Evaluating Environmental Sensitivity of Arid and Semiarid Regions in Northeastern Rajasthan,India          下载免费PDF全文

Srimoyee Dutta  Gargi Chaudhuri 《Geographical review》2015,105(4):441-461

Arid regions of Rajasthan in India are characterized by harsh environments, fragile ecosystems, and limited water resources and arable lands. Desertification is one of the major land‐degradation problems in these regions. Recent changes in the regional climatic regime and the low availability of water in this northwestern state of India, pose the threat of desertification in the agriculturally productive part of the state. This study aims to delineate the environmentally sensitive areas to desertification in the districts of Jhunjhunun and Sikar in Rajasthan, India. It uses geospatial data from various sources, and combines them to calculate an environmental sensitivity index (ESI), which will allow the quantification of the area's vulnerability to desertification. The study uses the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to assign respective weights to individual factors for each index calculation. Land‐cover maps and socio‐economic data have been used to understand their relationship with ESI. Results showed that 13 percent and 45 percent of the study area are under highly sensitive and moderately sensitive zones, respectively. Mapping and monitoring of environmentally sensitive areas in such arid regions are critical to sustainable use and planning of natural resources namely water and land‐cover and are helpful in determining priority actions and their successful implementation.  相似文献   

Probing for overshooting as extreme event of thunderstorms     

Chaudhuri  S.  Khan  F.  Das  D.  Mondal  P.  Dey  S. 《Natural Hazards》2020,102(3):1571-1588

Thunderstorm overshooting is rare but not an unusual phenomenon in a metropolitan of India, Kolkata (22.57° N; 88.36° E) during the pre-monsoon months (April–May). An attempt is made in this study to identify the important parameters differentiating the thunderstorms in overshooting and non-overshooting categories through data analytics from 2000 to 2015. The present investigation on parametric classification would facilitate in estimating the predictability of thunderstorms with overshooting which subsequently might assist in operational forecast of thunderstorm severity over Kolkata. The altitudes of lifting condensation level (LCL), wind shear, bulk Richardson number (BRN), gust speed, boundary layer characteristics and their correlation with thunderstorm cloud top height (CTH) and also their variation and distribution during overshooting (OTS) and non-overshooting (TS) thunderstorms are analyzed in this study. The result depicts that over Kolkata the intensity of storms during OTS is higher than during TS though the frequency of OTS is less than that of TS. The results further show that the potential temperature (θ), equivalent potential temperature (θ_e), mixing ratio (e_s) in the boundary layer, convective available potential energy, convective inhibition energy, BRN and gust speed play significant roles in regulating the CTH during OTS and TS thunderstorms over Kolkata.

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Effects of spatial variation of soil properties on seismic performance of port structures     

Ung Jin Na  Samit Ray Chaudhuri  Masanobu Shinozuka 《Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering》2009

From past seismic events such as the 1995 Kobe (Hyogoken-Nanbu) and 2001 Nisqually earthquakes, it was found that liquefaction-induced lateral spread has caused significant damage to structures such as buildings and bridges, in addition to underground utility facilities like pipelines. In this respect, seaport facilities are particularly vulnerable to these liquefaction-related damages, because they are usually constructed on poorly consolidated natural deposit or fills. This study investigates the effect of the liquefaction and lateral spread on the seismic response of caisson type quay walls. For this purpose, 2D nonlinear dynamic analyses of soil–structure system are carried out with the aid of finite difference software, FLAC. The unique feature of this study lies in the fact that the 2D soil system is idealized as homogeneous non-Gaussian random field. A simulation algorithm is then used to generate a set of digital realizations of 2D random field sample. Each realization is used for the dynamic analysis to generate a unique response of the soil–structure system. Repeating this analysis for the entire set of realizations, the probabilistic nature of the response is characterized in the Monte Carlo sense. This result based on random field is compared with the response obtained under the uniform field assumption with the mean value of soil property. The comparison shows that in general the uniform model provides unconservative result compared with the response from the random field model due to nonlinear behavior of the soil–structure system. It is also found that the consideration of spatial variation of soil can capture the dispersion of observed response of quay walls.  相似文献   

The Neoproterozoic Cratonic Successions of Peninsular India     

Asru K. Chaudhuri  Joydip Mukhopadhyay  Sarbani Patranabis Deb  S.K. Chanda   《Gondwana Research》1999,2(2):213

