Analysis of water resources in the Mahanadi River Basin,India under projected climate conditions

The paper presents the outcomes of a study conducted to analyse water resources availability and demand in the Mahanadi River Basin in India under climate change conditions. Climate change impact analysis was carried out for the years 2000, 2025, 2050, 2075 and 2100, for the months of September and April (representing wet and dry months), at a sub‐catchment level. A physically based distributed hydrologic model (DHM) was used for estimation of the present water availability. For future scenarios under climate change conditions, precipitation output of Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis General Circulation Model (CGCM2) was used as the input data for the DHM. The model results show that the highest increase in peak runoff (38%) in the Mahanadi River outlet will occur during September, for the period 2075–2100 and the maximum decrease in average runoff (32·5%) will be in April, for the period 2050–2075. The outcomes indicate that the Mahanadi River Basin is expected to experience progressively increasing intensities of flood in September and drought in April over the considered years. The sectors of domestic, irrigation and industry were considered for water demand estimation. The outcomes of the analysis on present water use indicated a high water abstraction by the irrigation sector. Future water demand shows an increasing trend until 2050, beyond which the demand will decrease owing to the assumed regulation of population explosion. From the simulated future water availability and projected water demand, water stress was computed. Among the six sub‐catchments, the sub‐catchment six shows the peak water demand. This study hence emphasizes on the need for re‐defining water management policies, by incorporating hydrological response of the basin to the long‐term climate change, which will help in developing appropriate flood and drought mitigation measures at the basin level. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meso-scale three-dimensional dynamical model of orographic rainfall

Summary A mesoscale three-dimensional (3-D) dynamical model is presented to diagnose orographic rainfall, with particular reference to the Western Ghats (WG) in India. This model has two parts, namely, a dynamical part and a thermodynamical part. In the dynamical part the vertical velocity induced by a mesoscale elliptical orographic barrier has been computed using the perturbation technique. In the thermodynamical part rainfall intensity (RFI) has been computed using the computed vertical velocities, with the help of continuity of moisture and mass. The computed RFI has been compared with observed RFI as well as with that computed by 2-D model. The present study shows that during the southwest monsoon season (SWMS), orographic rainfall enhancement in the WG area appears to be solely due to the vertical shear of the basic flow and its variation with height. Stability appears to have very little influence on it. The spatial distribution of RFI across the barrier shows that there are four regions of maximum rainfall, one primary on the windward side behind the peak of the barrier and three secondary on the leeward side. The symmetry in the locations of these secondary rainfall maxima appears to be critically dependent on the component of basic flow parallel to the major ridge axis of the barrier.     

A GIS and remote sensing based approach for siting cold storage infrastructure for horticultural crops: A case study for potato crop in Bardhaman district, West Bengal, India

A pilot study was taken up to evolve an optimum plan to locate cold stores for potato in Bardhaman district of West Bengal, India, a leading potato growing area. Remote sensing data from IRS sensors was used to delineate the potato growing area. Road and village information was derived from high-resolution remote sensing data and 1:50,000 scale Survey of India topographic maps. The analysis showed that the present capacity of cold stores can cater to around 40 percent of production. A combination of buffering and location-allocation analysis was performed using Art/Info software. Total 57 cold storage sites with average capacity were identified. Further, analysis was carried out for phase wise development of sites according to priority.     

Erodibility of fine soil from the composite river bank of Brahmaputra in India

The erosion of a composite river bank critically depends on the erodibility of its fine soils, as the fine soil has higher resistance against erosion. Therefore, for the estimation of the bank erosion in the case of a composite river bank, it is important to determine the critical shear stress and erodibility coefficients of the bank soil and their spatial distribution. In the present study, erodibility parameters of the river bank of Brahmaputra in India have been estimated through 58 in situ submerged jet tests. The significance of spatial and layer‐wise distribution of the erodibility parameters was tested through analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results indicate that the spatial variation of erodibility parameters is highly significant, but layer‐wise variations of the erodibility parameters are not significant. Therefore, the erodibility of the riverbank depends on the particular location, whereas layer‐wise average erodibility parameters can be lumped for the estimation of the bank erosion for the specific site. Using the measured erodibility parameters, yearly river bank erosions at the study locations were computed and found to fall within the reported range of the bank erosion in the Brahmaputra River. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthetic impact response functions for flood vulnerability analysis and adaptation measures in coastal zones under changing climatic conditions: a case study in Gippsland coastal region,Australia

There is an increasing concern that the current management practices for many coastal regions are unsustainable. Very few countries have planned to deal with the exacerbation of environmental decline in the face of sea level rise. It is therefore necessary to assess socioeconomic and environmental impacts of sea level rises to better understand the vulnerability of coastal zones, as part of devising adaptive and integrated management principles. This paper presents a systematic approach by which relevant stakeholders can be actively engaged in prioritising flood impact issues and deriving information for quantification of impacts for adaptation measures and demonstrates the approach through implementation in the Gippsland coastal region. As outcomes of the project, we have identified key issues of concern for this region for flood impacts and constructed synthetic response functions for quantification of impacts of floods on some of the key issues in the region. The analysis also showed that stakeholders consider that some of the issues are not likely to be significantly affected by floods and thus may not require adaptation measures. The analysis did not provide high agreement on some issues. Different approaches are required to assess the importance of these issues and to establish impact response functions for them.     

