Abstract: The sustainable development and management of groundwater resource requires precise quantitative assessment based on scientific principle and modern techniques. In the present study, groundwater potential zone are delineated using remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques in Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh. The analytical network process (ANP) is a method that makes it possible for one to deal systematically, and includes the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a special case. The AHP and ANP are used to determine the weights of various themes and their classes for identifying the groundwater potential zone. These weights are applied in a linear combination to obtain five different groundwater potential zone in the study area, namely ‘very poor’, ‘poor’, ‘moderate’, ‘good’ and ‘very good’. It has been concluded that about 153.39 km2 area has very good groundwater potential which is only 3.37% of the total study area. However, the area having very poor groundwater potential is about 850 km2 which is about 19.63% of the study area. The area having good, moderate and poor groundwater potential is about 540.25, 1135.5, 1868.6 km2, respectively. The groundwater potential zone map was finally verified using the well yield data of 37 pumping wells, and the result was found satisfactory.

Abstract: India Meteorological Department (IMD) introduced the objective tropical cyclone (TC) track forecast valid for next 24 hr over the north Indian Ocean (NIO) in 2003. It further extended the validity period up to 72 hr in 2009. Here an attempt is made to evaluate the TC track forecast issued by IMD during 2003–2011 (9 years) by calculating the direct position error (DPE) and skill in track forecast. The accuracy of TC track forecast has been analysed with respect to basin of formation (Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and NIO as whole), season of formation (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons), intensity of TCs (cyclonic storm and severe cyclonic storm or higher intensities) and type of track of TCs (climatological/straight moving and recurving/looping type). The average DPE is about 140, 262 and 386 km and skill is about 27%, 39% and 50%, respectively for 24, 48 and 72 hr forecasts over the NIO as a whole during 2009–2011. Though the DPE is higher and skill is less as compared to those in northwest Pacific and north Atlantic Ocean, the rate of decrease (increase) in DPE (skill) is higher over the NIO in recent years. The DPE (skill) over the NIO has decreased (increased) at the rate of about 7.3 km (3%) per year during 2003–2011 for 24 hr forecasts.

Abstract: Indian monsoon is an important component of earth’s climate system. Daily rainfall data for longer period is vital to study components and processes related to Indian monsoon. Daily observed gridded rainfall data covering both land and adjoining oceanic regions are required for numerical model validation and model development for monsoon. In this study, a new gridded daily Indian rainfall dataset at 1°×1° latitude/longitude resolution covering 14 monsoon seasons (1998–2011) are described. This merged satellite gauge rainfall dataset (NMSG) combines TRMM TMPA rainfall estimates with gauge information from IMD gridded data. Compared to TRMM and GPCP daily rainfall data, the current NMSG daily data has more information due to inclusion of local gauge analysed values. In terms of bias and skill scores this dataset is superior to other daily rainfall datasets. In a mean climatological sense and also for anomalous monsoon seasons, this merged satellite gauge data brings out more detailed features of monsoon rainfall. The difference of NMSG and GPCP looks significant. This dataset will be useful to researchers for monsoon intraseasonal studies and monsoon model development research.

