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Tobacco Cropping Increases Sediment Delivery in a Subtropical Agricultural Catchment in Southern Brazil
Abstract
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Seasonal sediment transfer
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Although monetary valuation of natural ecosystems is difficult, such valuation helps to draw attention to their importance, and highlight conservation needs, especially in developing countries. The recreational value of Khecheopalri, a lake situated in the West District of Sikkim State, India, which has recreational, biodiversity and sacredness values, was assessed. The demand curve function for recreation increased with decreases in travel cost and distance for Sikkimese visitors. The recreational value of the lake was similar to other protected sites in India; however, all these sites had very low values compared to sites elsewhere in the world. Willingness to pay for maintenance and preservation of the lake by all types of visitors ranged from US$ 0.88 for members of the local community to US$ 7.19 for international tourists. The lake showed high recreational/sacredness values that were attributed to conservation of the site for biodiversity and pilgrimage. A large number of lakes in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, if properly managed and marketed for ecotourism, can bring economic development that can be linked with conservation.
Silk is a way of life and no ritual is completed without silk in India. It is an inseparable part of Indian culture and traditions. Sericulture is the art and technique of silk production. It is an ancient industry in India dating back to the second century B.C. Traditionally, India dwells in the rural areas its economy is largely dependent on the success of agriculture and allied farm activities as more than 70 percent of the people's livelihood security is depending on this sector. Sericulture being an agro-based enterprise plays a predominant role in shaping the economic destiny of the rural people and fits very well in India's rural structure, where agriculture continues to be the main industry. Out of the 6,38,588 villages in India , sericulture is practiced in about 52,360 villages providing employment to about 7.52 people. Sericulture is providing livelihood for 9,47,631 families. The pursuit of sericulture offers gainful employment to the rural masses. Being a labour intensive rural based industry it offers a qualitative and quantitative change in the poverty alleviation with a chain creation of employment from unskilled farm labourers to skill artisans to all sections rural folk. In view of the importance of sericulture enterprise for the rural development as well as its cultural bondage, the paper tries to enlighten and discuss the significance of sericulture and strategies to be taken for the sustainable development of Indian sericulture industry for the rural development.
Dengue is a major public health challenge with population density, inadequate water supply, improper solid waste management, climate change and poor socioeconomic status are identified key determinants for Dengue /Severe Dengue. Environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and precipitation etc. also play a vital role in the incidence of Dengue. The present study was carried out with aim to find correlations between incidence of dengue fever and environmental factors from 2011 to 2016 in Delhi. No linear correlation was observed between rainfall and dengue cases, however the peaks of rain fall and the dengue cases had some lag period difference of about two months. When this lag period is adjusted the high positive correlation (r=0.9868) was seen that both peaks perfectly matched which suggest the cases are related to rainfalls in spite of indoor breeding of mosquitoes. High correlation was observed between average rain fall with average cases (97%; r= 0.986) The study shows a clear dependency of dengue cases with climatic factors and further revealed that there is a lag phase between rains and appearance of cases which provides an opportunity to programme managers to carry out vector control measures along with source reduction. This window of opportunity provides enough time to mobilize resources for the implementation of interventional measures to lower the impact of the epidemic.
The rapid urbanization and the population growth, have increased the demands of fresh water to manage various tasks from domestic to industrial scales. Various man driven sectors such as agriculture, industry and water filtration plants, require fresh water to cater the need of increasing population. Therefore, the management of available fresh water reservoirs is of great importance to save water for a sustainable future "save water save life". Digital elevation model (DEM) is efficient to extract the drainage network, basin boundaries and to evaluate the volume of fresh water available in study site. We used Arc hydro tools in Arc GIS interface for extraction of drainage network in the study site. Flow direction and accumulation were computed according to Z-value of individual pixel available in the raster grid. A total 127 streams were extracted against 127 catchments. We observed that the catchments bearing steep slopes were incised in comparison to gentle slopes which were mostly eroded. We evaluated the total discharge in cusec using Q=CIA, where the coefficient 'C' of rainfall was substituted as 0.76 for each catchment having rocky soil type. The total discharge was estimated as 10871 cusec. GIS tools proved efficient to map watershed in the study site.
India is one of the fastest growing and developing economies as well as societies of the world. An evident consequence of this trend is urbanisation, which poses an immense challenge for the population and political decision-makers of the country, and it is one of the most important social geographical topical research trends concerning India. First, this paper introduces the general urbanisation trends experienced in sovereign India in the
1951–2011 period, in the framework of an analysis of statistical data recorded in censuses, indicating the volume and trends of urbanisation. This step is followed by the demonstration of the structural features and diverse development paths of the million-plus agglomerations (i.e. agglomerations with at least a million inhabitants), connected to one of its main characteristics depicted by this introductory summary: metropolisation. This also allows the demonstration of the differences between the statistical and functional interpretation of metropolitan areas. Using the quantitative categories defined
during the analysis, the authors classify the metropolises of India in terms of types of urbanisation through cluster analysis.
This study discussed the factors belonged to the tourism destination for assessing tourists' satisfaction. It includes a total of 185 randomly selected samples from the hill track area, a popular tourist destination of Bangladesh. The data were analyzed based on partial least square using SmartPLS software. Results suggest that the transport system, accommodation and local foods as the destination bound factors are imperative for tourists' expenditure and their perception of satisfaction. Results also found the significant moderating effect of the security system of the destination on the relationship between the level of expenditure and perceived satisfaction. The study makes significant contribution to the existing literature uncovering the underlying factors that are associated with tourists' satisfaction. The findings also provide significant insights to the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and government bodies for promoting tourism. Though the study takes Bangladesh as a case, it is expected that, the findings are applicable to similar settings in other countries.
