Articles

• Geo-physical attributes of Shushunia’s aquifer, Chhatna block, Bankura district, West Bengal, India

  1-11

  Namgyal Tshewang Bhutia

  Malavika Sinha

  Views:

  93

  Shushunia hill lies in a transitional zone of the South Singbhum Mobile Craton and northern Gondwana formation. The Shushunia hill appears like a porcupine peak and it has structural similarity to the Eastern Ghat. The Shushunia hill zone is an example of a contact spring. In the foothill zone, two perennial springs are observed. The study purely deals with its aquifer and water quality. Based on the present rock strata and the nature of the contact aquifer, its early condition has been assumed. The discharge of the confined aquifers occurs by leakage. The water temperature depicts the springs are not of geothermal origin. Shushunia's aquifer is the shallow flow system water table and it is the subdued replica of surface topography.  The comparatively high discharge rate during post-monsoon indicates the fractured conduit-water seepage towards the aquifer. Moreover, twin-contact aquifers do not yield water uniformly. The perennial aquifer may act as a municipal water supply source for drinking purposes in the future.

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  143

• GIS-integrated multi-criteria suitability anal­ysis for healthcare facilities site selection in Rajouri district, Jammu and Kashmir, India

  12-29

  Arshad Ahmed

  Kheraj

  Amjed Ali

  Kiran Rani

  Meenaxy

  Views:

  173

  The study aims to develop a Decision Support model for the selection of a suitable site to establish a new healthcare center with adequate facilities based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. This study utilized AHP and GIS to identify an appropriate location for a new healthcare center. The study employed eight criteria to evaluate potential locations and utilized pairwise comparison to assign weights to each criterion. GIS-based spatial analysis was used to create factor and suitability maps for each criterion. Suitability was evaluated on a scale of 0 to 10 and each factor map was combined using the ArcGIS weighted overlay selection tool. The final map of the study represents the suitable site for a healthcare center in the Rajouri district and it shows the sites from the highly suitable to the least suitable area. In Rajouri district, mostly the central part can be considered very suitable as the population density of this area is higher compared to other areas of the district. The southwestern parts of the district are moderately suitable or least suitable sites for a new healthcare center. The study displays the pattern of the existing location of healthcare centers, mostly, the existing locations are not proper and suitable. Therefore, in the future, the allocation of healthcare centers must be in more adequate areas. Policymakers and healthcare professionals can be benefitted from this study in selecting suitable locations for future hospitals, which could ultimately improve access to healthcare services in the region. Additionally, the study can be contemplated in developing new policies for better transportation system in the study area.

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  147

• The impact of a plastic ban implementation scenario on residents of Tiruchirappalli region

  30-41

  Kavya Siddeshwar

  M. Prashanthi Devi

  Views:

  145

  Plastic was created first for its durability, extended life, and capacity to be moulded into a broad range of items. There are three reasons why plastics are still used in the packaging sector, even though they are harmful to the environment. First, its low economic cost and widespread circulation. The second feature is their capacity to contain air and water while remaining watertight. The third characteristic is its relative inertness. Based on this, respondents were polled to assess their awareness of alternatives and to comprehend the pre- and post-ban situation for plastics. About 370 respondents from different age groups from different sectors from urban and rural dwellers of Trichy were asked about the prohibition of plastic carry bags, its acceptance, the alternatives available and the cost paid. Most respondents were unhappy about the removal of plastic bags and the high cost of cloth or other bags. Due to environmental concerns and their implications, it was revealed that the negative effects of plastics had not entered society sufficiently to allow the people to reject them. However, durability, lightness, flexibility, and low cost still predominate because the consumer requires plastic bags. Strict steps aiming at promoting public knowledge of the damaging consequences of plastics, their negative impact on the environment, and lowering the costs of alternatives should be explored as immediate remedies.

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  147

• Monitoring temperature patterns at selected world heritage sites in Egypt using high resolution WorldClim data

  42-58

  Viranch N. Dave

  Views:

  531

  Long term temperature patterns helps in assessing changes in the climatic conditions of an area and climatic changes poses a major challenge to the world heritage sites whether it is natural or cultural. Therefore in this study using maximum and minimum temperature data for the period 1960-2021 downloaded from WorldClim 2.1 calculation of mean temperature is done in QGIS environment for the selected UNESCO world heritage sites of Arab Republic of Egypt. WorldClim 2.1 provides finer resolution gridded data downscaled from Climate Research Unit. Trend analysis using linear regression and Mann-Kendall method and Sen’s Slope estimate is used to understand the patterns of mean temperature at all the selected sites. The study reveals that mean temperature at all the selected sites is increasing but since 1990 the sites which are located geographically in lower Egypt are witnessing rapid increase in mean temperature compared to the sites located in upper Egypt which historically witnessed more temperature due to its geographical milieu. This study can help in stimulating the utility of geospatial data in understanding the changes in climatic parameters in relation to world heritage sites. Moreover it can serve as foundation upon which detailed longitudinal site specific investigation can be done.

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  259

• Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of Streams in Extreme Humid Areas: A Case Study of the Um-Mawiong River Basin, Mawsynram, Meghalaya

  59-75

  Andy T.G Lyngdoh

  Bring Blessing L Ryntathiang

  Views:

  129

  Quantitative morphometric analysis of the drainage system is essential to characterising a watershed, as all the hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. Consequently, this plays a crucial role in understanding the geo-hydrological attributes of a drainage basin to the terrain feature and its flow patterns, thus enabling the estimate of the incidence of infiltration and runoff and other related hydrological characteristics of a watershed, which strongly impacts natural resource conservation. The study area selected is the Um-Mawiong River basin in Mawsynram, Meghalaya. The basin shows a dendritic pattern that highlights the homogeneity in the texture of the basin. Results suggest that the stream frequency of the basin is 19.10 km², suggesting a faster surface runoff and less infiltration. In addition, it has an Elongation ratio of 0.75 indicating an elongated basin shape. The current study demonstrates that the implementations of GIS techniques are trustworthy, efficient, and capable of managing extensive databases for managing river basins. The present study tries to analyse the linear, areal and relief aspects of the basin using a GIS environment and manipulated for different calculations. The analysis reveals that the total number of stream segments and length are maximum in first-order streams and decrease as stream order increases. The drainage density exhibits a high degree of positive correlation, i.e., 0.87, with its frequency suggesting an increase in stream population concerning increasing drainage density and vice versa.

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  128