Abstract: Situated in the eastern coastal state of West Bengal, the Sundarbans Estuarine System (SES) is India’s largest monsoonal, macro-tidal delta-front estuarine system. It comprises the southernmost part of the Indian portion of the Ganga–Brahmaputra delta bordering the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans Estuarine Programme (SEP), conducted during 18–21 March 2011 (the Equinoctial Spring Phase), was the first comprehensive observational programme undertaken for the systematic monitoring of the tides within the SES. The 30 observation stations, spread over more than 3600 km2, covered the seven inner estuaries of the SES (the Saptamukhi, Thakuran, Matla, Bidya, Gomdi, Harinbhanga, and Raimangal) and represented a wide range of estuarine and environmental conditions. At all stations, tidal water levels (every 15 minutes), salinity, water and air temperatures (hourly) were measured over the six tidal cycles. We report the observed spatio-temporal variations of the tidal water level. The predominantly semi-diurnal tides were observed to amplify northwards along each estuary, with the highest amplification observed at Canning, situated about 98 km north of the seaface on the Matla. The first definite sign of decay of the tide was observed only at Sahebkhali on the Raimangal, 108 km north of the seaface. The degree and rates of amplification of the tide over the various estuarine stretches were not uniform and followed a complex pattern. A least-squares harmonic analysis of the data performed with eight constituent bands showed that the amplitude of the semi-diurnal band was an order of magnitude higher than that of the other bands and it doubled from mouth to head. The diurnal band showed no such amplification, but the amplitude of the 6-hourly and 4-hourly bands increased headward by a factor of over 4. Tide curves for several stations displayed a tendency for the formation of double peaks at both high water (HW) and low water (LW). One reason for these double-peaks was the HW/LW stands of the tide observed at these stations. During a stand, the water level changes imperceptibly around high tide and low tide. The existence of a stand at most locations is a key new finding of the SEP. We present an objective criterion for identifying if a stand occurs at a station and show that the water level changed imperceptibly over durations ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours during the tidal stands in the SES. The tidal duration asymmetry observed at all stations was modified by the stand. Flow-dominant asymmetry was observed at most locations, with ebb-dominant asymmetry being observed at a few locations over some tidal cycles. The tidal asymmetry and stand have implications for human activity in the Sundarbans. The longer persistence of the high water level around high tide implies that a storm surge is more likely to coincide with the high tide, leading to a greater chance of destruction. Since the stands are associated with an amplification of the 4-hourly and 6-hourly constituents, storm surges that have a similar period are also likely to amplify more during their passage through the SES.

Abstract: Knowledge of mean rainfall and its variability of smaller spatial scale are important for the planners in various sectors including water and agriculture. In the present work, long rainfall data series (1901–2006) of districts of Maharashtra in monthly and seasonal scales are constructed and then mean rainfall and coefficient of variability are analyzed to get the spatial pattern and variability. Significant long term changes in monthly rainfall in the district scale are identified by trend analysis of rainfall time series. The seasonality index which is the measure of distribution of precipitation throughout the seasonal cycle is used to classify the different rainfall regime. Also long term changes of the seasonality index are identified by the trend analysis. The state Maharashtra which is to the northwest of peninsular India is highly influenced by the southwest monsoon and the state is facing water scarcity almost every year. This study will help to find out possible reason for the increasing water scarcity in Maharashtra.

Abstract: In Taiwan, owing to the nonuniform temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall and high mountains all over the country, hydrologic systems are very complex. Therefore, preventing and controlling flood disasters is imperative. Nevertheless, water level and flow records are essential in hydrological analysis for designing related water works of flood management. Due to the complexity of the hydrological process, reliable runoff is hardly predicted by applying linear and non-linear regression methods. Therefore, in this study, a model for estimating runoff by using rainfall data from a river basin is developed and a neural network technique is employed to recover missing data. For achieving the objectives, hourly rainfall and flow data from Nanhe, Taiwu, and Laii rainfall stations and Sinpi flow station in the Linbien basin are used. The data records were of 27 typhoons between the years 2005 and 2009. The feed forward back propagation network (FFBP) and conventional regression analysis (CRA) were employed to study their performances. From the statistical evaluation, it has been found that the performance of FFBP exceeded that of regression analysis as reflected by the determination coefficients R 2, which were 0.969 and 0.284 for FFBP and CRA, respectively.

Abstract: Topographic index is an important attribute of digital elevation model (DEM) which indicates soil saturation. It is used for estimation of run-off, soil moisture, depth of ground water and hydrological simulation. Topographic index is derived from DEMs; hence the accuracy of DEM influences its computation. Commonly the raster based grid DEM is widely used to simulate hydrological model parameter, and accuracy varies with respect to DEM grid size and morphological characteristics of terrain. In this study topographic index is evaluated in terms of DEM grid size and terrain roughness. The study was carried out on four small watersheds, having different roughness characteristics, located over the Himalayan terrain. Topographic index surface is derived for each watershed from different grid spacing DEM (10–150 m), analysed and validated. It is found that DEM grid spacing affects the topographic index. The surface representation is smooth in the coarse grid spacing and the pattern of topographic index changes with grid spacing. The spatial autocorrelation of topographic index surface reduces when calculated from larger spacing DEM. The mean of the topographic index surface increases and standard deviation decreases with the increase of grid spacing and the effect is more pronounced in the rough terrain. Accuracy of the topographic index is also evaluated with respect to grid spacing and terrain roughness by comparing the topographic index surface with respect to reference data (10 m grid spacing topographic index surface). The RMSE and mean error of topographic index surface increases in larger grid spacing and the effect is more in rugged terrain.