Automated Approach for Extraction of Oil Spill from SAR Imagery

Oil spill pollution is a major environmental concern since it has most dangerous and hazardous effects on marine environment. Periodic monitoring by detecting oil spills along with its movement, helps in efficient clean-up and recovery operations. Over the past few years, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) based remote sensing has received considerable attention for monitoring and detecting oil spill due to its unique capabilities to provide wide-area observation in all weather conditions. However, the interpretation of marine SAR imagery is often ambiguous, since it is difficult to separate oil spill from look-alike features. The objective behind our study was to extract probable oil spill candidates automatically from SAR imageries containing oil spill incidences, where new methods based on over-segmentation and amalgamate approach is used for this purpose. The methodology is all about over segmenting the entire image based on its statistics and amalgamating relevant segments at later point of time to represent actual dark features as probable oil spill candidates. Under the dependency on SAR imageries alone, the approach does not take care of the separation of look-alike features which can be addressed subsequently by the consideration of associated synchronous external data resources such as optical data, wind and ocean parameters (Zhao et al. in Opt Express 22(11):13755–13772, 2014; Espedal and Wahl in Int J Remote Sens 20(1):49–65, 1999). The approach is carried out on a set of RISAT-1 imagery containing oil spill incidences and the extracted oil spill areas are in well agreement with the visually interpreted output with kappa coefficient greater than 0.70 and overall classification accuracy greater than 80%.     

Petrology and geochemistry of the ultramafic–mafic Mawpyut complex,Meghalaya: a Sylhet trap differentiation centre in northeastern India

The present article describes, for the first time, petrological and geochemical details of the Mawpyut differentiated complex which is related to the Sylhet trap located at Jaintia Hills district, Meghalaya, northeastern India. The Mawpyut complex occurs as an arcuate body that intrudes into the surrounding Shillong Group rocks. The complex in general contains ‘ultramafic’ and ‘mafic’ rocks, as well as minor syenitic veins that postdate the main units. The lithotypes correspond to cumulate and noncumulate units. The cumulate unit is represented by olivine clinopyroxenite, clinopyroxenite, plagioclase‐bearing ultramafic, olivine gabbronorite, mela‐gabbronorite, melagabbro, orthopyroxene gabbro, and gabbro, all with a pronounced cumulus texture. The noncumulate unit is marked by gabbro, monzonite, monzodiorite, and quartzsyenite. The use of several major and trace element variation diagrams suggests that magmatic differentiation led to the formation of cumulate and noncumulate units. In chondrite‐normalized REE diagrams the cumulate rocks show flat LREE and MREE patterns and a moderate positive Eu anomaly (in plagioclase‐bearing ultramafics) due to plagioclase cumulation. The rocks of the noncumulate unit show a strongly fractionated REE pattern and no Eu anomaly. The noncumulate mafic rocks are geochemically comparable to high‐phosphorous/high‐titanium basalts (HPT) indicative of low pressure fractional crystallization. In a primitive mantle‐normalized multielement diagram some of the cumulate rocks show pronounced negative anomalies for K and P, indicating anorogenic mafic magmatism in a within‐plate setting. The rocks of the noncumulate unit show a slight negative anomaly for Yb and a Nb–Ta trough, indicating a subduction‐related signature that perhaps is inherited from subducted sedimentary rocks incorporated during crustal contamination of the derived magma (left after crystal cumulation) with country rocks. Various trace element ratios for the cumulate mafic rocks indicate parent EMI/EMII/HIMU sources with a very limited crustal signature. The noncumulate mafic rocks (corresponding to the derived evolved magma) indicate EMI/EMII/HIMU sources with a pronounced crustal contamination. The Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of the Mawpyut samples typically plot in the continental flood basalt field, with an affinity to the EMII source. The isotopic compositions of the noncumulate rocks also clearly indicate crustal contamination. We suggest that partial melting (involving garnet in the residue) of the enriched mantle source EMI/EMII/HIMU could have derived the parental melt; this melt, in turn, underwent assimilation and fractional crystallization to produce the variety of cumulate‐noncumulate lithologies of the Mawpyut complex. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Molecular composition and paleobotanical origin of Eocene resin from northeast India

The molecular composition of fossil resins from early to middle Eocene coal from northeast India, has been analyzed for the first time to infer their paleobotanical source. The soluble component of fossil resin was analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The resin extracts are composed of cadalene-based C₁₅ sesquiterpenoids and diagenetically altered triterpenoids. The macromolecular composition was investigated using pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC–MS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The major pyrolysis products are C₁₅ bicyclic sesquiterpenoids, alkylated naphthalenes, benzenes and a series of C₁₇–C₃₄ n-alkene-n-alkane pairs. Spectroscopic analysis revealed the dominance of aliphatic components. The presence of cadalene-based sequiterpenoids confirms the resin to be Class II or dammar resin, derived from angiosperms of Dipterocarpaceae family. These sesquiterpenoids are often detected in many SE Asian fluvio-deltaic oils. Dipterocarpaceae are characteristic of warm tropical climate suggesting the prevalence of such climate during early Eocene in northeast India.