The Peninsular India hosts extensive record of Mesoproterozoic, and Neoproterozoic successions in several mobile belts, and cratonic basins. The successions provide excellent opportunities for chronostratigraphic classification, in tune with the chronometric classification adopted by IUGS for inter-regional correlation on a global scale. Major tectono-thermal events at 1000–950 Ma in the mobile belts, correlatable with the Grenville orogeny may be considered as the datum for Meso-Neoproterozoic classification in India. Principles of chronostratigraphic classification, however, can not be applied yet to the cratonic successions of India because of inadequate radiometric data, paucity of biostratigraphic studies, and lack of regionally correlatable stratigraphic or palaeoclimatic datum. The kimberlite magmatism which affected the Peninsular India on a continental scale at about 1100 Ma, holds the key to the identification of Neoproterozoic successions of the cratonic basins. Thus, the stratigraphically confined diamond-bearing conglomerates and/or the tuffs associated with kimberlites, may be considered as the datum to define the base of the Neoproterozoic, fixed at about 1000 Ma. Accordingly, the Rewa, and Bhander Groups in the Vindhyan basin, the Kurnool Group in the Cuddapah basin, the Jagdalpur Formation in the Indravati basin, and the Sullavai Group in the Pranhita-Godavari basin are taken to represent the Neoproterozoic successions in the Peninsular India. The Chattisgarh Group in the central India, the lower part of the Marwar Supergroup in western Rajasthan, the Badami Group in the Kaladgi basin, and the Bhima Group are the other “possible Neoproterozoics” in the Peninsula.The closing phase of the Mesoproterozoic in all these basins are characterised by stable shelf lithologic associations attesting to high crustal stability. The Neoproterozoic basins, by contrast, mark a new phase of rifting, and extension, and the basin fills exhibit signatures of initial instability which evolved with time into a more stable platformal condition. A major episode of sea level rise has been recorded in most of the basins. The riftogenic origin, and evolution of the basins are comparable with the history of Neoproterozoic basins of Australia though there is no unequivocal record of glaciation in the Indian formations.  相似文献   

Disparity in the characteristic of thunderstorms and associated lightning activities over dissimilar terrains   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Sutapa Chaudhuri  Anirban Middey 《Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics》2013,119(3-4):151-161

Thunderstorms and associated lightning flash activities are studied over two different locations in India with different terrain features. Lightning imaging sensor (LIS) data from 1998 to 2008 are analyzed during the pre-monsoon months (March, April and May). The eastern sector is designated as Sector A that represents a 2° × 2° square area enclosing Kolkata (22.65°N, 88.45°E) at the centre and covering Gangetic West Bengal, parts of Bihar and Orissa whereas the north-eastern sector designated as Sector B that also represents a 2° × 2° square area encircling Guwahati (26.10°N, 91.58°E) at the centre and covering Assam and foot hills of Himalaya of India. The stations Kolkata and Guwahati are selected for the present study from Sector A and Sector B, respectively, as these are the only stations over the selected areas having Radiosonde observatory. The result of the present study reveals that the characteristics of thunderstorms over the two locations are remarkably different. Lightning frequency is observed to be higher in Sector B than Sector A. The result further reveals that though the lightning frequency is less in Sector A, but the associated radiance is higher in Sector A than Sector B. It is also observed that the radiance increases linearly with convective available potential energy (CAPE) and their high correlation reveals that the lightning intensity can be estimated through the CAPE values. The sensitivity of lightning activity to CAPE is higher at the elevated station Guwahati (elevation 54 m) than Kolkata (elevation 6 m). Moderate resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS) data products are used to obtain aerosol optical depth and cloud top temperature and employed to find their responses on lightning radiance.  相似文献   

Remote sensing and ground-based observations for nowcasting the category of thunderstorms based on peak wind speed over an urban station of India   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Debanjana Das  Sutapa Chaudhuri 《Natural Hazards》2014,74(3):1743-1757

Thunderstorms are the recurrent features of India and are responsible for the redistribution of excess heat and moisture in the atmosphere. However, the thunderstorms that occur over the urban station Kolkata (22°34′N, 88°22′E), India, during the pre-monsoon months of April and May are extremely devastating while accompanied with high wind speed, lightning flashes, torrential rain and occasional hail and tornadoes. The development and verification of a model output are described in this study. The system consists of multiple linear regression (MLR) equations, and the purpose is to nowcast the categories of thunderstorms over Kolkata, both ordinary (wind speed <65 km h^?1) and severe (wind speed ≥65 km h^?1) as per the warning provided by the India Meteorological Department for the prevalence of thunderstorms. The MODIS terra/aqua satellite data of cloud parameters, ground-based Radiosonde/Rawinsonde upper air observations and records of wind speed accompanied with thunderstorms over Kolkata are considered for the study. The MLR models are formulated with the cloud parameters as input and the target output being the peak wind speed associated with the pre-monsoon thunderstorms. The MLR model is trained with the data and records from 2002 to 2009, and the results are validated with the observations of 2010 and 2011. The results reveal that the accuracy in nowcasting the ordinary and severe categories of thunderstorms during the pre-monsoon season over Kolkata with MLR models are 94.26 and 91.29 %, respectively, with lead time <12 h.  相似文献   

A new approach using polyvinylidene fluoride immobilised calf-intestinal alkaline phosphatase for uranium bioprecipitation     

P. Venu-Babu  Gouri Chaudhuri  W. Richard Thilagaraj 《International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology》2018,15(3):599-606