Abstract: Hydrogeochemical study of groundwater was carried out in a part of the lower Palar river basin, southern India to determine the geochemical processes controlling the groundwater quality. Thirty-nine groundwater samples were collected from the study area and analysed for pH, Eh, EC, Ca, Mg, Na, K, HCO3, CO3, Cl and SO4. The analysed parameters of the groundwater in the study area were found to be well within the safe range in general with respect to the Bureau of Indian Standards for drinking water except for few locations. The results of these analyses were used to identify the geochemical processes that are taking place in this region. Cation exchange and silicate weathering are the important processes controlling the major ion distribution of the study area. Mass balance reaction model NETPATH was used to assess the ion exchange processes. High concentration of Ca in groundwater of the study area is due to the release of Ca by aquifer material and adsorption of Na due to ion exchange processes. Groundwater of the study area is suitable for drinking and irrigation purposes except for few locations.

Abstract: This study investigated the hydrogeochemical processes of groundwater in the Tasuj plain, Iran. The Tasuj plain is one of the 12 marginal plains around Urmia Lake which is currently under a critical ecological condition. In the last decades, the Tasuj plain aquifer suffered from severe groundwater level declination and caused degradation of groundwater quality. To better understand hydrogeochemical processes in the Tasuj plain, this study adopted graphical methods and multivariate statistical techniques to analyze groundwater samples. A total of 504 groundwater samples was obtained from 34 different locations (qanats, wells, and springs) over 12 years (1997–2009) and analyzed for 15 water quality parameters. From the results, the Piper diagram indicated four groundwater types and the Stiff diagram showed eight different sources of groundwater samples. The Durov diagram identified five major hydrogeochemical processes in the aquifer. However, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) identified five water types in the groundwater samples because HCA was able to analyze more chemical and physical data than graphical methods. The HCA result was checked by discriminant analysis and found consistency in all samples that were classified into correct groups. Using factor analysis, we identified three factors that accounted for 81.6% of the total variance of the dataset. Based on the high factor loadings of the variables, factors 1 and 2 reflected the natural hydrogeochemical processes and factor 3 explained the effect of agricultural fertilizers and human activities in the Tasuj plain. Dendrograms from 2000 to 2009 were studied to understand the temporal variation of groundwater quality. Comparing the distributions of groundwater types in 2000 and 2009, we found that the mixing zone was expanded. This may be due to artificial groundwater recharge in the recharge area and the effect of inverse ion exchange in the discharge area.

Abstract: Najafgarh drain is the biggest drain in Delhi and contributes about 60% of the total wastewater that gets discharged from Delhi into river Yamuna. The drain traverses a length of 51 km before joining river Yamuna, and is unlined for about 31 km along its initial stretch. In recent times, efforts have been made for limited withdrawal of groundwater from shallow aquifers in close vicinity of Najafgarh drain coupled with artificial recharge of groundwater. In this perspective, assessment of groundwater quality in shallow aquifers in vicinity of the Najafgarh drain of Delhi and hydrogeological characterization of adjacent areas were done. The groundwater quality was examined in perspective of Indian as well as World Health Organization’s drinking water standards. The spatial variation in groundwater quality was studied. The linkages between trace element occurrence and hydrochemical facies variation were also established. The shallow groundwater along Najafgarh drain is contaminated in stretches and the area is not suitable for large-scale groundwater development for drinking water purposes.

Abstract: The OSCAR (ocean surface current analysis real-time), which is a product derived from various satellite observations, has been evaluated in the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) in two different ways. First, the OSCAR-derived monthly climatology has been compared with available drifter-derived climatology in the TIO. From the comparison of the two climatologies, one can infer that OSCAR product is able to capture the variabilities of the well-known surface current systems in the TIO reasonably well. Fourier analysis of the major current systems, as reproduced by OSCAR, shows that the dominant annual and semiannual periodicities, known to exist in these systems, have been faithfully picked up by OSCAR. Next, the evaluation has been carried out by comparing the OSCAR currents with currents measured by moored buoys. The zonal component of OSCAR-current is in good agreement with corresponding component of buoy-observed current with a correlation exceeding 0.7, while the match between the meridional components is poorer. The locations of the peaks of the mean and eddy kinetic energies are matching in both the climatologies, although the peak in the drifter climatology is stronger than the same in the OSCAR product. Finally, an important feature of Indian Ocean circulation, namely the reverse Wyrtki jet, occurring during anomalous dipole years, has been well-reproduced by OSCAR currents.

