Impacts of tourism development on the physical environment of Mussoorie,a hill station in the lower Himalayan range of India

Tourism in mountainous regions is a significant source of revenue generation. However, it has also been associated with many adverse environmental consequences. This study aims at assessing the negative impacts of the incessant upsurge in tourism development on the physical environment of Mussoorie, a well-known mountain tourist destination in India. The impact indicators for the region were identified and assessed by qualitative and quantitative analysis of field observations. The observations indicated the aggravation of traffic congestion, atmospheric pollution, undisposed solid waste, water scarcity and infrastructure unavailability as the prevalent issues, especially during the peak tourist months. The extent of the consequential damage to the environment was evaluated by conducting an assessment of tourism-induced human disturbance on the natural landscape of the town. Slope, slope aspect, vegetation cover, road network and drainage network were incorporated as the determining landscape attributes to prepare thematic maps of landscape quality (perceivable intrinsic properties) and landscape fragility (vulnerability to anthropogenic disturbances) using GIS technique. An absorption capacity map was finally prepared to characterize the study area into regions of different conservation needs. The results identified the need for planning appropriate preservation strategies for different tourist places in the town. The study can be used by the policy makers for implementing the regulatory measures against potential disturbances due to mass-tourism.     

Developing and testing the Automated Post-Event Earthquake Loss Estimation and Visualisation (APE-ELEV) technique

An automated, real-time, multiple sensor data source relying and globally applicable earthquake loss model and visualiser is desirable for post-event earthquake analysis. To achieve this there is a need to support rapid data ingestion, loss estimation and integration of data from multiple data sources and rapid visualisation at multiple geographic levels. In this paper, the design and development of the Automated Post-Event Earthquake Loss Estimation and Visualisation (APE-ELEV) system for real-time estimation and visualisation of insured losses incurred due to earthquakes is presented. A model for estimating ground up and net of facultative losses due to earthquakes in near real-time is implemented. Since post-event data is often available immediately from multiple disparate sources, a geo-browser is employed to facilitate the visualisation and integration of earthquake hazard, exposure and loss data. The feasibility of APE-ELEV is demonstrated using a test case earthquake that occurred in Tohoku, Japan (2011). The APE-ELEV model is further validated for ten global earthquakes using industry loss data.     

Mineralogy and origin of dumortierite from Girola area,Bhandara district,Eastern Maharashtra

Dumortierite an aluminium borosilicate mineral occurring as aggregates of fibrous, nodular and displaying variable colours is found at Girola hill of Bhandara district. It is associated with kyanite, sillimanite, andalusite, muscovite (sericite), quartz, topaz, rutile, tourmaline and pyrophyllite. It is pink, violet and blue (indigo blue) in colour associated with quartz veins. It shows strong pleochroism from colourless to light pink and pale blue to violet (azure blue).     

A spectral index ratio-based Antarctic land-cover mapping using hyperspatial 8-band WorldView-2 imagery

This study evaluates the potential of 8-band high resolution WorldView-2 (WV-2) panchromatic (PAN) and multispectral image (MSI) data for the extraction of polar geospatial information. We introduce a novel method based on a customized set of normalized difference Spectral Index Ratios (SIRs), incorporating multiple bands, to improve the accuracy of land-cover mapping in the Antarctic. Most recently available WV-2 data are classified into land-cover surfaces such as snow/ice, water bodies, and landmass using the customized normalized difference SIRs. A novel multi-fold methodology is used to evaluate the effect of pan-sharpening algorithms on spectral characteristics of satellite data, and on subsequent land-cover mapping using an array of SIRs. A set of existing pan-sharpening algorithms was implemented in order to fuse PAN with MSI data, followed by estimation of multiple SIRs to extract target land-cover classes. These algorithms were compared on the basis of their effectiveness in extracting target classes using a defined set of SIRs. Our results indicate that the use of 8-band WV-2, customized SIRs, and appropriate pan-sharpening can greatly improve the extraction of land-cover information.     

Permeability of granular soil employing flexible wall permeameter

Understanding the changes in permeability of soil, when soil is subjected to high confining pressure and flow pressure, which may alter the textural and geomechanical characteristics of soil, is of great importance to many geo-engineering activities such as, construction of high-rise buildings near the coast or the water bodies, earthen dams, pavement subgrades, reservoir, and shallow repositories. It is now possible to evaluate the changes in permeability of soil samples under varying conditions of confining pressure and flow pressure using flexible wall permeameter (FWP). In the present study, investigation was carried out on a cylindrical sample of granular soil employing FWP under varied conditions of confining pressure (σ₃)—50–300 kPa, which can simulate the stress conditions equivalent to depth of about 20 m under the earth’s crust, and a flow pressure (f_p)—20–120 kPa, which is mainly present near the small earthen embankment dams, landfill liners, and slurry walls near the soft granular soil with high groundwater table. The obtained results indicate a linear relationship between hydraulic conductivity (k) with effective confining pressure (σ_eff.), k, decreasing linearly with an incremental change in σ_eff.. Further, k increases significantly with an increase in f_p corresponding to each σ_eff., and q increases significantly with increase in the f_p corresponding to each (σ₃). It was also observed that corresponding to the low f_p of 20 kPa, the reduction in k is nonlinear with σ_3. The percentage reduction in k is observed to be 9, 13, and 27% corresponding to σ₃ of 50–100, 100–200, and 200-300 kPa, respectively.     

SIFT-FANN: An efficient framework for spatio-spectral fusion of satellite images

Image fusion techniques are widely used for remote sensing data. A special application is for using low resolution multi-spectral image with high resolution panchromatic image to obtain an image having both spectral and spatial information. Alignment of images to be fused is a step prior to image fusion. This is achieved by registering the images. This paper proposes the methods involving Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbor (FANN) for automatic registration of satellite image (reference image) prior to fusion of low spatial resolution multi-spectral QuickBird satellite image (sensed image) with high spatial resolution panchromatic QuickBird satellite image. In the registration steps, Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is used to extract key points from both images. The keypoints are then matched using the automatic tuning algorithm, namely, FANN. This algorithm automatically selects the most appropriate indexing algorithm for the dataset. The indexed features are then matched using approximate nearest neighbor. Further, Random Sample Consensus (RanSAC) is used for further filtering to obtain only the inliers and co-register the images. The images are then fused using Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS) transform based technique to obtain a high spatial resolution multi-spectral image. The results show that the quality of fused images obtained using this algorithm is computationally efficient.     

Hydroclimatic river discharge and seasonal trends assessment model using an advanced spatio-temporal model

Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment - Climatic changes have a significant impact on the hydrologic behavior of a river especially its discharge. Sustainable management of water...