Identification of Suitable Hydrological Models for Streamflow Assessment in the Kangsabati River Basin,India, by Using Different Model Selection Scores

The increasing demand for water in developing countries, like India, requires efficient water management and resource allocation. This is crucial to accurately assess and predict hydrological processes such as streamflow, drought, and flood. However, simulations of these hydrologic processes from various hydrological models differ in their accuracy. By analyzing different characteristics of hydrological models, selection scores can be used to select the best model for the intended purpose based on their inherit strengths (i.e., some models are better for streamflow prediction). In this study, 13 different criteria were used for the model selection scores including temporal and spatial resolutions, and processes involved. Thereafter, based on different scores, we selected two different hydrological models for streamflow prediction in the Kangsabati River Basin (KRB) in eastern India, namely (1) Génie Rural à 4 paramètres Journalier (GR4J), a conceptual model, and (2) Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), a semi-distributed model. The models were calibrated against the daily observed streamflow at upper KRB (Reservoir) and lower KRB (Mohanpur) from 2000 to 2006 and validated during the period from 2008 to 2010. Despite the differences in model structure and data used, both models simulated streamflow at a daily time scale with Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.71–0.82 for the VIC model and 0.63–0.71 for the GR4J. Due to the simpler structure, parsimonious nature, fewer parameters, and reasonable accuracy, the results suggest that a conceptual rainfall—runoff model like GR4J can be used in data-deficient conditions.

     

Colluvial deposits in northwest Deccan,India: their significance in the interpretation of Late Quaternary history

The Deccan Trap region exhibits an erosional landscape over a relatively ancient and stable Deccan shield. The Quaternary history of the area has been reconstructed on the basis of evidence from alluvial deposits occurring along the major rivers. However, recent investigations have revealed that evidence for geo-environmental change during the Quaternary Period is also contained in the colluvial deposits that occur in the foothill zones. The colluvial deposits, ranging in thickness from 1 to 10 m, invariably occupy gently inclined pediment slopes. The sediments are presently deeply dissected by gullies, and the process of colluviation has almost ceased. These deposits are best preserved in the semi-arid parts of the region. Detailed textural, geochemical and stratigraphical studies at four different sites reveal similar input processes, the slight variations being attributed to local environmental factors. Scanning electron microscopy studies of some grains indicate marginal contribution of aeolian processes at the time of deposition. Mesolithic artefacts and a few U/Th dates indicate that the colluviation took place during the Late Quaternary. The properties of the deposits suggest relatively high energy conditions as well as a remarkable variability in the intensity of hillslope processes. These properties are indicative of semi-arid conditions during which the regolith was stripped from devegetated hillslopes and was deposited on the pediments. A variety of evidence indicates that the period of colluviation coincided with arid conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum. The geomorphological and archaeological evidence also indicates that incision by gully systems was initiated during the early Holocene humid phase. The environmental conditions deduced for the study area are similar to those reported for other parts of the intertropical zone. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inertial Alfvén wave induced turbulent spectra in aurora

In the present paper, we investigate the localization of weak inertial Alfvén wave (IAW) in the presence of finite amplitude magnetosonic fluctuations in low β plasmas (β?m _e /m _i ). When IAW is perturbed by these fluctuations, localized structures of IAW magnetic field intensity are formed. We have developed a semi analytical model based on paraxial approximation to study this interaction. Numerical method has also been used to analyse the localized structures and magnetic fluctuation spectrum of IAW. From the obtained results, we find that the magnetic turbulent spectrum upto k _x λ _e ≈3 fits power law spectrum with an index consistent with the Kolmogorov $k_{x}^{ - 5/3}$ law, here λ _e is the electron inertial length. Furthermore, at shorter wavelengths the spectrum steepens to about $k_{x}^{ - 3.8}$ . Energy transfer from larger lengthscales to smaller lengthscales through this mechanism may be responsible for the observed parallel electron heating in auroral region. Results obtained from the simulation are consistent with the observations recorded from various spacecrafts like FAST, Hawkeye and Hoes 2.     

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%.     

