Valuation of socio-economic indicators for progressing urban sustainability under distinctive rubrics

The key objective of the study is to collect the factors which play an important role in the city's sustainability and implementation advantages for the development of cities in future. This article develops an urban sustainability assessment framework by giving GIS-based decision support tools to guide cities toward sustainability. Multicriteria analysis was used as the decision support system and provides an analytical framework for assessing differences in the level of criteria and ranking decision options. It has the capability for assessment of urban sustainability because it brings sustainability criteria from three pillars of sustainability, environmental, social, and economic, which provide an integrated approach for assessment of urban sustainability. The GIS-based multicriteria analysis serves as a sustainability support system that maps urban sustainability and the underlying environmental, social, and economic conditions. The results from the study show that the four cities - Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, and Multan - have better economic conditions while only Lahore and Faisalabad showed social progress and the remaining cities showed less suitability. For the environmental index, none of the cities attained high suitability. Lahore, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi showed better conditions than Gujranwala and Multan. It is demonstrated that Punjab cities have made progress in economic condition and improvement in social condition but have poor environmental condition. In the study, the environmental dimension has indicators which have more impact on the urban sustainability. Environmental degradation is observed in all selected regions and not a single region showed suitability toward its environmental condition and due to this none of the cities gained suitable scores for urban sustainability. Consequently, urban sustainability is a multidimensional and dynamic process that needs regular evaluation and monitoring. Thus, this article contends that the tools help to highlight and emphasize those areas that need guidance in achieving urban sustainability.     

Urban steeplands in the tropics: an environment of accelerated erosion

The developing countries at present have a high urban growth rate that is likely to continue for at least another quarter-century. In addition, many of these urban centres are located in the Neogene plate boundary zones and are subject to multiple earthquake and volcanic hazards. Slope failures and accelerated surface and channel erosion are particularly severe in cities near active plate margins, and in areas affected also by tropical cyclones. We discuss two extreme cases: Singapore and Kingston (Jamaica). Singapore is located in a stable environment and the urbanization related problems of flood and slope instability have been reduced by proper building and drainage practices at a considerable cost. In Kingston, the external disturbances are repetitive, large-scale, and very difficult to control. The fast-growing cities in the tropics need to be carefully monitored, especially when located in an unstable physical environment. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Investigation of Arsenotrophic Microbiome in Arsenic‐Affected Bangladesh Groundwater

Arsenotrophic bacteria contribute to the nutrient cycling in arsenic (As) affected groundwater. This study employed a culture‐independent and ‐dependent investigation of arsenotrophic microbiomes in As affected groundwater samples collected from Madhabpur, Sonatengra, and Union Porishod in Singair Upazila, Manikganj, Bangladesh. Total As contents, detected by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) of the samples, were 47 µg/L (Madhabpur, SNGW‐1), 53 µg/L (Sonatengra, SNGW‐2), and 12 µg/L (Union porishod, SNGW‐3), whereas the control well (SNGW‐4; depths >150 m) showed As content of 6 µg/L. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis of the amplified 16S rRNA gene from As‐affected groundwater samples revealed the dominance of aerobic bacteria Pseudomonas within heterogeneous bacterial populations. DGGE of heterotrophic enrichments supplemented with arsenite [As (III)] for 4 weeks showed the dominance of Chryseobacterium, Flavobacterium, and Aquabacterium, whereas the dominant genera in that of autotrophic enrichments were Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas. Cultured bacteria retrieved from both autotrophic and heterotrophic enrichments were distinguished into nine genotypes belonging to Chryseobacterium, Acinetobacter, Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Janibacter, Staphylococcus, and Bacillus. They exhibited varying range of As(III) tolerance from 4 to 27 mM. As(III) transformation potential was confirmed within the isolates with oxidation rate as high as 0.143 mM/h for Pseudomonas sp. Sn 28. The arsenotrophic microbiome specifies their potential role in groundwater As‐cycling and their genetic information provide the scientific basis for As‐bioremediation.     