Uranium is a predominant radionuclide arising out of operations of mining, milling and fuel fabrication for nuclear power plants. While chemical and biological methods using several micro-organisms have been employed for the remediation of uranium from such effluents, use of immobilised enzymes for the purpose has not been reported. The current investigation deals with a purified calf-intestinal alkaline phosphatase which is capable of driving uranium precipitation in the presence of a phosphate-containing substrate. The enzyme, both in free form and in an immobilised form on polyvinylidene fluoride membrane, was investigated for the precipitation of uranium using para-nitrophenyl phosphate as substrate. The results indicated that while the enzyme in free form could precipitate most of the uranium within 6 h, the immobilised enzyme could achieve the same in 24 h. There was a spurt in the precipitation of uranium by the immobilised enzyme during the initial period of 3 h followed by a linear increase for the remaining period. The immobilised enzyme was found to be stable and catalytically active for 3 years in precipitating uranium. The results obtained offer polyvinylidene fluoride immobilised alkaline phosphatase from calf intestine as a new tool for the remediation of uranium from effluents. Further, evidence has been also shown that no requirement for any cellular architecture/scaffolding exists for uranium mineralisation to occur.  相似文献   

Study of near surface boundary layer characteristics during pre-monsoon seasons using micrometeorological tower observations     

S. Chaudhuri  A. Middey 《Atmósfera》2013,26(1):125-144

Studying the boundary layer is imperative because severe weather in this portion of the atmosphere impacts on environment and various facets of national activities and affects the socioeconomic scenario of a region. Near surface boundary layer characteristics are investigated through the vertical variation of fluxes of heat, moisture, momentum, kinetic energy and Richardson number during the pre-monsoon season (April-May) at Kharagpur (22° 30’ N, 87° 20’ E) and Ranchi (23° 32’ N, 85° 32’ E) with 50 and 32 m tower data, respectively, on thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm days. The temporal variation of fluxes within the boundary layer and the kinetic energy at different logarithmic heights are observed to vary significantly between thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm days. The heat and momentum fluxes show a maximum peak while the moisture flux shows a sudden attenuation just before the occurrence of thunderstorms. The wind field depicts to play a crucial role at the inland station Kharagpur, which is in the proximity of the Bay of Bengal, compared to the station Ranchi, situated over hilly terrain on Chotanagpur. The micrometeorological study of the boundary layer reveals a significant finding pertaining to observe the passage of thunderstorms. It is observed that the ratio of the potential temperature (θ) and equivalent potential temperature (θe) remains confined within a critical range between 0.85 and 0.90 during the passage of thunderstorms.  相似文献   

Network of seismo-geochemical monitoring observatories for earthquake prediction research in India   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Hirok Chaudhuri  Chiranjib Barman  A. N. Sekar Iyengar  Debasis Ghose  Prasanta Sen  Bikash Sinha 《Acta Geophysica》2013,61(4):1000-1025

Present paper deals with a brief review of the research carried out to develop multi-parametric gas-geochemical monitoring facilities dedicated to earthquake prediction research in India by installing a network of seismo-geochemical monitoring observatories at different regions of the country. In an attempt to detect earthquake precursors, the concentrations of helium, argon, nitrogen, methane, radon-222 (²²²Rn), polonium-218 (²¹⁸Po), and polonium-214 (²¹⁴Po) emanating from hydrothermal systems are monitored continuously and round the clock at these observatories. In this paper, we make a cross correlation study of a number of geochemical anomalies recorded at these observatories. With the data received from each of the above observatories we attempt to make a time series analysis to relate magnitude and epicentral distance locations through statistical methods, empirical formulations that relate the area of influence to earthquake scale. Application of the linear and nonlinear statistical techniques in the recorded geochemical data sets reveal a clear signature of long-range correlation in the data sets.  相似文献   

Mobility and bioavailability of selected heavy metals in coal ash- and sewage sludge-amended acid soil   总被引：6，自引：0，他引：6  

D.?Chaudhuri  S.?TripathyEmail author  H.?Veeresh  M.?A.?Powell  B.?R.?Hart 《Environmental Geology》2003,44(4):419-432

A sequential extraction procedure has been used to study the changes in the distribution and mobility of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in an acid lateritic soil amended with alkaline coal ash and neutral sludge individually and with their mixture of equal proportions at 25, 50 and 75 Mg/ha application rates and grown in a crop with peanuts. A separate set of experiments consisting of the same treatments was repeated with the addition of lime at 2 Mg/ha. Increases in total heavy-metal levels with application of various amendments were mainly associated with increases in the insoluble and less mobile forms of metals except for Cd, which showed an increase in its exchangeable form. An increase in pH of the amended soil restricted the metal mobility in their labile forms and was more pronounced after liming the treatments. Positive yield responses were observed in the amended soil, the magnitude being higher in only sludge-applied treatments. The vegetative plant parts showed maximum accumulation of metals indicating a physiological barrier in the transfer of metals from the root to the kernel. Linear relationships of total concentrations of heavy metals in soil with that in the crop were observed. Lime addition to the treatments further reduced the transfer and accumulation of metals from the soil to the plant, even though the relationship remained linear.  相似文献