Principal component analysis for interaction of nitrifiers and wastewater environments at a full-scale activated sludge plant

This study investigated the relationship between wastewater environments and the nitrifiers at a full-scale plant using principal component analysis. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria were detected by florescent in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction, phylogenetic analysis, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Pyrosequencing was also used in profiling the ammonia monooxygenase locus of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria community. It was found that the dominant ammonia-oxidizing bacteria sequences were related to uncultured ammonia-oxidizing bacterium, uncultured Nitrosomonadaceae bacterium, Nitrosomonas sp., and uncultured bacterium. In addition, Nitrobacter clones were related to uncultured alpha proteobacterium, uncultured bacterium, uncultured Nitrobacter sp., and uncultured Bradyrhizobium sp., whereas Nitrospira clones were similar to uncultured bacterium, Candidatus Nitrospira defluvii, uncultured Nitrospira sp., and uncultured Nitrospirae bacterium. The ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria ranged 2.83 × 10⁸–1.33 × 10¹⁰ and 1.25 × 10¹⁰–1.13 × 10¹¹ copies L^?1, respectively, equivalent to nitrite-oxidizing bacteria: ammonia-oxidizing bacteria ratio of 10:1. The first three parts of the principal components analysis accounted for 76.8% of the explained variance. The first principal component (44.4%) designated that ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and Nitrospira were mainly influenced by seasonal variations, followed by chemical oxygen demand concentration and nitrogen species (i.e., ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate). The second principal component (19.1%) showed no information about the nitrifiers’ interaction with environmental factors, whereas Nitrobacter demonstrated a high correlation with ammonia on the third principal component (13.3%). These results revealed that the species of Nitrobacter were less influenced by environmental conditions than ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and Nitrospira spp.     

Chemometric analysis to infer hydro-geochemical processes in a semi-arid region of India

Groundwater exploitation in Punjab has increased in last few decades due to rapid increase in industrialization, population, crop production, and erratic monsoon. In the present study, groundwater samples from 29 locations were collected and analyzed for almost all major anions, cations, and heavy metals. The analyzed parameters formed the attribute database for statistical analysis. The study approach included multivariate statistical analysis of hydro-chemical data to identify hydro-geochemical processes occurring in the study area and its relation to groundwater quality. The principal component analysis produced seven significant factors that explained nearly 77 % of the cumulative variance. Factor 1 explained nearly 22.05 % of dataset with variables loading indicating mineralization of geological component of soil. Trilinear plot and other graphical methods were also used to identify chemical facies of groundwater and geochemical processes occurring in study area. The water type in the study area is of Na/K–Mg–HCO₃ type. It was found that the general hydro-geochemistry of groundwater in the study area dominated is by the processes such as carbonate/silicate weathering, ion-exchange, and dissolution. Thus, statistical methods can prove to be an effective tool understanding hydro-geochemistry of a region along with conventional graphical methods.     

Agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level using AWiFS/WiFS data of Indian Remote Sensing satellites

Spatial differences in drought proneness and intensity of drought caused by differences in cropping patterns and crop growing environments within a district indicate the need for agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level. The objective of this study is to use moderate resolution satellite images for detailed assessment of the agricultural drought situation at different administrative units (blocks) within a district. Monthly time composite NDVI images derived from moderate resolution AWiFS (60 m) and WiFS (180 m) images from Indian Remote Sensing satellites were analysed along with ground data on rainfall and crop sown areas for the kharif seasons (June – November) of 2002 (drought year), 2004 (early season drought) and 2005 (good monsoon year). The impact of the 2002 meteorological drought on crop area in different blocks of the district was assessed. The amplitude of crop condition variability in a severe drought year (2002) and a good year (2005) was used to map the degree of vulnerability of different blocks in the district to agricultural drought. The impact of early season deficit rainfall in 2004 on the agricultural situation and subsequent recovery of the agricultural situation was clearly shown. Agricultural drought assessment at disaggregated level using moderate resolution images is useful for prioritizing the problem areas within a district to undertake, in season drought management plans, such as alternate cropping strategies, as well as for end of the season drought relief management actions. The availability of ground data on rainfall, cropping pattern, crop calendar, irrigation, soil type etc., is very crucial in order to interpret the seasonal NDVI patterns at disaggregated level for drought assessment. The SWIR band of AWiFS sensor is a potential data source for assessing surface drought at the beginning of the season.     