This article deals with a narrow zone of duricrusted escarpment and mesoscale badland landscape at Gangani on the right bank of Shilai river near Garhbeta in Medinipur district, West Bengal. Here the multilevel laterite duricrusts—formed either due to cyclic changes in water table or lateral migration of iron in an area of later relief inversion—have given rise to a 5-tier gully development producing a 5-facet landform assemblage. The regional slope evolution mostly resemble the 4-element slope retreat scheme of King, while both Hortonian and through-flow models can be applied to explain initiation of channels above the escarpment and at riverside confinement respectively. Lastly, probabilistic modelling suggests areal evolution of two gully networks by bifurcation at the tip and subsequent addition of tributaries. A note on implication of gully erosion is also added.
Az indiai urbanizációs folyamatok, és ezek definiált fázisai, nem korlátozódnak az utolsó két-száz évre. Az első időszak, melyet érdemes említenünk-bár ennek kevés köze van a modern folya-matokhoz-az Indus Civilizáció, a mezopotámiai és a Nílus-völgyi centrumokkal együtt az emberi-ség történelmének korai városodási és városiasodási szakaszát jelentette. Az i.e. 2300-as évektől kezdve kimutatható a Harappa Kultúraként 1 is említett városfejlődési terület megléte, mely mintegy 600 éves virágzást követően, nagyjából az i.e. 1700-as évekre fulladt ki, máig vitatott okok miatt. Az ezután következő ezer év során nem találunk a szubkontinens területén jól körülhatárolha-tó urbanizációs gócokat és tendenciákat. Azonban az i.e. 600-as évektől az India É-i részén uralko-dó árja és a D-i területein domináns dravida kulturális áramlatok, melyek idővel egymással közeli vi-szonyba kerültek, máig ható urbanizációs folyamatokat indukáltak. Ezek természetesen városnöve-kedési és-hanyatlási korszakokat jelentettek. Ekképpen a városok növekedtek mind számukban, mind méretükben a Maurya (Maurja) 2 és a Mauryákat közvetlenül követő időszakban (i.e. 300-i.sz. 600), É-on és Den is. Azután a városok komoly hanyatlásnak indultak a Gupta korszak utáni India északi területein, nagyjából 600 és 1000 között. Ugyanakkor Den éppen egy növekedési periódus következett 800-tól 1200-ig. É-on a-főleg a mai Afganisztán vidékéről betörő-muszlim hódítók érkezésével (az 1200-as évektől) egyes területeken növekedés indult meg, majd a mogul uralom ide-jén ez még fokozódott is, hiszen jó néhány, ekkor alapított város a mai napig az ország település-rendszerének jelentősebb elemei közé tartozik. A britek akkor érkeztek Indiába, amikor az talán a világ leginkább urbanizált részét képezte (DE VRIES, J. 1984). Az európai uralom kezdete visszaesést hozott az indiai városiasodás folyamatá-ban, majd az elveszett energiák később újjáéledtek és koloniális alapítású városok sora indult el a fejlődés útján. Mindemellett a már meglévő városok egy része is átalakult a hódítók hatására. A füg-getlenség elnyerését követően soha nem látott mértékű urbanizáció vette kezdetét. 1 Az Indus Civilizáció fejlett, virágzó periódusát fő lelőhelyéről Harappa Kultúrának nevezik. 2 Az indiai neveket, kifejezéseket az angol nyelvű szakirodalomban meggyökeresedett formájukban használjuk, első előfordulásukkor, ahol szükséges, zárójelben megadjuk a magyar kiejtésnek megfelelő alakjukat is, kivételt képeznek a hazai köznyelvben-akár helytelenül is, pl. Himalája-már széles körben elterjedt nevek.
Urmia Lake located in the north-west of Iran, is one of the largest hyper-saline lakes in the world. In this study, classification of groundwater of the eastern basin of Urmia Lake and the results of groundwater samples of the eastern basin of Urmia Lake that included physical and chemical parameters such as electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids, Ca²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, HCO3 ⁻, SO4 ²⁻ and SAR were analysed for drinking and agricultural purposes. Results show that the use of GIS and water quality index could provide a very useful and efficient tool for the management of water resources. According to the DWQI, 56% samples were classified as good in Ajabsheir, 33% samples were classified as good in Azarshahr, 38% samples were classified as excellent in Oskou, 30% samples were classified as good in shabstar. Based on the results of the irrigation water quality index (IWQI), over 70% of samples were the ‘High restriction’ category in Ajabsheir, 60% of samples were the ‘Moderate restriction’ in Azarshahr. About 52% of samples were the ‘Severe restriction’ in Oskou, 70% of samples were the ‘High restriction’ category in Shabstar. Obtained results from this study indicate that the hydrological condition of groundwater is an important factor controlling the physical and chemical parameters in groundwater.
Twenty daily time step–based SWAT simulation models for the Duhok, Adhaim and Dokan dam watersheds, in Iraq, were implemented using five land cover (LC) and digital elevation model (DEM) of different resolutions. The optimal LC and DEM for computing the most accurate streamflow for each watershed were specified. Results indicated that delineation of the flat watersheds is significantly affected by the DEM resolution and there was no evident trend on the computation of watersheds’ total areas, boundaries, number of subbasins and stream networks. Moreover, there is no significant trend between the increase in LC and DEM resolutions and accuracy of the computed streamflow. The most accurate streamflows for the Duhok, Adhaim and Dokan watersheds were computed using LC (DEM) of 30 m, 1000 m and 1000 m.