Abstract: The annual sediment load of a river is generally determined either from direct measurements of the sediment load throughout the year or from any of the many sediment transport equations that are available today Due to lack of a long-term sediment concentration data, sediment rating curves and flux estimation are the most widely applied This paper has investigated the abilities of statistical models to improve the accuracy of streamflow–suspended sediment relationships in daily and annual suspended sediment estimation In this study, a comparison was made between suspended sediment rating curves and artificial neural networks (ANNs) for the El Kebir catchment Daily water discharge and daily suspended sediment data from the gauging station of Ain Assel, were used as inputs and targets in the models which were based on the cascade-forward and feed-forward back-propagation using Levenberg–Marquardt and Bayesian regularization algorithms The model results have shown that the ANN models have the highest efficiency to reproduce the daily sediment load and the global annual sediment yields Our estimation based on the available data indicated that the areas along the El Kebir River have experienced high sediment fluxes that could have obvious impacts on the sediment trapping and siltation in the Mexa reservoir

Abstract: Thirty years radiosonde data (1971–2000) at 00 UTC for winter months over four major Indian metros, viz., Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai is analysed to study the trends and long term variations in ventilation coefficients and the consequences on the air quality due to these variations in the four metros. A decreasing trend in ventilation coefficient is observed in all the four metros during the 30 years period indicating increasing pollution potential and a degradation in the air quality over these urban centers. In Delhi, the ventilation coefficient decreased at the rate of 49 and 32 m2/s/year in the months of December and February, respectively during the 30-year period. In Mumbai, the average decrease in ventilation coefficient in winter months is about 15 m2/s/year whereas for Kolkata it is 14 and 17 m2/s/year in December and February, respectively. A decreasing trend in ventilation coefficient is observed in Chennai too although it is not significant. The decreasing ventilation coefficient increased the ground level pollution thereby deteriorating the air quality for the urban population. For Mumbai and Kolkata, decreasing mixing depths and decreasing wind speed contributed to the decreasing ventilation coefficient whereas for Delhi and Chennai decreasing wind speed was responsible for the decrease in ventilation coefficient. Further, the pollution potential was much higher in Delhi which is an inland station as compared to Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai which are coastal stations under the influence of marine environment. Compared to Delhi, the pollution potential over these three metros was lower as the prevailing sea-breeze helped in the dispersal of pollutants thereby reducing their ground level concentration.

Abstract: Flood is one of the detrimental hydro-meteorological threats to mankind. This compels very efficient flood assessment models. In this paper, we propose remote sensing based flood assessment using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image because of its imperviousness to unfavourable weather conditions. However, they suffer from the speckle noise. Hence, the processing of SAR image is applied in two stages: speckle removal filters and image segmentation methods for flood mapping. The speckle noise has been reduced with the help of Lee, Frost and Gamma MAP filters. A performance comparison of these speckle removal filters is presented. From the results obtained, we deduce that the Gamma MAP is reliable. The selected Gamma MAP filtered image is segmented using Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Mean Shift Segmentation (MSS). The GLCM is a texture analysis method that separates the image pixels into water and non-water groups based on their spectral feature whereas MSS is a gradient ascent method, here segmentation is carried out using spectral and spatial information. As test case, Kosi river flood is considered in our study. From the segmentation result of both these methods are comprehensively analysed and concluded that the MSS is efficient for flood mapping.

Abstract: This paper presents a classified desertification hazard map of Zayandeh Rood Basin (Z.R.B) in Iran. There are potential climatic factors, the geographical location and human activities for developing desertification. The present study is based on the preview models and main factors of desertification in the study area. The classification method is based on such main parameters as the characteristic of soil, management and climate. Each parameter includes a sub-indicator with a weighing of between one and two based on the MEDALUS model. DEM, LANDSAT images (ETM+), statistical data and vector map are used as the dataset for classifying the desertification map. The sum of score parameters was estimated by using a weighted average. In this study, Arc GIS 9.3 was used to analyze the vector and raster layer maps as well as a recognition survey of the study area using satellite images. In Z.R.B, the most important factors of desertification hazard are the geographical location of the area, salinization area, elevation, slope, and human activities. Thanks to the classification hazard map, the highest class is located on salinization, low vegetation, high wind erosion, low slope and elevation. Low-class area of the hazard map belongs to the largest part of the basin. An important factor of desertification in the area can be the geographical location of the basin located near the desert area. Using the raster data and GIS software are beneficial for the classification hazard map, especially for large areas.

