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Morphometric characteristics of a tropical river basin, central Kerala, India using geospatial techniques
1-14Views:227The Thutapuzha watershed (TW) is one among the major tributaries of Bharathapuzha – the largest west flowing river in Kerala, India. Morphometric analysis was carried out to determine the spatial variations in the drainage characteristics and to understand the prevailing geologic variation, topographic information and structural setup of TW using Survey of India topographic maps and ASTER-DEM. Geoprocessing techniques has been used for the delineation and calculation of the morphometric parameters of the watershed. The TW sprawled over 1107Km2 and the study revealed that the watershed includes a sixth order stream and lower order streams mostly dominate the basin with a drianage density of 1.36 m/Km2 exhibiting highly resistant subsoil, dense vegetation, and low relief of surface nature . The study indicate that rainfall has a significant role in the drainage development whereas the drainage pattern is controlled by structure and relief. The watershed of TW is moderate to well-drained and exhibited a geomorphic maturity in its physiographic development. The shape parameters revealed the elongated nature of TW having less prone to flood, lower erosion and sediment transport capacities and drainage network development in the watershed. This study strongly brings to light that the drainage morphometric parameters have the enormou spotentiality to unveil the hydro-morphologicalcharacteristics of the river basins. Integrating hydro-morphological characteristics with conventional watershed assessment methods would have a beneficial effect on judicious watershed management, which helped to formulate a comprehensive watershed management plan.
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Time series analysis of major land resources using Landsat images in a part of district Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, India
41-57Views:19Space born technology, with its repetitive nature, uses electromagnetic energy to capture digital data from the Earth's surface by remote sensing systems. The purpose of this research is to track changes in land resources with six time series (2003-09, 2003-15, 2003-21, 2009-15, 2009-21 and 2015-21) over a period of 18 years. Multi-date Landsat images of 2003, 2009, 2015 and 2021 have been used to monitor the changing pattern. Level – I classification scheme composed by NRSC/ ISRO and supervised Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) techniques were used to identify and classify land use/ land cover features located in Jhansi Tehsil. The findings show that there have been significant changes in land resources over the years. The area under agriculture land, built-up and waterbodies were increased by 48.83%, 53.53% and 106.73% while forest/ tree outside forest and wastelands were reduced by 59.74% and 38.68% respectively It is concluded that, the expansion of key land resources indicates the growth in population and socio-economic activities whereas the loss in some land resources might be due to human induced progressive activities.
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Landslide Susceptibility mapping using the Analytical Hierarchy Process and GIS for Idukki District, Kerala, India
11-32Views:55This study demonstrates the application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) technique for landslide susceptibility mapping of Udumbanchola and Devikulam taluk of Idukki district (Kerala, India). The landslide conditioning factors, such as lithology, geomorphology, slope angle, slope aspect, relative relief, drainage properties, land use/ land cover, and lineament characteristics,are derived using remote sensing data and GIS. The landslide susceptibility of the region is estimated using the weights derived by the AHP method. The analysis indicates the controls exerted by the structural and fluvial process and relief characteristics on the landslide activity of the region. The landslide susceptibility map of the region suggests that the high and severe susceptible zones cover about 10.68% of the area, and another 9.40% falls under the moderate susceptibility zone. The results highlight the significance of implementing various structural and non-structural measures in the moderate to severe susceptibility zones to mitigate the impacts of landslides.
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Correction of Atmospheric Haze of IRS-1C LISS-III Multispectral Satellite Imagery: An Empirical and Semi-Empirical Based Approach
63-74Views:247The atmospheric effect greatly affects the quality of satellite data and mostly found in the polluted urban area in the great extent. In this paper, the atmospheric correction has been carried out on IRS-1C LISS-III multispectral satellite image for efficient results for the Raipur city, India. The atmospheric conditions during satellite data acquisition was very clear hence very clear relative scattering model of improved dark object subtraction method for the correction of atmospheric effects in the data has been carried out to produce the realistic results. The haze values (HV) for green band (band 2), red band (band 3), NIR band (band 4) and SWIR (band 5) are 79, 53, 54 and 124, respectively; were used for the corrections of haze effects using simple dark object subtraction method (SDOS). But the final predicted haze value (FPHV) for these bands are 79, 49.85, 21.31 and 0.13 that were used for the corrections of haze effects applying improved dark object subtraction method (IDOS). We found that IDOS method produces very realistic results when compared with SDOS method for urban land use mapping and change detection analysis. Consequently, ATCOR2 model provides better results when compared with SDOS and IDOS in the study.