Ecological perspective is important in agriculture, because sustainable agriculture is based on cultivation practices that do not deviate from natural systems. In an ecological perspective, agriculture is based on differences in climate, soil properties, soil morphology that requires different management and processing of agriculture between regions. Research was conducted in Enrekang district with reference to 18 Land systems. This study aimed to assess the land suitability for coffee plants based on geographic information systems using a fuzzy logic approach. Primary data as evaluation criteria were divided into three main components; for potential land erosion, potential flooding and soil profile. Land cover was considered as well. In fuzzy analysis, the value of land attributes was converted to sustainable values (ranging from 0 to 1.0) according the class limits determined based on experience and standard conventional. There was distribution of land suitability for coffee plants in Enrekang district. 65% of the area had the potential to develop coffee plants. The main limiting factor in the development of coffee plants in the study area was the erosion potential, especially the slope.
Confining clay layers typically protect groundwater aquifers against downward intrusion of contaminants. In the context of groundwater arsenic in Bangladesh, we challenge this notion here by showing that organic carbon drawn from a clay layer into a low-arsenic pre-Holocene (>12 kyr-old) aquifer promotes the reductive dissolution of iron oxides and the release of arsenic. The finding explains a steady rise in arsenic concentrations in a pre-Holocene aquifer below such a clay layer and the repeated failure of a structurally sound community well. Tritium measurements indicate that groundwater from the affected depth interval (40–50 m) was recharged >60 years ago. Deeper (55–65 m) groundwater in the same pre-Holocene aquifer was recharged only 10–50 years ago but is still low in arsenic. Proximity to a confining clay layer that expels organic carbon as an indirect response to groundwater pumping, rather than directly accelerated recharge, caused arsenic contamination of this pre-Holocene aquifer. Generally it is thought that confining clay layers provide protection to low-arsenic groundwaters against intrusion of shallower, high-arsenic groundwater bodies. Here, the authors show that impermeable clay layers can increase arsenic input to underlying groundwater systems due to reduction of iron oxides coupled to carbon oxidation.
Industrial development of a country not only depends on technological innovation and capital overflow, but also it requires cheap & optimum availability of raw materials and encouraging infrastructural facilities. Agro-based industry like rice milling is one of the most important raw materials based industry directly linked to the agricultural production. Indian agriculture has been going toward dietetic diversification due to rapid economic expansion, increasing per-capita income, rapid urbanization and women participation in different type of activities. That's why India is going toward increasing diversification of agro-based industries. Rice is the staple food crop for most of the Indian. Rice is the primary processed product from paddy and this is further processed for obtaining various secondary and tertiary products. Undivided Burdwan district was known as 'rice bowl of West Bengal' and major of the part is now lies in Purba Bardhaman district. Purba Bardhaman district produced 9.97 percentage of Bengal's rice production. Though rice milling is the oldest and largest agro-based industries in undivided Burdwan and now as Purba Bardhaman district. The study is analyses rice milling concentration and spatio-temporal variation of rice mills in Purba Bardhaman district. The study is based on mainly secondary data. Data have been collected from relevant sources and which have compiled and supporting field visit have done for verification. On the basis of 2015 data base there are 410 rice mills are situated in the district and the highest number of rice mills are found in Khandoghosh(61) C. D block due to high rice crop concentration and favorable infrastructural development.
Soil erosion and nutrient loss from surface runoff and subsurface leaching are critical problems for cultivated land. Conservation initiatives show a persistent need for field-scale cropland vulnerability assessments to inform farm management options and prioritize efforts at watershed or regional scales. The Soil Vulnerability Index (SVI) was developed by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to assess inherent vulnerability of cropland to surface runoff and leaching using readily available soil and topographic inputs: hydrologic soil group, slope, erodibility K-factor, coarse fragments, and organic carbon (C). The SVI has been evaluated in a few watersheds but requires further evaluation across a wider range of physiographic and climatic conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the SVI to correctly identify vulnerability class based on slope, digital elevation model (DEM) resolution, hydrologic soil group, and soil erodibility across 13 of USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) watersheds. The SVI classification was consistent with model output classification with a similarity rate of more than 70% when the SVI component corresponded to the primary route of loss for nutrients or sediment. Results showed that SVIs were consistent with local scientific expertise about the site vulnerability to runoff and leaching, and were particularly useful in areas with mixed slopes and hydrologic soil groups. In watersheds with uniform C or D hydrologic soil groups, the SVI was primarily driven by slope. In these cases, it was important to use a digital elevation map with 10 m resolution or higher to more finely distinguish vulnerability. In areas with uniform slopes and hydrologic soil group, and in areas with uniformly steep slopes, the SVI was not able to identify fields with greater or lower vulnerability than others. In these cases, vulnerability
assessments required additional factors: depth of restrictive layer, clay content, slope length, and landscape position. While the SVI was able to categorize vulnerability correctly in mixed soil and slope conditions, findings from this project highlight the need for incorporating DEM-sourced slope and other factors like depth of restrictive layer, clay content, slope length, and landscape position into the SVI to ensure that the SVI is applicable to the broad range of geomorphic conditions found in the United States.
Promotion of geotourism is recognized worldwide as a strategy for geoconservation. Fossil parks worldwide are one of the major geotourism attractions where in-situ conservation of fossil is encouraged. The angiosperm wood fossils have been discovered from Amkhoi, a tribal village of India in the year 2006. In order to prevent vandalism by the fossil hunters and antique thieves, a fossil park was planned that has been opened for the visitors from the beginning of 2018. This paper is an attempt to address the research gap on sustainable management of fossil parks while satisfying the geotourists with various facilities and amenities.
