 from 2.39 km² in 2003. The studied watershed has been characterized on the basis of F concentration into safe, transition, and unsafe groups following the WHO and BIS guidelines. The temporal variation of the three groups showed that 57.6% area of the watershed was in unsafe zone in 2000–2003, but 69.2% of the area became safe in 2006–2009. It has been found that F concentration reduced in 12.59% of the area (became safe from unsafe) accompanied by the reduction of paddy field area. After validation with present (2016) fluoride concentrations, it was found that 16.28% are vulnerable in near future. The results of this study showed that (a) the safe and unsafe zones of fluoride concentrations vary with time with the changes in other parameters associated with it like crop pattern and (b) vulnerable zone can be identified based on the susceptibility to change of safe and unsafe zones. Such studies are useful for planning and management purposes.     

Geochemical and isotope hydrological characterisation of geothermal resources at Godavari valley,India

Thermal waters at the Godavari valley geothermal field are located in the Khammam district of the Telangana state, India. The study area consists of several thermal water manifestations having temperature in the range 36–76 °C scattered over an area of ~35 km². The thermal waters are Na–HCO₃ type with moderate silica and TDS concentrations. In the present study, detailed geochemical (major and trace elements) and isotope hydrological investigations are carried out to understand the hydrogeochemical evolution of these thermal waters. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) are performed to classify the thermal waters and to identify the different geochemical processes controlling the thermal water geochemistry. From correlation matrix, it is seen that TDS and EC of the thermal springs are mainly controlled by HCO₃ and Na ions. In PCA, thermal waters are grouped into two distinct clusters. One cluster represents thermal waters from deeper aquifer and other one from shallow aquifer. Lithium and boron concentrations are found to be similar followed by rubidium and caesium concentrations. Different ternary plots reveal rock–water interaction to be the dominant mechanism for controlling trace element concentrations. Stable isotopes (δ¹⁸O, δ²H) data indicate the meteoric origin of the thermal waters with no appreciable oxygen-18 shift. The low tritium values of the samples originating from deeper aquifer reveal the long residence time (>50 years) of the recharging waters. XRD results of the drill core samples show that quartz constitutes the major mineral phase, whereas kaolinite, dolomite, microcline, calcite, mica, etc. are present as minor constituents. Quartz geothermometer suggests a reservoir temperature of 100 ± 20 °C which is in good agreement with the values obtained from K–Mg and Mg-corrected K–Mg–Ca geothermometers.     

Geological and mineralogical study of eclogite and glaucophane schists in the Naga Hills Ophiolite,Northeast India

A variety of low‐ to high‐pressure metamorphic assemblages occur in the metabasic rocks and metachert in the Upper Cretaceous–Eocene ophiolite belt of the central part of the Naga Hills, an area in the northern sector of the Indo–Myanmar Ranges in the Indo–Eurasian collision zone. The ophiolite suite includes peridotite tectonite containing garnet lherzolite xenoliths, layered ultramafic–mafic cumulates, metabasic rocks, basaltic lava, volcaniclastics, plagiogranite, and pelagic sediments emplaced as dismembered and imbricated bodies at thrust contacts between moderately metamorphosed accretionary rocks/basement (Nimi Formation/Naga Metamorphics) and marine sediments (Disang Flysch). It is overlain by coarse clastic Paleogene sediments of ophiolite‐derived rocks (Jopi/Phokphur Formation). The metabasic rocks, including high‐grade barroisite/glaucophane‐bearing epidote eclogite and glaucophane schist, and low‐grade greenschist and prehnite–clinochlore schist, are associated with lava flows and ultramafic cumulates at the western thrust contact. Chemically, the metabasites show a low‐K tholeiitic affinity that favors derivation from a depleted mantle source as in the case of mid‐ocean ridge basalt. Thermobarometry indicates peak P–T conditions of about 20 kb and 525°C. Retrogression related to uplift is marked by replacement of barroisite and omphacite by glaucophane followed by secondary actinolite, albite, and chlorite formation. A metabasic lens with an eclogite core surrounded by successive layers of glaucophane schist and greenschist provides field evidence of retrogression and uplift. Presence of S‐C mylonite in garnet lherzolite and ‘mica fish’ in glaucophane schist indicates ductile deformation in the shear zone along which the ophiolite was emplaced.