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Estimating soil loss from a watershed in Western Deccan, India, using Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation
13-25Views:346USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) is the original and the most widely accepted soil loss estimation technique till date which has evolved from a design tool for conservation planning to a research methodology all across the globe. The equation has been revised and modified over the years and became a foundation for several new soil loss models developed all around the world. The equation has been revised as RUSLE by Renard et al. (1991) and is computed in GIS environment. The Revised equation is landuse independent which makes it a useful technique to apply in a variety of environment. The present paper is an attempt to estimate soil loss from a semi-arid watershed in Western Deccan, India by employing RUSLE. The region is a rocky terrain and sediments are restricted to only a few localities. The result indicates that the region is at the threshold of soil tolerance limit.
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Morphology, sedimentology and origin of an anomalous cut-off along the Pravara river, deccan trap region, India
23-43Views:261River meanders have always been an intriguing subject in fluvial geomorphology because of their ubiquity, dynamism, remarkable forms and practical consequences of their movement. Sometimes a relatively straight channel flowing over bedrock may develop a lone meander bend cut-off which is very out of the place from the surrounding area. The occurrence of a sudden bend along a river may not be a meandering bend but may be manifestation of sudden change in the river dynamism due to many reasons, such as, lithology, change in rainfall regime, tectonics etc. The formation of such features highlights the behavior of river in the past. One such striking feature has been observed along the River Pravara in the Deccan Trap Region, Maharashtra, India. Rivers in Deccan Trap Region do not meander and form cut-offs by rule. It is rocky country where rivers flow in deeply incised bedrock. Hence, the observed feature displays a striking anomaly in this region. Hence, an attempt has been made in the present paper to evaluate the mode of formation of this single cut-off along this channel. Morphological and sedimentological data were generated and analyzed for the channel loop and the link channel to understand the competence of the river in the past and present which were directly or indirectly responsible for the development of this channel anomaly in this reach. Based on the results of the analysis and intensive field observations, it has been inferred that this is a classic example of natural morphological adjustment of a river when a set of events occurred, first retardation of vertical erosion encountering bedrock followed by series of floods to induce the channel to divert from the original path to resume the present course. Presence of a tributary further aided to the process of the loop development. The study can provide additional knowledge to the studies involving anomalous channel cut-offs at any part of the world.
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Vegetation changes of Sundarbans based on Landsat imagery analysis between 1975 and 2006
1-9Views:327The Sundarbans in Bangladesh and India is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. This forest is threatened by effect of climate change and manmade activities. The aim of this paper is to show changes in vegetation cover of Sundarbans since 1975 using Landsat imagery. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index is applied to quantify and qualify density of vegetation on a patch of land. Estimated land area (excluded water body) of this forest is 66% in Bangladesh, and 34% in India, respectively. Net erosion since 1975 to 2006 is ~5.9%. In vicinity of human settlement, areal changes are not observed since 1975. The mangrove forest is decreased by 19.3% due severe tropical cyclone in 1977 and 1988. Moreover, the dense forest is damaged by about 50%. However, more than 25 years is taken by Sundarbans to recover from damage by a severe tropical cyclone. The biodiversity of Sundarbans depends to fresh water flow through it. Therefore, the future of Sundarbans depends to the impact of climate change which has further effect to increasing intensity and frequency of severe tropical cyclone and salinity in water channels in Sundarbans.
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Grain surface features and clay mineralogy of the quaternary sediments from Western Deccan Trap Region, India, and their palaeoclimatic significance
22-46Views:30Quartz sand grains obtained from a deeply gullied topography along the banks of two tributaries of River Pravara in Maharashtra (India) have been examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Quartz grains have been selected after a heavy mineral separation and micro-photographs of each grain were taken at various angles and magnifications. The sediments reveal features resulting from mechanical grinding as well as from chemical alteration. Conchoidal fractures, cleavage planes, grooves, v-shaped indentations etc. are the mechanical features documented on the grains whereas solution pits of varying sizes and intensity, precipitation surfaces, oriented v-pits, solution crevasses and etching are the features of chemical origin. Several evidences indicate that the samples have undergone digenetic changes. Few grains show the features of intense chemical breakdown. The overall assemblages of the grain surface features suggest that the samples have been subjected to subaqueous transport for a considerable period of time. The minor chemical features such as solution pits or semi circular arcuate steps found in abundance on these grains are due to the dissolution of the sediments in a low energy fluviatile environment. For clay mineralogy, fractions between <2 and <0.2 mm were separated out from the sediments. The clay fractions were then subjected to examination by X-ray diffraction (XRD) of oriented K/Ca saturated samples using a Philips Diffractometer and Nifiltered Cu Ka radiation with the scanning speed of 1 0 2Ө min -1. The main clay minerals for all the samples are identical and show the presence of hydroxy-interlayered smectites with minor quantities of mica, kaolinite, smectites, quartz and feldspar. The first weathering product of the Deccan Basalt (DB) is the dioctahedral smectite. Since the present semi aridic climatic condition of the study area can not transform a smectite to HIS and either smectite to kaolin, it is quite likely that both the HIS and Sm/K are generated in the tropical humid climate of the Western Ghats and then carried through the exiting river system like Godavari, Adula and Mahalungi. Therefore it is evident that the clay minerals present in these sediments represent another climatic history more humid than the one prevailing at present.