Aging, shrinking cities, urban agglomerations and other new key terms continue to emerge when describing the large-scale population changes in various cities in mainland China. It is important to simulate the distribution of residential populations at a coarse scale to manage cities as a whole, and at a fine scale for policy making in infrastructure development. This paper analyzes the relationship between the DN (Digital number, value assigned to a pixel in a digital image) value of NPP-VIIRS (the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) and LuoJia1-01 and the residential populations of urban areas at a district, sub-district, community and court level, to compare the influence of resolution of remote sensing data by taking urban land use to map out auxiliary data in which first-class (R1), second-class (R2) and third-class residential areas (R3) are distinguished by house price. The results show that LuoJia1-01 more accurately analyzes population distributions at a court level for second- and third-class residential areas, which account for over 85% of the total population. The accuracy of the LuoJia1-01 simulation data is higher than that of Landscan and GHS (European Commission Global Human Settlement) population. This can be used as an important tool for refining the simulation of residential population distributions. In the future, higher-resolution night-time light data could be used for research on accurate simulation analysis that scales down large-scale populations.
This study develops a response-based hydrologic model for long-term (continuous) rainfall-runoff simulations over the catchment areas of big rivers. The model overcomes the typical difficulties in estimating infiltration and evapotranspiration parameters using a modified version of the Soil Conservation Service curve number SCS-CN method. In addition, the model simulates the surface and groundwater hydrograph components using the response unit-hydrograph approach instead of using a linear reservoir routing approach for routing surface and groundwater to the basin outlet. The unit-responses are Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-pre-calculated on a semi-distributed short-term basis and applied in the simulation in every time step. The unit responses are based on the time-area technique that can better simulate the real routing behavior of the basin. The model is less sensitive to groundwater infiltration parameters since groundwater is actually controlled by the surface component and not the opposite. For that reason, the model is called the SCHydro model (Surface Controlled Hydrologic model). The model is tested on the upper Blue Nile catchment area using 28 years daily river flow data set for calibration and validation. The results show that SCHydro model can simulate the long-term transforming behavior of the upper Blue Nile basin. Our initial assessment of the model indicates that the model is a promising tool for long-term river flow simulations, especially for long-term forecasting purposes due to its stability in performing the water balance.
Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques are increasingly being used for the problem of location selection, which directly affects the long-term success of a company. Besides these techniques, with the advantage of handling both spatial and non-spatial data, geographic information systems (GIS) also represent a useful method for selecting the appropriate location for different kinds of facilities and sites. In this respect, this study aims to compare the results of a MCDM technique, fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and GIS for the location selection of shopping malls in Turkey. According to the results of both fuzzy TOPSIS and GIS, the Marmara region was determined as the best alternative for shopping malls in Turkey.
Background:
Appropriate antenatal care improves pregnancy outcomes. Routine antenatal care is provided at primary care facilities in rural India and women at-risk of poor outcomes are referred to advanced centres in cities. The primary care facilities include Sub-health centres, Primary health centres, and Community health centres, in ascending order of level of obstetric care provided. The latter two should provide basic and comprehensive obstetric care, respectively, but they provide only partial services. In such scenario, the management and referrals during pregnancy are less understood. This study assessed rural providers' perspectives on management and referrals of antenatal women with high obstetric risk, or with complications.
Methods:
We surveyed 147 health care providers in primary level public health care from poor and better performing districts from two states. We assessed their knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding obstetric care, referral decisions and pre-referral treatments provided for commonly occurring obstetric high-risk conditions and complications.
Results:
Staff had sub-optimal knowledge of, and practices for, screening common high-risk conditions and assessing complications in pregnancy. Only 31% (47/147) mentioned screening for at least 10 of the 16 common high-risk conditions and early complications of pregnancy. Only 35% (17/49) of the staff at Primary health centres, and 51% (18/35) at Community health centres, mentioned that they managed these conditions and, the remaining staff referred most of such cases early in pregnancy. The staff mentioned inability to manage childbirth of women with high-risk conditions and complications. Thus in absence of efficient referral systems and communication, it was better for these women to receive antenatal care at the advanced centres (often far) where they should deliver. There were large gaps in knowledge of emergency treatment for obstetric complications in pregnancy and pre-referral first-aid. Staff generally were low on confidence and did not have adequate resources. Nurses had limited roles in decision making. Staff desired skill building, mentoring, moral support, and motivation from senior officers.
Conclusion:
The Indian health system should improve the provision of obstetric care by standardising services at each level of health care and increasing the focus on emergency treatment for complications, appropriate decision-making for referral, and improving referral communication and staff support.
Rarh Bengal in India is a well known lateritic landscape endowed with a number of geoarchaeological sites. Research gaps have been identified in the systematic mapping and location analysis on the nature of distributional pattern of such geoarchaeosites from the perspective of planning a number of geotourism circuits. With application of nearest neighbour analysis and GIS based digital cartography, this paper is an attempt to analyze space-time dimensions of geosites bearing the traces of past lives with special concentration on our predecessors. With the application of network analysis, shortest route planning is obtained for sustainable tourist movement.
In any public service development decision, it is essential to reach the stakeholders’ agreement to gain a sustainable result, which is accepted by all involved groups. In case this criterion is violated, the impact of the development will be less than expected due to the resistance of one group or another. Concerning public urban transport decisions, the lack of consensus might cause lower utilisation of public vehicles, thus more severe environmental damage, traffic problems and negative economic impacts. This paper aims to introduce a decision support procedure (applying the current MCDM techniques; Fuzzy and Interval AHP) which is capable of analysing and creating consensus among different stakeholder participants in a transport development problem. The combined application of FAHP and IAHP ensures that the consensus creation is not only based on an automated computation process (just as in IAHP) but also on the consideration of specific group interests. Thus, the decision makers have the liberty to express their preferences in urban planning, along with the consideration of numerical results. The procedure has been tested in a real public transport improvement decision as a follow-up project, in an emerging city, Mersin, Turkey. Results show that by the application of the proposed techniques, decision-makers can be more aware of the conflicts of interests among the involved groups, and they can pay more attention to possible violations.
