Perception and knowledge about climate change and health problems: a study in Kolkata Metropolitan Region

In the twenty-first century, land use changes, massive expansion of urbanization, population growth, economic crisis, environmental issues are the main challenges of developing countries. Climate change and its effects on human health are the major concerns for the different age groups of the population. The study delved into the causes associated with climate change and climate change-related myriad health impacts on the study population. This study has used a concurrent mixed-method research design. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the study area. Perception and knowledge about climate change and its consequences on health was based on a quantitative approach of Bi-variate analysis and Chi-Square test and Fisher’s exact test; this study also used qualitative data analysis. Study results show that most respondents pointed out that temperature increases throughout the year and 90% of the respondents reported that rainfall pattern has also changed. Similarly, 65% of respondents agreed in their statements in favour of increased natural calamities in this region. The study findings show that more than 40% of population faces dengue fever and 10% of people also suffer from malaria. More than 60% of the urban population suffered from asthma. Similarly, more than 70% of the population also got affected by cold and cough due to weather variability. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and In-depth interviews of the participants also affirmed the fact that climate variability induced diseases and health problems in Kolkata Metropolitan areas. Urban residents perceived that excessive urbanization contributes to the changes in regional climate and human health. The study will encourage the policy-makers and local government to mitigate adverse health effects driven by climate change in the Kolkata Metropolitan Region.

     

A study on the number of snow days over Eurasia, Indian rainfall and seasonal circulations

Summary In this paper, the relationship between seasonal mean (June, July, August and September) monsoon circulation features and the midlatitude circulations in winter and spring seasons have been examined during contrasting years of more (less) number of snow days in winter/spring followed by deficient (excess) Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) using NCEP/NCAR reanalyzed data for the period 1966–1994. The Historical Soviet Daily Snow Depth (HSDSD) version II data set has been used to calculate the number of days of snow over west and east Eurasia separately under three classes: class 1 for SD>5cm, class 2 for SD>10cm and class 3 for SD>50cm where SD stands for snow depth. Correlation coefficients are computed between the anomaly in the number of days of snow depth under the above three classes during winter/spring over west and east Eurasia and the subsequent ISMR. HSDSD data show that difference in the number of days of SD>10cm in two extreme years is most prominent in the west Eurasia in the months of January and April. Also the anomaly in the number of days of snow in January and April over west Eurasia has correlation coefficients of –0.69 and –0.56 with the following ISMR, respectively at 0.1% significance level when the SD is more than 10cm at all the stations. Results also show that low-level atmospheric temperature difference between two extreme years of snow days in winter is up to 10°C and the cooling persists up to spring season with a difference of 2°C. This cooling persistence may give rise to anomalous cyclonic circulations over the midlatitudes and tropics which may be responsible for weakening the monsoon circulation over India during the year of more snow days over west Eurasia.     

Carbon dioxide,water vapor and sensible heat exchanges of a grain sorghum canopy

With the aid of eddy correlation instrumentation, the components of the energy budget and CO₂ flux were measured over grain sorghum grown at Mead, Nebraska. Diurnal patterns of sensible heat, latent heat, CO₂ and momentum flux are examined for typical days. On a mostly clear day when the crop leaf area index was 3.7, net radiation reached a mid-day peak of 560 W m^-2, while sensible and latent heat fluxes peaked at 50 and 460 W m^-2, respectively. The peak CO₂ flux occurring just prior to solar noon was 1.5 mg m^-2(ground area) s^-1. CO₂ flux (respiration from plants, soil and roots) in the early evening was about -0.28 mg m^-2 (ground area) s^-1.A relationship between CO₂ flux and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was developed. Except during the late stage of growth (growth stage 8.5, toward the initiation of senescence), the crop showed no evidence of saturation up to PAR 1800 Ei m^-2s^-1. The light compensation point was found to be about 211 Ei m^-2s^-1. Examination of CO₂ flux-PAR relationships for selected days through the season indicated an aging effect in terms of a decrease in photosynthetic activity of the sorghum canopy. Measurements made on two consecutive days demonstrate the effects of weather conditions on CO₂ flux and carbon-water flux ratio (a measure of water use efficiency of the crop). The occurrence of regional sensible heat advection with concommitant high vapor pressure deficit and air temperature-limited CO₂ exchange reduced the carbon-water flux ratio.Published as Paper No. 7717, Journal Series, Nebraska Agricultural Research Division. The work was conducted under Regional Research Project 11-33 and Nebraska Agricultural Research Division Project 27-003.Formerly Post Doctoral Research Associate (now at the University of Connecticut Department of Renewable Natural Resources Storrs CT)     

Glacier surface characteristics derivation and monitoring using Hyperspectral datasets: a case study of Gepang Gath glacier,Western Himalaya

Mountain Glaciers are natural resources of fresh water and these affect the stream flow of the rivers, regional climate and further global climate. Observed trends and projected future evolutions of climate and Cryospheric variables clearly suggest a need to monitor these changes. Accordingly, the article presents the glacier features mapping using Hyperspectral remote sensing imagery. A freely available Hyperion satellite imagery acquired over Gepang Gath glacier in Himachal Pradesh, India is used for the study. Each class is identified based on their surface characteristics of spectral reflectance properties. Identification is simplified by demarcating the study glacier into accumulation and ablation areas through snowline. Accumulation area is characterized with high reflectance clean snow/ice and reduced moderate reflectance Snow/firn. The identification of classes in Hyperion imagery is validated using the spectral library from USGS and ASTER, and field spectra obtained from literature.     