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Spatial Distribution of Heavy Metals around the Gold Mine Ore Tailings of Hatti, Karnataka State, India
35-44Views:305Mining is an imperative segment of the world economy as it contributes socio-economic status of the nations. However, developing countries like India due to lack of high profile industrial techniques and equipment, eluting effluents from the industrial process may contain various hazardous substances which greatly affect the environmental and human health. The present work is aimed with the distribution of heavy metals in and around Hatti Gold Mine Ore Tailing (H-GOT). The results elicit the mine ore tailings are having high-level contaminants of heavy metal than the crop lands of Hatti (Hs), Kotha (Ks), Chikka Nagur (Cs), Tawag (Ts), Lingsugur (Ls) of Raichur District, Karnataka. It was reported that, Hatti Gold Mine ore tailings hold about 41.31±0.49 mg/kg, 2.1±0.31mg/kg, 71.96±3.26 mg/kg, 39.56±1.47 mg/kg and 73.4±2.19 mg/kg of Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) heavy metals respectively. While the crop lands metal contamination range depends on seasonal variation. In south-west monsoon farming lands metal contamination order is Hs> Ks>Cs> Ts >Ls, and it was decreased during Post-monsoon. This is the hallmark of the fetching huge amount of toxic heavy metals from mining center to nearest crop lands. The continuous squeezing of these toxic metals could trigger the bio-magnification in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem and it may impact various metabolic disorders.
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Analysis of Climate Variability and Agricultural Productivity in Mizoram, Northeast India
53-64Views:262Mountainous regions are considered highly vulnerable to the affects of climate change. The extent of change and variability of climatic parameters is still unexamined in many remote mountainous areas. This paper aims in understanding the change in pattern of rainfall and temperature for a period of 30 years in Mizoram. The analysis of time series changing trend in climatic variables is carried out by using Coefficient of Variation (CV), Mann-Kendall (M-K) and Sen’s Slope estimator. The analysis reveals that high variation is observed for both the variables in all the decadal, three decadal and seasonal change. The CV analysis shows that the highest seasonal rainfall variation occurs during winter and the highest seasonal temperature variation occurs during spring. Mann-Kendall test shows a significant change in rainfall with November showing the highest negative trend of rainfall. The temperature trend analysis in the study also reveals drastic change of temperature. An understanding of climatic change, trend and variability helps in predicting for better natural resources from the susceptibility of climate change.
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Geo-physical attributes of Shushunia’s aquifer, Chhatna block, Bankura district, West Bengal, India
1-11Views:50Shushunia 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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GIS-integrated multi-criteria suitability analysis for healthcare facilities site selection in Rajouri district, Jammu and Kashmir, India
12-29Views:99The 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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Remote Sensing and GIS based site suitability analysis for tourism development in Vaishali block, Bihar, India
12-22Views:517Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing are presently recognized generally as an improve instrument for overseeing, breaking down, and showing gigantic volumes of fluctuated information suitable to numerous neighborhood and provincial arranging exercises. Because of the composite idea of the travel industry arranging issues, the planned of GIS in settling these issues is progressively perceived. This paper will think a portion of the conceivable outcomes of GIS applications in the travel industry arranging. For the most part, GIS applications in the travel industry have been tight to recreational office stock, the travel industry situated land the board, and diversion untamed life strife; and have been thin by absence of financing, and awkward techniques. Utilizing the case of site wellness investigation for the travel industry improvement and mapping, this paper features a few uses of GIS in the travel industry arranging in vaishali square, Bihar. According to our present investigation; the most reasonable the travel industry site recognized by the examination is inside significant towns. The urban focus with plausibility to develop into the travel industry focuses. The rest of the land shows a low appropriateness scale because of absence of significant appreciation for make a solid force factor. Availability is an essential for the travel industry advancement. Great street organize availability with closeness to railroads station or air terminal demonstrated solid vacationer potential site, this combined with proximity to grand magnificence delineates high appropriateness. Significant vacation destinations, for example, legacy locales, gardens and water bodies or lake demonstrated high appropriateness. This can be corresponded to the way that legacy destinations and other high appropriate highlights are converted into reasonable the travel industry site.