Abstract: In the present study, we report initial results on analysis of carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour (H2O), and energy fluxes (sensible and latent heat flux) over teak mixed deciduous forests of Madhya Pradesh, central India, during winter (November 2011 and January 2012) and summer (February–May 2012) seasons using eddy covariance flux tower datasets. During the study period, continuous fast response measurements of CO2 ,H 2O and heat fluxes above the canopy were carried out at 10 Hz and averaged for 30 minutes. Concurrently, slow response measurements of meteorological parameters are also being carried out. Diurnal and seasonal variations of CO2 ,H 2O and heat fluxes were analysed and correlated with the meteorological variables. The study showed strong influence of leaf off and on scenario on the CO2 ,H 2O and energy fluxes due to prevalence of deciduous vegetation type in the study area. Maximum amount of CO2 was sequestered for photosynthesis during winter (monthly mean of −25 μmol/m 2 /s) compared to summer (monthly mean of −2 μmol/m 2 /s). Energy flux analysis (weekly mean) showed more energy being portioned into latent heat during winter (668 W/m 2 ) and sensible heat during summer (718 W/m 2 ).

Abstract: Himalaya–Karakoram (H–K) region hosts large number of high altitude lakes but are poorly gauged by in-situ water level monitoring method due to tough terrain conditions and poor accessibility. After the campaigns of ICESat during 2003–2009, now it is possible to achieve lake levels at decimetre accuracy. Therefore, in present study, high altitude lake levels were observed using ICESat/GLAS altimetry in H–K between 2003 and 2009 to generate baseline information. The study reveals that out of 13 lakes, 10 lakes show increasing trend of water levels at different rate (mean rate 0.173 m/y) whereas three lakes unveiled decreasing trend (mean rate −0.056 m/y). Out of five freshwater lakes, four lakes show an increasing trend of their level (mean rate 0.084 m/y) whereas comparatively six salt lakes (out of seven salt lakes) exhibited ∼3 times higher mean rate of lake level increase (0.233 m/y). These observed lake level rise can be attributed to the increased melt runoffs (i.e., seasonal snow and glacier melts) owing to the enhanced mean annual and seasonal air temperature during past decade in north-western (NW) Himalaya. Further, varied behaviours of lake level rises in inter- and intra-basins suggest that the local climatic fluctuations play prominent role along with regional and global climate in complex geographical system of NW Himalaya.

Abstract: We present here the most comprehensive study of the thickness and composition ( $\textit{Vp}/\textit{Vs}$ ratio) of the South India Precambrian crust and the nature of shallower mantle inferred from analysis of teleseismic receiver functions from 70 broad-band seismic stations operated as a part of the India Deep Earth Imaging Experiment (INDEX). South India could be broadly divided into regions with thin crust (32–38 km) and thick crust (38–54 km). Thin crust domains include the East Dharwar Craton (EDC), Cuddapah basin and Madurai/Kerala Khondalite Block. The thicker crust domain includes the Western Dharwar Craton (WDC) and northern part of Southern Granulite Terrain. The WDC shows progressive increase in thickness from 38 km in north to 46–54 km in south, compared to an almost flat Moho beneath the EDC. Compositionally, most of the crustal domains are felsic to intermediate ( $\textit{Vp}/\textit{Vs}$ ~ 1.69–1.75) except the mid Archean block in the southern WDC where it is mafic ( $\textit{Vp}/\textit{Vs}$ > 1.81). Considering erosion depth in the WDC, we argue for Himalaya like ~70 km thick crust beneath it during the Archean. Variation in crustal thickness does not have a first-order influence on regional topography in South India and suggests significant role for the crustal composition. We also present evidence of mid-lithospheric low velocity at ~85–100 km beneath South India.