Measurements of radon flux and soil-gas radon concentration along the Main Central Thrust, Garhwal Himalaya, using SRM and RAD7 detectors

Radon in the Earth’s crust or soil matrix is free to move only if its atoms find their way into pores or capillaries of the matrix. ²²²Rn atoms from solid mineral grains get into air, filling pores through emanation process. Then ²²²Rn enters into the atmosphere from air-filled pores by exhalation process. The estimation of radon flux from soil surface is an important parameter for determining the source term for radon concentration modeling. In the present investigation, radon fluxes and soil-gas radon concentration have been measured along and around the Main Central Thrust (MCT) in Uttarkashi district of Garhwal Himalaya, India, by using Scintillation Radon Monitor (SRM) and RAD7 devices, respectively. The soil radon gas concentration measured by RAD7 with soil probe at the constant depth was found to vary from 12 ± 3 to 2330 ± 48 Bq·m^?3 with geometrical mean value of 302 ± 84 Bq·m^?3. Th significance of this work is its usefulness from radiation protection point of view.     

Near-field and far-field simulation of accelerograms of Sikkim earthquake of September 18, 2011 using modified semi-empirical approach

The semi-empirical approach for modeling of strong ground motion given by Midorikawa (Tectonophysics 218:287?C295, 1993) has been modified in the present paper for component wise simulation of strong ground motion. The modified approach uses seismic moment in place of attenuation relation for scaling of acceleration envelope. Various strong motion properties like directivity effect and dependence of peak ground acceleration with respect to surface projection of source model have been studied in detail in the present work. Recently, Sikkim earthquake of magnitude 6.9 (M _w ) that occurred on September 18, 2011 has been recorded at various near-field and far-field strong motion stations. The modified semi-empirical technique has been used to confirm the location and parameters of rupture responsible for this earthquake. Strong motion record obtained from the iterative modeling of the rupture plane has been compared with available strong motion records from near as well as far-field stations in terms of root mean square error between observed and simulated records. Several possibilities of nucleation point, rupture velocity, and dip of rupture plane have been considered in the present work and records have been simulated at near-field stations. Final selection of model parameters is based on root mean square error of waveform comparison. Final model confirms southward propagating rupture. Simulations at three near-field and twelve far-field stations have been made using final model. Comparison of simulated and observed record has been made in terms of peak ground acceleration and response spectra at 5?% damping. Comparison of simulated and observed record suggests that the method is capable of simulating record which bears realistic appearance in terms of shape and strong motion parameters. Present work shows that this technique gives records which matches in a wide frequency range for Sikkim earthquake and that too from simple and easily accessible parameters of the rupture plane.     

Geomorphometry and fractal dimension of a riverine badland in Maharashtra

One of the most serious limitations in studying the surface morphometry of a badland landscape is the nonavailability of a very fine resolution data which is essential for such types of studies. Local relief of most of the badlands in India and also from other parts of the world exhibit limited relief amplitude, often within a few meters. The paper reports a case study carried out in a riverine badland formed along the Western Deccan Trap Region. An attempt has been made in the present paper to extract the morphometric variables of the landscape from the DEMs derived from a high resolution field generated data, because the accuracy of the DEM derived values are dependent on the pixel resolution of the DEM from which they are generated. The size of the pixel resolution should be fixed differently for different landscapes depending on the landscape process in the area. The local relief of the area is around 10 m and for such types of landscapes the topographical maps and also the web-available DEMs are of very coarse resolutions which are not suitable for the analysis. Therefore two well defined tributary catchments were chosen from the area under investigation and theodolite surveys were carried out, contours were generated with 10 cm interval, DEMs were derived by using Arc GIS software. SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) 90 m resolution data were utilized to generate DEM for the whole basin. Hypsometric and the drainage basin parameters were extracted from these data by using the same software. Fractal dimension of the whole basin and the sample basins were also obtained for the same data. The morphometric data generated were used to understand the geomorphic processes operating in the area.