Drainage network extraction plays an important role in geomorphologic analyses, hydrologic modeling, and non-point source pollutant simulation, among others. Flow enforcement, by imposing information of known river maps to digital elevation models (DEMs), leads to improved drainage network extraction. However, the existing flow enforcement methods (e.g., the elevation-based stream-burning method) have certain limitations, as they may cause unreal longitudinal profiles, lead to unintended topological errors, and even misinterpret the overall drainage patterns. The present study proposes an enhanced flow enforcement method without elevation modification towards an accurate and efficient drainage network extraction. In addition to preserving the Boolean-value information as to whether a DEM pixel belongs to a stream, the proposed method can also well preserve and fully utilize the topological relations among mapped streamlines and morphological information of each mapped streamline. The method involves two important steps: (1) proposal of an improved rasterization algorithm of mapped streamlines to yield continuous, unambiguous, and collision-free raster equivalent of stream vectors for flow enforcement; and (2) realization of the enhanced flow enforcement in a modified Priority-Flood procedure –– in this way, flows are enforced to completely follow the mapped streamlines, and hence, channel short-circuits and spurious confluences of adjacent streams are avoided. An efficient implementation of the method is made based on a size-balanced binary search tree. The method is also tested over the Rogue River Basin in the United States, using DEMs with various resolutions. Visual and statistical analyses of the results indicate three major advantages of the proposed method: (1) significant reduction in the misinterpretation of drainage patterns; (2) maximum channel displacement of one pixel to the river map at various resolutions; and (3) high computational efficiency.
The aim of the study is to develop a sample scale to measure social sustainability in an urban context. Social sustainability is an important component of sustainable development and it gained importance in the 1990s with awareness of the rising welfare of the society. The definitions, criteria, and the measurement system of social sustainability are still vague. In this context, this article bridges the gap in measuring social sustainability in an urban context and it proposes a model called Measurement of the City from Social Aspects (MCSA). The developed model was applied to the city of Güzelyurt, which has continuously experienced immigration from past to present. Quantitative research method was used in the research and the data was collected through interviews and a questionnaire survey, conducted with 400 local residents. The proposed model was tested in terms of model fit using confirmatory factor analysis. Also, the construct validity and discriminant validity of the model were tested. Research results indicate that the developed MCSA model works and it is suitable to be applied to other cities for measuring their social sustainability. Thus, the problems in the social aspects of the cities could be revealed and solutions could be generated to ensure the social sustainability of the cities.
Dengue Fever, a major global Vector-Borne public health concern, is considered a major threat for mortality and morbidity of human-population. As no public-health vaccine is not still available, for prevention of the disease different Vector Control methods are still the prime means. The key to success lies on analysis of geo-climatic, socio-cultural, politico-legal and economic condition of the area, seasonal variation, as well as the spatial spread of the disease. Among different cities of India, Kolkata, an important Metropolis, has been subjected to this study, where the spatial spread of dengue has been found to have some important characteristics. The authors of the present work, who have been working on Vector Borne Diseases and have effectively forecasted models of Urban Malaria for Kolkata, have attempted a baseline study on Spatial Clustering of Dengue Fever in the same City, based on a large survey data, conducted by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. In this pursuit, Moran scatter-plot, Hot-Spot Map and Heat Map using LISA Tools were derived for consecutive two years, so that the possible spatial effects on Dengue incidences can be derived after Spatial Analytic techniques. Disease Control methods can only be derived following the detailed Statistical Analysis of the Spatial Clustering data.
Background
It is estimated that nearly five billion people worldwide do not have access to safe surgery. This access gap disproportionately affects low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). One of the barriers to healthcare in LMICs is access to transport to a healthcare facility. Both availability and affordability of transport can be issues delaying access to health care. This study aimed to describe the main transportation factors affecting access and delay in reaching a facility for health care in Malawi.
Methods
This was a multi-stage, clustered, probability sampling with systematic sampling of households for transportation access to general health and surgical care. Malawi has an estimated population of nearly 18 million people, with a total of 48,233 registered settlements spread over 28 administrative districts. 55 settlements per district were randomly selected for data collection, and 2–4 households were selected, depending on the size. Two persons per household were interviewed.
The Surgeons Overseas Assessment of Surgical need (SOSAS) tool was used by trained personnel to collect data during the months of July and August 2016.
Analysis of data from 1479 households and 2958 interviewees was by univariate and multivariate methods.
Results
Analysis showed that 90.1% were rural inhabitants, and 40% were farmers. No formal employment was reported for 24.9% persons. Animal drawn carts prevailed as the most common mode of transport from home to the primary health facility - normally a health centre. Travel to secondary and tertiary level health facilities was mostly by public transport, 31.5 and 43.4% respectively. Median travel time from home to a health centre was 1 h, and 2.5 h to a central hospital. Thirty nine percent of male and 59% of female head of households reported lack financial resources to go to a hospital.
Conclusion
In Malawi, lack of suitable transport, finances and prolonged travel time to a health care centre, all pose barriers to timely access of health care. Improving the availability of transport between rural health centres and district hospitals, and between the district and central hospitals, could help overcome the transportation barriers to health care.
Background
In China, tuberculosis (TB) is still a major infectious disease threatening people’s health. Smear positive pulmonary TB is one of the most common infectious forms of TB and it might easily cause the outbreak in some areas. With a better understanding of the spatial-temporal variations of smear positive PTB, we would reach the targets for TB prevention and controlling, identify high-risk areas and periods. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the spatial-temporal variations of smear positive PTB.