Abstract: River pollution has tremendously increased in the major cities of South Asia, where the rivers have become a repository for domestic, agricultural, municipal and industrial wastes. This study presents the evaluation of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage as a means of assessing ecological status, determining different disturbance zones and identifying environmental variables and stressors that deteriorate the river ecosystem. In total, 20 sites in 36-km stretch of the main stem of the Bagmati River and 7 sites on its tributaries were selected for sampling in the post-monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons during the time period 2008–2010. The Ganga River System Biotic Score (GRSbios) index was applied to determine the ecological status. The ecological status of the different Bagmati River stretches ranged from reference (Class 1) to extremely polluted (Class 5). We identified three types of disturbance zones along the river, ranging from minimally polluted to extremely polluted. A river corridor survey was conducted to identify any river stressing factors, revealing a sharp deterioration of the river from upstream to downstream with increasing concentrations of chloride and ortho-phosphate phosphorus. Effluents and Activities and Facilities were found to be the major stressing factors to the river ecosystem. The information gained should help water managers find the most time-efficient and cost-effective measures to address river degradation.

Abstract: A gravity core SK-221 recovered from the southeastern Arabian Sea near Laccadive–Chagos Ridge was examined to identify the sources of detrital clay minerals and to decipher paleoenvironmental changes for the last 30 kyr. The clay mineral assemblages predominantly consist of illite, kaolinite and chlorite with small amounts of smectite. Quartz, feldspar and occasionally gibbsite are the clay-sized non-clay minerals present in the examined section. The detrital clay minerals primarily originated from the hinterland and were supplied to the present site by the numerous small rivers draining western India during preglacial and Holocene periods, and partly by the strong reworking of Indian continental shelf during glacial period. The low values of humidity proxies (kaolinite content, kaolinite to illite and smectite to illite ratios) and better illite crystallinity indicate relatively weak summer monsoon condition that resulted in reduced chemical weathering during glacial period, which was interrupted by a discrete event of winter monsoon intensification at ∼20–17 ka. The increased kaolinite content, higher values of humidity indices and poorer illite crystallinity reflect high humidity that resulted in strong hydrolysis activity during the preglacial and Holocene periods. The increased CaCO3 during above periods also indicates less terrigenous dilution and intensified southwest monsoon-led upwelling which result in higher surface biogenic productivity. The characteristic clay mineral associations broadly suggest dry to semi-drier conditions during Heinrich Events H1, H2, and H3 and also during Younger Dryas. The low values of biogenic carbonate and organic carbon also indicate low productivity associated with weak summer monsoons during Heinrich Events. Abrupt increased humidity was recorded at 15–12.7 ka (Bolling/Allerod Event) sandwiched between two lows of Heinrich Events. Cycles of millennial timescale variations 2300, 1800, 1300 and 1000 yr have been observed from the clay mineralogical data. All the cycles observed in the monsoonal climate appear to be part of global oscillations.

Abstract: During the 1990s, groundwater overexploitation has resulted in seawater intrusion in the coastal aquifer of the Shenzhen city, China. Although water supply facilities have been improved and alleviated seawater intrusion in recent years, groundwater overexploitation is still of great concern in some local areas. In this work we present a three-dimensional density-dependent numerical model developed with the FEFLOW code, which is aimed at simulating the extent of seawater intrusion while including tidal effects and different groundwater pumping scenarios. Model calibration, using waterheads and reported chloride concentration, has been performed based on the data from 14 boreholes, which were monitored from May 2008 to December 2009. A fairly good fitness between the observed and computed values was obtained by a manual trial-and-error method. Model prediction has been carried out forward 3 years with the calibrated model taking into account high, medium and low tide levels and different groundwater exploitation schemes. The model results show that tide-induced seawater intrusion significantly affects the groundwater levels and concentrations near the estuarine of the Dasha river, which implies that an important hydraulic connection exists between this river and groundwater, even considering that some anti-seepage measures were taken in the river bed. Two pumping scenarios were considered in the calibrated model in order to predict the future changes in the water levels and chloride concentration. The numerical results reveal a decreased tendency of seawater intrusion if groundwater exploitation does not reach an upper bound of about 1.32 × 104 m3/d. The model results provide also insights for controlling seawater intrusion in such coastal aquifer systems.