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Discussion on Hundru fall as a knick point, Iharkhand, India
44-52Views:238Subarnarekha River lies in the vicinity to the Ranchi mega lineament zone of Jharkhand State. This river links the Tamar Porapahar shear zone and North Singhbhum shear zone. The Hundru falls is the sudden and abrupt drop of elevation (longitudinal profile) of upstream of river Subarnarekha. The basic aim of this paper is to assess the Hundru falls as a perfect citation of an upstream knick point in Indian context. This paper covers the knick point formation of upstream of the Subarnarekha river. This upper catchment is more diversified in the terms of metamorphic and igneous rocks. This zone has crossed a long path with diversified lithospheric adjustment with epirogenic upliftment.
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Land use change detection along the Pravara River basin in Maharashtra, using remote sensing and GIS techniques
71-86Views:62In the past few decades there has been an increasing pressure of population all over the world, especially in India, resulting in the utilization of every available patch of available land from woodlands to badlands. The study area represents a basin which is economically growing fast by converting the fallow lands, badlands and woodlands to agricultural land for the past few decades. IRS (Indian Remote sensing Satellites) 1 C – LISS III and IRS 1 C PAN and IRS P6 – LISS III and IRS 1 D PAN Images were merged to generate imageries with resolution matching to the landscape processes operating in the area. The images of the year 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2007 were analyzed to detect the changes in the landuse and landcover in the past ten years. The analysis reveals that there has been 20% increase in the agricultural area over the past ten years. Built up area also has increased from 1.35% to 6.36% of the area and dense vegetation also has marginally increased. The remarkable increase in the agricultural area occurs owing to the reclaim of the natural ravines and fallow lands. Presently the area looks promising, but it is necessary to understand the sedimentological and geomorphological characteristics of the area before massive invasion on any such landscapes because the benefit may be short lived.
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Water mining and landscape: study on north-western part of Bankura district, west Bengal, India
48-64Views:116Groundwater depletion occurs when the rate of groundwater extraction is higher than the rate of replenishment. It is unequivocal that the demand for fresh water is ever increasing. The study area lies in the semi-arid climatic zone and it's a solely agrarian society. The water scarcity leads to an impact on soil moisture and soil becomes drier during the dry months. The study is based on the changes in the regional water table which exhibit a relatively rapid response to acute scarcity of water. To specify the soil dryness gravimetric method has been used to study the selected soil samples. The groundwater withdrawal without estimating the water requirement at the regional level leads to soil dryness, and water stress situation to the agrarian economy, and it leaves a direct impact on the land. The perception of the farm owner, that ownership of farmland is synonymous with water mining right from their land leads to stress on the water table.
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Population an land cover dinamics of Sundarbans impact zone is Bangladesh
1-13Views:206Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest of the world that lies in Bangladesh and India. This paper examined the correlation among population dynamics of Sundarbans impact zone (SIZ) from 1974 to 2011; impact of climate change on the forest; and changes in land cover of the forest from 1973 to 2010. Population size of SIZ was increased by 1.6 times between 1974 and 2011, whereas decreased by 2% during 2001 to 2011. During 1973 to 2010, water bodies, barren land and vegetated land reduced by 7.35%, 49.56% and 15.92% respectively; while grass land increased by 228.14% during the same period. But both population size and vegetated land declined during 2001 and 2011. This was due to the landfall of two severe cyclones in 2007 and 2009 through Sundarbans which resulted thousands of human casualties and out migration, and destruction of the forest. In addition, anthropogenic interventions like low flow from Ganges River and policy constraints also contributed to the demolition of Sundarbans. Thus, population growth, climate change and anthropogenic interventions are playing a decisive role to the depletion of forest resources from the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
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Quantitative Morphometric Analysis of Streams in Extreme Humid Areas: A Case Study of the Um-Mawiong River Basin, Mawsynram, Meghalaya
59-75Views:77Quantitative 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.