Methods
Provincial level data of reported smear positive PTB monthly cases and incidence from January 2004 to December 2015 were obtained from the National Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Population and Health of China. Purely spatial-temporal descriptive analysis was used to characterize the distribution patterns of smear positive PTB. The global spatial auto-correlation statistics (Moran’s I) and the local indicators of spatial association (LISA) were conducted to identify the spatial auto-correlation and high risk areas of smear positive PTB cases. Furthermore, the space-time scan statistic was adopted to detect the spatial-temporal clusters in different periods.
Results
A total of 4,711,571 smear positive PTB cases were notified in China with an average annual incidence of 29.59/100,000. The proportion of male in different age groups were obviously higher than that of women. The largest number of cases was reported in the 20–24 years age group. Time-series analysis indicated that monthly incidence appeared a clearly seasonality and periodicity, which the seasonal peaks occurred in January and March. Smear positive PTB cases had a positive global spatial auto-correlation in 2013–2015 (Moran‘s I = 0.186, P = 0.046). Spatial clusters were identified in four periods, located in the different regions. The time period of 2004–2006, the most likely spatial-temporal cluster (RR = 1.69, P < 0.001) was mainly located in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui of central China, clustering in the time frame from January 2005 to June 2006. During 2007–2009, the most likely spatial-temporal cluster (RR = 5.65, P < 0.001) was located in Guizhou, clustering in the time frame from January to December 2009. The spatial-temporal clustering in the years 2010–2012 showed the most likely cluster (RR = 1.44, P < 0.001) was distributed in Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong with the time frame from January 2010 to June 2011. During 2013–2015, the most likely cluster (RR = 1.86, P < 0.001) was detected in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong from February 2013 to June 2014.
Conclusions
This study identified the spatial-temporal patterns of smear positive PTB in China and demonstrated the capability and utility of the spatial-temporal approach in epidemiology. The results of this study would contribute to estimating the high risk periods and areas, and to providing more useful information for policy-making.
Human societies evolved alongside rivers, but how has the relationship between human settlement locations and water resources evolved over time? We conducted a dynamic analysis in the conterminous US to assess the coevolution of humans and water resources from 1790 to 2010. Here we show that humans moved closer to major rivers in pre-industrial periods but have moved farther from major rivers after 1870, demonstrating the dynamics of human reliance on rivers for trade and transport. We show that humans were preferentially attracted to areas overlying major aquifers since industrialization due to the emergent accessibility of groundwater in the 20th century. Regional heterogeneity resulted in diverse trajectories of settlement proximity to major rivers, with the attractiveness of rivers increasing in arid regions and decreasing in humid areas. Our results reveal a historical coevolution of human-water systems, which could inform water management and contribute to societal adaptation to future climate change.
The Nigerian economy is dwindling, the health system is failing, and the wellbeing of the citizenry is declining. The cost of living is high, the road network is poor, and many people lack enough to afford expensive healthcare, apart from paying an extra for transport to a long-distance health facility. The situation increases the tendency to delay or miss effective health care on a daily basis all over the country; especially in rural areas where infrastructural development is low. As effective treatment is delayed for a prolonged period, the severity of outcomes, hospitalisation and mortality are likely to occur. Are these the reasons for high maternal mortality, child mortality, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and low life expectancy in Nigeria? Health planners, over the years, have been focussing on financing healthcare with less consideration of the viability of facilities' locations. Thus, laudable projects over the years have become redundant or shut down shortly after commissioning. It is glaring that finance alone will not redeem the failing Nigerian health system. Therefore, healthcare planners and researchers must prioritise other dimensions of healthcare access such as geographical accessibility which they have ignored over the years.
To assess the spatial and temporal availability of blue and green water for up- and downstream stakeholders, the hydrological responses of the upper Blue Nile basin in the Ethiopian Highlands was modelled and analysed with newly generated input data, such as soil and land use maps. To consider variations in the seasonal climate, topography, soil, land use, and land management, the upper Blue Nile basin was modelled in seven major sub-basins. The modelling showed significant spatial and temporal differences in the hydrological responses of different sub-basins and years. The long-term mean annual drainage ratios of the watersheds range from <0.1 to >0.65, and the annual drainage ratio of one sub-basin can vary from 0.22 to 0.49. Steep slopes, shallow soils, and cultivated areas increase the drainage ratios due to high surface runoff, low soil moisture content, and a smaller share of evapotranspiration. Various climate change scenarios predict more precipitation, and land use change scenarios foresee a higher share of cultivated areas due to population growth. In view of these trends, results from our study suggest that drainage ratios will increase and more available blue water can be expected for downstream stakeholders.
Transmission of a radio signal through a wireless radio channel is affected by refraction, diffraction and reflection, free space loss, object penetration, and absorption that corrupt the originally transmitted signal before radio wave arrives at a receiver antenna. Even though there are many factors affecting wireless radio channels, there are still a number of radio wave propagation models such as Okumura, Hata, free space model, and COST-231 to predict the received signal level at the receiver antenna. However, researchers in the field of radio wave propagation argue that there is no universally accepted propagation model to guarantee a universal recommendation. Thus, this research is aimed at determining the difference between the measured received signal levels and the received signal level calculated from the free space propagation model. System identification method has been proposed to determine this unknown difference. Measured received signal levels were collected from three randomly selected urban areas in Ethiopia using a computer, Nemo test tool, Actix software, Nokia phone, and GPS. The result from the simulations was validated against the received experimental signal level measurement taken in a different environment. From the simulation results, the mean square error (MSE) was 4.169 dB, which is much smaller than the minimum acceptable MSE value of 6 dB for good signal propagation, and 74.76% fit to the estimation data. The results clearly showed that the proposed radio wave propagation model predicts the received signal levels at 900 MHz and 1800 MHz in the study region.