Hydrogeological typologies of the Indo-Gangetic basin alluvial aquifer,South Asia

The Indo-Gangetic aquifer is one of the world’s most important transboundary water resources, and the most heavily exploited aquifer in the world. To better understand the aquifer system, typologies have been characterized for the aquifer, which integrate existing datasets across the Indo-Gangetic catchment basin at a transboundary scale for the first time, and provide an alternative conceptualization of this aquifer system. Traditionally considered and mapped as a single homogenous aquifer of comparable aquifer properties and groundwater resource at a transboundary scale, the typologies illuminate significant spatial differences in recharge, permeability, storage, and groundwater chemistry across the aquifer system at this transboundary scale. These changes are shown to be systematic, concurrent with large-scale changes in sedimentology of the Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial aquifer, climate, and recent irrigation practices. Seven typologies of the aquifer are presented, each having a distinct set of challenges and opportunities for groundwater development and a different resilience to abstraction and climate change. The seven typologies are: (1) the piedmont margin, (2) the Upper Indus and Upper-Mid Ganges, (3) the Lower Ganges and Mid Brahmaputra, (4) the fluvially influenced deltaic area of the Bengal Basin, (5) the Middle Indus and Upper Ganges, (6) the Lower Indus, and (7) the marine-influenced deltaic areas.     

Macrobenthic community structure in the northern Saudi waters of the Gulf, 14 years after the 1991 oil spill

The 1991 Gulf oil spill heavily impacted the coastal areas of the Saudi waters of the Arabian Gulf and recent studies have indicated that even 15 years after the incident, macrobenthos had not completely recovered in the sheltered bays in the affected region such as, Manifa Bay. This study investigates the community conditions of macrobenthos in the open waters in one of the impacted areas, Al-Khafji waters, about 14 years after the spill. Diversity measures and community structure analyses indicate a healthy status of polychaete communities. The BOPA index reveals that oil sensitive amphipods were recolonized in the study area. This confirms that the benthic communities of the oil spill impacted area had taken only <14 years to recover in the open waters of the impacted areas. The study also reveals the existence of three distinct polychaete communities along the depth and sediment gradients.     

Probabilistic seismic hazard of Pakistan, Azad-Jammu and Kashmir

The seismic hazard study for Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has been conducted by using probabilistic approach in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) in m/s² and also seismic hazard response spectra for different cities. A new version of Ambraseys et al. (Bull Earthq Eng 3:1–53, 2005) ground acceleration model is used, and parameterization is based on most recent updated earthquake catalogs that consisted of 14,000 events. The threshold magnitude was fixed at M _w 4.8, but seismic zones like northern Pakistan–Tajikistan, Hindukush and northern Afghanistan–Tajikistan border had M _w 5.2. The average normalized ‘a’ and ‘b’ values for all zones are 6.15 and 0.95, respectively. Seismicity of study area was modeled, and ground motion was computed for eight frequencies (0.025, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 s) for different annual exceedance rates of 0.02, 0.01, 0.005, 0.002 and 0.001 (return periods 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 years) for stiff rocks at the gridding of 0.1° × 0.1°. Seismic hazard maps based on computed PGA for 0.02, 0.01 and 0.002 annual exceedance are prepared. These maps indicate the earthquake hazard of Pakistan and surrounding areas in the form of acceleration contour lines, which are in agreement with geological and seismotectonic characteristics of the study area. The maximum seismic hazard values are found at Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and Quetta areas.     

Hydrochemistry and isotopic studies to identify Ganges River and riverbank groundwater interaction, southern Bangladesh

The Ganges River water and riverbank shallow groundwater were studied during a single wet season using the hydrochemical and isotopic composition of its dissolved load. The dissolved concentrations of major ions (Cl^?, SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^?, HCO₃ ^?, Ca²⁺, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and K⁺), trace elements (barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr)) and stable isotopes (O and D) were determined on samples collected from the Ganges River and its riverbank shallow aquifers. In the present study, the shallow groundwater differs significantly from the Ganges River water; it shows distinct high concentrations of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, HCO₃ ^?, Ba, and Sr due to water–rock interaction and this in particular suggests that the Ganges River may not contribute significantly to the riverbank shallow aquifers during wet season. Besides, the sum of the total cationic charge (∑⁺, in milliequivalents per liter) in the groundwater shows high values (2.48 to 13.91 meq/L, average 9.12 meq/L), which is much higher than the sum of the cations observed in the Ganges water (1.36 to 3.10 meq/L, average 1.94 meq/L). Finally, the more depleted stable isotopic (δ ¹⁸O and δ ²H) compositions of the Ganges River water are in contrast to those of the riverbank aquifer having enriched stable isotopic values during the wet season and the riverbank groundwater thus has a purely local origin from precipitation.