Integrating geospatial and ground geophysical information as guidelines for groundwater potential zones in hard rock terrains of south India

The increasing demand of water has brought tremendous pressure on groundwater resources in the regions were groundwater is prime source of water. The objective of this study was to explore groundwater potential zones in Maheshwaram watershed of Andhra Pradesh, India with semi-arid climatic condition and hard rock granitic terrain. GIS-based modelling was used to integrate remote sensing and geophysical data to delineate groundwater potential zones. In the present study, Indian Remote Sensing RESOURCESAT-1, Linear Imaging Self-Scanner (LISS-4) digital data, ASTER digital elevation model and vertical electrical sounding data along with other data sets were analysed to generate various thematic maps, viz., geomorphology, land use/land cover, geology, lineament density, soil, drainage density, slope, aquifer resistivity and aquifer thickness. Based on this integrated approach, the groundwater availability in the watershed was classified into four categories, viz. very good, good, moderate and poor. The results reveal that the modelling assessment method proposed in this study is an effective tool for deciphering groundwater potential zones for proper planning and management of groundwater resources in diverse hydrogeological terrains.     

Impact of population dynamics on Margalla Hills Ecosystem:a community-level case study

Margalla Hills National Park(MHNP) is a declared natural reserve of Pakistan,and Saidpur village is located at its foothills.To sustain livelihood,Saidpur community relies on natural resources and has established an intriguing relationship with the surrounding ecosystem.Human intrusion and related impacts were investigated through self-structured questionnaire from village community to gather information about demography,life practices,natural resource use,and their perception about the environment.Quadrat analysis revealed that the overall plant density was<4 plants/m~2,whereas ordination biplot has indicated significant reduction in plant cover and sparse distribution of species in areas close to human settlement.Survey results show that more than 50%families rely on forest wood as fuel source.Logistic regression has identified education paucity(odds ratio,OR=2.6,95%confidence interval,CI=1.0-6.7),large family size(OR= 5.0,95%CI=1.5-16.6),and fuel type(OR=3.5,95%CI=1.2-9.9)as significant predictors of accelerated forest cutting in MHNP.Male members were mostly illiterate and in favor to promote construction activities which reflects their low concern and casual attitude toward resource conservation.In this study,lack of awareness and peoples’ dependency on natural resources emerged as priority challenges,and hence,we suggest provision of alternate fuel sources,better education and sustained income resources as incentives to bring behavioral change.It is pivotal to involve local community before the adoption of any conservation plan as intervention strategy to protect MHNP ecosystem.     

The impact of carbon pricing,climate financing,and financial literacy on COVID-19 cases: go-for-green healthcare policies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Climate finance and carbon pricing are regarded as sustainable policy mechanisms for mitigating negative environmental externalities via the...     

Spatio-temporal assessment of land use dynamics and urbanization: linking with environmental aspects and DPSIR framework approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Urbanization is the main force of the global environmental as well as land use land cover changes (LULC). Urbanization is caused by prompt increase in...     

Spatial�Ctemporal assessment and redesign of groundwater quality monitoring network: a case study

Assessment of groundwater quality monitoring networks requires methods to determine the potential efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the current monitoring programs. To this end, the concept of entropy has been considered as a promising method in previous studies since it quantitatively measures the information produced by a network. In this study, the measure of transinformation in the discrete entropy theory and the transinformation?Cdistance (T?CD) curves, which are used frequently by other researchers, are used to quantify the efficiency of a monitoring network. This paper introduces a new approach to decrease dispersion in results by performing cluster analysis that uses fuzzy equivalence relations. As a result, the sampling (temporal) frequency determination method also recommends the future sampling frequencies for each location based on certain criteria such as direction, magnitude, correlation with neighboring stations, and uncertainty of the concentration trend derived from representative historical concentration data. The proposed methodology is applied to groundwater resources in the Tehran?CKaradj aquifer, Tehran, Iran.     

Rescue effects of Se-enriched rice on physiological and biochemical characteristics in cadmium poisoning mice

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cadmium (Cd) is an element injurious for human health and is possibly toxic to organisms at minor concentrations. While some of other trace metallic...     

Potential of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid conjugates as promutagens in the Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity test

Hepatic S9 preparations from Aroclor 1254 induced rats and 3-methylcholanthrene induced woodchucks were used to investigate, in vitro, the mutagenic potential of five amino acid conjugates of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (alanine, aspartic acid, leucine, methionine and tryptophan). Five strains of Salmonella typhimurium (TA97, TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1538) were utilized for this purpose. Dose-response effects producing a two-fold increase of revertants over spontaneous levels were not observed with either S9 preparation indicating that the amino acid conjugates are not promutagens in these assays.