A comparative study of Frequency Ratio (FR) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) models are performed for forest fire risk (FFR) mapping in Melghat Tiger Reserve forest, central India. Identification of FFR depends on various hydrometeorological parameters (altitude, slope, aspect, topographic position index, normalized differential vegetation index, rainfall, air temperature, land surface temperature, wind speed, distance to settlements, and distance by road are integrated using a GIS platform. The results from FR and AHP show similar trends. The FR model was significantly higher accurate (overall accuracy of 81.3%, kappa statistic 0.78) than the AHP model (overall accuracy 79.3%, kappa statistic 0.75). The FR model total forest fire risk areas were classified into five classes: very low (7.1%), low (22.2%), moderate (32.3%), high (26.9%), and very high (11.5%). The AHP fire risk classes were very low (6.7%), low (21.7%), moderate (34.0%), high (26.7%), and very high (10.9%). Sensitivity analyses were performed for AHP and FR models. The results of the two different models are compared and justified concerning the forest fire sample points (Forest Survey of India) and burn images (2010–2016). These results help in designing more effective fire management plans to improve the allocation of resources across a landscape framework.
Desertification has emerged as a major economic, social and environmental problem in the western part of India. The best way of dealing with desertification is to take appropriate measures to arrest land degradation, especially in areas prone to desertification. This requires an early warning system for desertification based on scientific inputs. Hence, in the present study, an attempt has been made to develop a comprehensive model for the assessment of desertification risk in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India, using 23 desertification indicators. Indicators including soil, climate, vegetation and socio-economic parameters were integrated into a GIS environment to get environmental sensitive areas (ESAs) to desertification. Desertification risk index (DRI) was calculated based on ESAs to desertification, the degree of land degradation and significant desertification indicators obtained from the stepwise multiple regression model. DRI was validated by using independent indicators such as soil organic matter content and cation exchange capacity. Multiple regression analysis shows that 16 indicators out of 23 were found to be significant for assessing desertification risk at a 99% confidence interval with \(R^{2}=0.83\). The proposed methodology provides a series of effective indicators that would help to identify where desertification is a current or potential problem, and what could be the actions to alleviate the problem over time.
In science policy, it is generally acknowledged that science-based problem-solving requires interdisciplinary research. For example, policy makers invest in funding programs such as Horizon 2020 that aim to stimulate interdisciplinary research. Yet the epistemological processes that lead to effective interdisciplinary research are poorly understood. This article aims at an epistemology for interdisciplinary research (IDR), in particular, IDR for solving 'real-world' problems. Focus is on the question why researchers experience cognitive and epistemic difficulties in conducting IDR. Based on a study of educational literature it is concluded that higher-education is missing clear ideas on the epistemology of IDR, and as a consequence, on how to teach it. It is conjectured that the lack of philosophical interest in the epistemology of IDR is due to a philosophical paradigm of science (called a physics paradigm of science), which prevents recognizing severe epistemological challenges of IDR, both in the philosophy of science as well as in science education and research. The proposed alternative philosophical paradigm (called an engineering paradigm of science) entails alternative philosophical presuppositions regarding aspects such as the aim of science, the character of knowledge, the epistemic and pragmatic criteria for accepting knowledge, and the role of technological instruments. This alternative philosophical paradigm assume the production of knowledge for epistemic functions as the aim of science, and interprets 'knowledge' (such as theories, models, laws, and concepts) as epistemic tools that must allow for conducting epistemic tasks by epistemic agents, rather than interpreting knowledge as representations that objectively represent aspects of the world independent of the way in which it was constructed. The engineering paradigm of science involves that knowledge is indelibly shaped by how it is constructed. Additionally, the way in which scientific disciplines (or fields) construct knowledge is guided by the specificities of the discipline, which can be analyzed in terms of disciplinary perspectives. This implies that knowledge and the epistemic uses of knowledge cannot be understood without at least some understanding of 2 how the knowledge is constructed. Accordingly, scientific researchers need so-called metacognitive scaffolds to assist in analyzing and reconstructing how 'knowledge' is constructed and how different disciplines do this differently. In an engineering paradigm of science, these metacognitive scaffolds can also be interpreted as epistemic tools, but in this case as tools that guide, enable and constrain analyzing and articulating how knowledge is produced (i.e., explaining epistemological aspects of doing research). In interdisciplinary research, metacognitive scaffolds assist interdisciplinary communication aiming to analyze and articulate how the discipline constructs knowledge.
The main purpose of this study was to produce landslide susceptibility maps using evidential belief function (EBF), logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM) models and to compare their results for the region surrounding Yongin, South Korea. We compiled a landslide inventory map of 82 landslides based on reports and aerial photographs and confirmed these data through extensive field surveys. All landslides were randomly separated into two data sets of 41 landslide data points each; half were selected to establish the model, and the remaining half were used for validation. We divided 18 landslide conditioning factors into the following four categories: topography factors, hydrology factors, soil map and forest map; these were considered for landslide susceptibility mapping. The relationships between landslide occurrence and landslide conditioning factors were analyzed using the EBF, LR and SVM models. The three models were then validated using the area under the curve (AUC) method. According to the validation results, the prediction accuracy of the LR model (AUC = 94.59%) was higher than those of the EBF model (AUC = 92.25%) and the SVM model (AUC = 81.78%); the LR model also had the highest training accuracy.
Objective
Studies of perinatal health outcomes in Canadian First Nations populations have largely focused on limited geographical areas and have been unable to examine outcomes by registered status and community residence. In this study, we compare rates of adverse birth outcomes among First Nations individuals living within vs. outside of First Nations communities and those with vs. without registered status.