Hyper-spectral data based investigations for snow wetness mapping

Spatial information on snow wetness content (SWC) is important for hydrology, climatology applications. Limited work is available on estimation of SWC using optical sensors. In present work, spectral signature characteristics of snow (~145 samples) acquired in winters of three years, using field spectral-radiometer (350–2500 nm) were correlated with synchronized SWC measurements. Correlation is found stronger in Near-Infra-Red (NIR) and Short-Wave-Infrared (SWIR) regions than Visible (VIS). Spectral peak width at 905 and 1240 nm is found negatively correlated with SWC, while positively correlated at 1025 nm. Asymmetry tends towards right as SWC increases and has stable positive correlations as compared to other characteristics. Sensitivity of widely used snow-related indices to SWC is also analyzed. Based on analysis, new ratio method at selected wavelengths is proposed to discriminate dry and wet snow zones using air/ground borne sensors. Proposed methodology is evaluated on air-borne hyper-spectral (AVIRIS-NG) data and 88% overall accuracy with kappa coefficient 77.6 observed after validation with reference observations.     

Analyzing hyper-spectral and multi-spectral data fusion in spectral domain

Image fusion is the combination of two or more different images to form a new image by using a certain algorithm. Despite the fact that the number and kind of satellite imagery are daily increasing, using fusion techniques, in a proper way, to eliminate the redundancy in data and increase the quality of data is an important challenge in Remote Sensing Image Processing. Fusion of multispectral images with a hyperspectral image generates a composite image which preserves the spatial quality from the high resolution (MS) data and the spectral characteristics from the hyperspectral data. For the present study three fusion algorithms (Principal Component Transformation, Colour Normalized and Gram-Scmidt Transformation) were analysed for Hyperion and IKONOS MSS data. Their ability to preserve the spectral quality of fused data, in comparison with original hyper-spectral image, has been investigated.     

Optimal pumping from skimming wells from the Yamuna River flood plain in north India

This report examines the problem involving the pumping of groundwater from a group of 90 existing wells along the banks of the Yamuna River, northwest of Delhi (India), underlain with geologically occurring saline water. It is known that unregulated pumping will lead to upconing of saline water and therefore it is necessary to determine optimal rates and associated well locations (from an existing group of candidate wells that supply drinking water to the city of Delhi) that will minimize the total salinity. The nonlinear, non-convex problem is solved by embedding the calibrated groundwater model within a simulation-optimisation (S/O) framework. Optimisation is accomplished by using simulated annealing (SA), a search algorithm. The computational burden is primarily managed by replacing the numerical model with a surrogate simulator-artificial neural network (ANN). The model is applied to the real system to determine the optimal pumping schedule. The results of the operational model suggest that the skimming wells must be operated from optimal locations such that they are staggered in space and time to obtain the least saline water.     

Response of the Indian summer monsoon circulation and rainfall to seasonal snow depth anomaly over Eurasia

Several observational and modeling studies indicate that the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) is inversely related to the Eurasian snow extent and depth. The other two important surface boundary conditions which influence the ISMR are the Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) to a large extent and the Indian Ocean SST to some extent. In the present study, observed Soviet snow depth data and Indian rainfall data for the period 1951–1994 have been statistically analyzed and results show that 57% of heavy snow events and 24% of light snow events over west Eurasia are followed by deficient and excess ISMR respectively. Out of all the extreme monsoon years, care has been taken to identify those when Eurasian snow was the most dominant surface forcing to influence ISMR. During the years of high(low) Eurasian snow amounts in spring/winter followed by deficient(excess) ISMR, atmospheric fields such as temperature, wind, geopotential height, velocity potential and stream function based on NCEP/NCAR reanalyses have been examined in detail to study the influence of Eurasian snow on the midlatitude circulation regime and hence on the monsoon circulation. Results show that because of the west Eurasian snow anomalies, the midlatitude circulations in winter through spring show significant changes in the upper and lower level wind, geopotential height, velocity potential and stream function fields. Such changes in the large-scale circulation pattern may be interpreted as precursors to weak/strong monsoon circulation and deficient/excess ISMR. The upper level velocity potential difference fields between the high and low snow years indicate that with the advent of spring, the winter anomalous convergence over the Indian region gradually becomes weaker and gives way to anomalous divergence that persists through the summer monsoon season. Also the upper level anomalous divergence centre shifts from over the Northern Hemisphere and equator to the Southern Hemisphere over the Indian Ocean and Australia.     

GEOLOGICAL STUDIES OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS IN THE VICINITY OF M.C.T./LESSER HIMALAYAN SHEAR ZONE, PARTS OF SIKKIM HIMALAYAS

GEOLOGICAL STUDIES OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS IN THE VICINITY OF M.C.T./LESSER HIMALAYAN SHEAR ZONE, PARTS OF SIKKIM HIMALAYAS