Abstract: The region under investigation for groundwater exploration is a part of the eastern fringe of Deccan traps in Kalmeshwar Taluk of Nagpur district. In this region, groundwater is the main source of water supply for drinking and irrigation purposes. Presently, the known source of groundwater is the upper weathered mantle in the depth range of 8–15 m. This source of groundwater has been overexploited because of increasing demand of water supply and is unable to meet the present requirement. The present work deals with the delineation of new sources of groundwater at deeper levels concealed within and below the traps by using vertical electrical sounding surveys in order to meet the increasing demand of water supply.

Abstract: One of the highly polluted areas in India located at Ranipet occupies around 200 tanneries and other small scale chemical industries. Partially treated industrial effluents combined with sewage and other wastes discharged on the surface cause severe groundwater pollution in the industrial belt. This poses a problem of supply of safe drinking water in the rural parts of the country. A study was carried out to assess the groundwater pollution and identify major variables affecting the groundwater quality in Ranipet industrial area. Twenty five wells were monitored during pre- and post-monsoon in 2008 and analyzed for the major physico-chemical variables. The water quality variables such as total dissolved solids (TDS), Iron (Fe2 + ), Hexavalent Chromium (Cr6 + ), at most of the sampling locations exceeded the ISI and WHO guideline levels for drinking water. Multivariate statistical techniques such as factor analysis were applied to identify the major factors (variables) corresponding to the different source of variation in groundwater quality. The water quality of groundwater is influenced by both anthropogenic and chemical weathering. The most serious pollution threat to groundwater is from TDS, Cr6 + and Fe2 + , which are associated with sewage and pollution of tannery waste. The study reveals that the groundwater quality changed due to anthropogenic and natural influences such as agricultural, natural weathering process.

Abstract: Daily rainfall datasets of 10 years (1998-2007) of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) version 6 and India Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded rain gauge have been compared over the Indian landmass, both in large and small spatial scales. On the larger spatial scale, the pattern correlation between the two datasets on daily scales during individual years of the study period is ranging from 0.4 to 0.7. The correlation improved significantly (similar to 0.9) when the study was confined to specific wet and dry spells each of about 5-8 days. Wavelet analysis of intraseasonal oscillations (ISO) of the southwest monsoon rainfall show the percentage contribution of the major two modes (30-50 days and 10-20 days), to be ranging respectively between similar to 30-40% and 5-10% for the various years. Analysis of inter-annual variability shows the satellite data to be underestimating seasonal rainfall by similar to 110 mm during southwest monsoon and overestimating by similar to 150 mm during northeast monsoon season. At high spatio-temporal scales, viz., 1 degrees x1 degrees grid, TMPA data do not correspond to ground truth. We have proposed here a new analysis procedure to assess the minimum spatial scale at which the two datasets are compatible with each other. This has been done by studying the contribution to total seasonal rainfall from different rainfall rate windows (at 1 mm intervals) on different spatial scales (at daily time scale). The compatibility spatial scale is seen to be beyond 5 degrees x5 degrees average spatial scale over the Indian landmass. This will help to decide the usability of TMPA products, if averaged at appropriate spatial scales, for specific process studies, e.g., cloud scale, meso scale or synoptic scale.

Abstract: Late Paleocene to early Eocene (~56 to 51 Ma) interval is characterized by five distinct transient warming (hyperthermal) events (Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), H1/ETM2/ELMO, H2, I1 and I2) in a super greenhouse globe associated with negative carbon isotope excursions (CIEs). Although well-documented marine records exist at different latitudes, terrestrial PETM sections are rare. In particular, almost no terrestrial records of either the PETM or early Eocene hyperthermals (EEHs) are yet available from the tropics. Further, evolution of modern order of mammals near the PETM has been recorded in many northern continents; however, the response of mammals in the tropics to these warming events is unknown. A tropical terrestrial record of these hyperthermal/CIE events, encompassing the earliest modern order mammal bearing horizon from India, can therefore be vital in understanding climatic and biotic evolution during the earliest Cenozoic time. Here, for the first time, we report high resolution carbon isotope (δ 13C) stratigraphy, nannofossil, and Sr isotope ratio of marine fossil carbonate from the Cambay Shale Formation of Western India. The record shows complete preservation of all the above CIE events, including the PETM, hitherto unknown from the equatorial terrestrial records. δ 13C chemostratigraphy further suggests that at least the present early Eocene mammal-bearing horizon, recently discovered at Vastan, does not support the ‘out of India’ hypothesis of earliest appearance of modern mammals and subsequent dispersal to the Holarctic continents.

Abstract: The paper presented herein compares and discusses the use of bivariate, multivariate and soft computing techniques for collapse susceptibility modelling. Conditional probability (CP), logistic regression (LR) and artificial neural networks (ANN) models representing the bivariate, multivariate and soft computing techniques were used in GIS based collapse susceptibility mapping in an area from Sivas basin (Turkey). Collapse-related factors, directly or indirectly related to the causes of collapse occurrence, such as distance from faults, slope angle and aspect, topographical elevation, distance from drainage, topographic wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) by means of vegetation cover, distance from roads and settlements were used in the collapse susceptibility analyses. In the last stage of the analyses, collapse susceptibility maps were produced from the models, and they were then compared by means of their validations. However, Area Under Curve (AUC) values obtained from all three models showed that the map obtained from soft computing (ANN) model looks like more accurate than the other models, accuracies of all three models can be evaluated relatively similar. The results also showed that the conditional probability is an essential method in preparation of collapse susceptibility map and highly compatible with GIS operating features.

Abstract: In granitic rocks, various models of weathering profile have been proposed, but never for the hard rocks of West Africa. Besides, in the literature there is no description of the weathering profile in volcanosedimentrary rocks. Therefore, we propose three models describing the weathering profiles in granites, metasediments, and volcanic rocks for hard rock formations located in West Africa. For each of these models proposed for granitic and volcanosedimentary rocks of the Dimbokro catchment, vertical layered weathering profiles are described, according to the various weathering and erosion cycles (specific to West Africa) that the geological formations of the Dimbokro catchment experienced from the Eocene to the recent Quaternary period. The characterization of weathering profiles is based on: i) bedrocks and weathering profile observations at outcrop, and ii) interpretation and synthesis of geophysical data and lithologs from different boreholes. For each of the geological formations (granites, metasediments, and volcanic rocks), their related weathering profile model depicted from top to bottom comprises four separate layers: alloterite, isalterite, fissured layer, and fractured fresh basement. These weathering profiles are systematically covered by a soil layer. Though granites, metasediments and volcanic rocks of the Dimbokro catchment experience the same weathering and erosion cycles during the palaeoclimatic fluctuations from Eocene to recent Quaternary period, they exhibit differences in thickness. In granites, the weathering profile is relatively thin due to the absence of iron crust which protects weathering products against dismantling. In metasediments and volcanic rocks iron crusts develop better than in granites; in these rocks the alterite are more resistant to dismantling.

Abstract: In this study, radon and thoron concentrations in soil gas has been monitored using LR-115(II) solid state nuclear track detectors since 15th July 2011 to February 2012. The study was carried out along Mat fault in Serchip district, Mizoram, India at two different sites – Mat Bridge (23°18′N, 92°48′E) and Tuichang (23°13′N, 92°56′E). The results obtained have been correlated to the seismic events that occurred within 800 km from the measuring sites over the mentioned period of time. Anomalous behaviour in radon concentrations have been observed prior to some earthquakes. Interestingly, some thoron anomalies were also recorded.

Abstract: This work illustrates the efficiency of field spectroscopy for rapid identification of minerals in ore body, alteration zone and host rocks. The adopted procedure involves collection of field spectra, their processing for noise, spectral matching and spectral un-mixing with selected library end-members. Average weighted spectral similarity and effective peak matching techniques were used to draw end-members from library. Constrained linear mixture modelling technique was used to convolve end-member spectra. Linear mixture model was optimized based on root mean square error between field- and modelled-spectra. Estimated minerals and their abundances were subsequently compared with conventional procedures such as petrography, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence for accuracy assessment. The mineralized zone is found to contain azurite, galena, chalcopyrite, bornite, molybdenite, marcacite, gahnite, hematite, goethite, anglesite and malachite. The alteration zone contains chlorite, kaolinite, actinolite and mica. These mineral assemblages correlate well with the petrographic measurements (R 2 = 0.89). Subsequently, the bulk chemistry of field samples was compared with spectroscopically derived cumulative weighted mineral chemistry and found to correlate well (R 2 = 0.91–0.98) at excellent statistical significance levels (90–99%). From this study, it is evident that field spectroscopy can be effectively used for rapid mineral identification and abundance estimation.