Methods
Data included 13,506 singleton pregnancies from the 2006 Canadian Birth-Census Cohort. Outcomes examined included preterm birth (PTB), small- and large-for-gestational-age birth (SGA, LGA), stillbirth, overall infant mortality, and neonatal and postneonatal mortality. Risk ratios (RRs) were estimated with adjustment for maternal age, education, parity, and paternal education.
Results
Mothers living in First Nations communities and those with status had elevated adjusted risks of LGA (RR for First Nations community residence = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.09–1.35; RR for status = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.16–1.93). Rates of SGA were significantly lower among mothers with status (adjusted RR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.44–0.86). Rates of PTB did not vary substantially by residence or by status. Adjusted differences in fatal outcomes could not be estimated, owing to small cell sizes. However, mothers living in First Nations communities had higher crude rates of infant mortality (10.9 vs. 7.7 per 1000), particularly for neonatal mortality (6.1 vs. 2.9).
Conclusion
Future investigations should explore risk factors, including food security and access to health care services, that may explain disparities in SGA and LGA by status and residence within First Nations populations.
The recently launched Sentinel-1 satellite with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor onboard offers a powerful tool for irrigation monitoring under various weather conditions, with high spatial and temporal resolution. This research discusses the potential of different metrics calculated from the Sentinel-1 time series for mapping irrigated fields. A methodology for irrigation mapping using SAR data is proposed. The study is performed using VV (vertical–vertical) and VH (vertical–horizontal) polarizations over an agricultural site in Urgell, Catalunya (Spain). With field segmentation information from SIGPAC (the Geographic Information System for Agricultural Parcels), the backscatter intensities are averaged within each field. From the Sentinel-1 time series for each field, the statistics and metrics, including the mean value, the variance of the signal, the correlation length, and the fractal dimension, are analyzed. With the Support Vector Machine (SVM), the classification of irrigated crops, irrigated trees, and non-irrigated fields is performed with the metrics vector. The results derived from the SVM are validated with ground truthing from SIGPAC over the whole study area, with a good overall accuracy of 81.08%. Random Forest (RF) machine classification is also tested in this study, which gives an accuracy of around 82.2% when setting the tree depth at three. The methodology is based only on SAR data, which makes it applicable to all areas, even with frequent cloud cover, but this method may be less robust when irrigation is less dominated to soil moisture change.
p>The development of agricultural planning largely depends on the reliable and comprehensive statistics of the existing cropping patterns, cropping intensity and crop diversity of a particular area, which will provide a guideline to the policy makers, researchers, extensionists and development workers. A study was undertaken over all the upazilas of Dinajpur region during 2016 using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire with a view to document of the existing cropping patterns, intensity and diversity for the region. The most important cropping pattern Boro-Fallow-T. Aman occupied about 41% of net cropped area (NCA) of the region with its distribution over all the upazilas. The second largest area, 9% of NCA, was covered by Wheat-Fallow-T. Aman, which was spread over 18 upazilas. A total of 112 cropping patterns were identified in the whole region. The highest number of cropping patterns was identified 30 in Boda upazila of Panchagarh district while the lowest was 11 in Kaharol upazila of Dinajpur district. The lowest crop diversity index (CDI) was reported 0.708 in Birampur followed by 0.753 in Ghoraghat of Dinajpur. The highest CDI was reported 0.955 in Ranisonkail followed by 0.952 in Baliadangi of Thakurgaon. The range of cropping intensity was recorded 206-249% whereas the maximum value was found for Khansama of Dinajpur and minimum for Boda of Panchagarh district. As a whole, CDI and cropping intensity for Dinajpur region were calculated 0.924 and 229% respectively, which indicates that the land use and crop diversification is not quite enough for the national demand.
Bangladesh Rice j. 2017, 21(2): 143-156</p
Background:
Demand-side barriers are as important as supply factors in deterring patients from obtaining treatment. Developing countries including Ethiopia have been focusing on promoting health care utilization as an important policy to improve health outcomes and to meet international obligations to make health services broadly accessible. However, many policy and research initiatives focused on improving physical access rather than focusing on the pattern of health care service utilization related to demand side. Understanding of determinants of demand for health care services would enable to introduce and implement appropriate incentive schemes to encourage better utilization of health care services in the community of Tsegedie district, Northern Ethiopia.
Methods:
A community based cross sectional study design was conducted from March1-30/2016 in Northern Ethiopia. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select 423 participants from 2189 patients of the one-month census. A pretested and standardized semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were entered using Epi-info version 7 and analysed by STATA version 11. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants of demand for health care service.
Results:
A total of 423 (with a response rate of 98.3%) study participants were included in the study. The finding indicates that 72.5% (95%CI = 61.6, 81.1) of the participants demanded modern health care services. The multinomial logistic regression econometric model revealed that perceived severity of illness (β = 1.27; 95% CI = 0.74, 1.82), being educated household head (β = 0.079; 95% CI = 0.96, 1.74), quality of treatment (β = 0.99; 95% CI = 0.47, 1.5), distance to health facility β = 1.96; 95%CI = 0.11, 0.27), cost of treatment (β = - 1.99; 95% CI = 0.85, 3,13) were significantly and statistically associated with demand for health care service.
Conclusion:
This study revealed that in Tsegedie district, majorities (72.5%) of the patients demanded modern health care service. Distance to health care facility, user-fees, educational status of household, quality of service, and severity of illness were found to be significantly associated with demand for health care service. Out of pocket, payments should be changed by prepayment schemes like community-based insurance than to depend on user fees and appropriate health information dissemination activities should strengthen to create awareness about modern care.
Determination of appropriate site location for urban development is critical issue in hilly areas. The present study aims the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multicriteria Evaluation Technique (MCE) based site selection for urban development in Chikodi taluk, Belagavi district, Karnataka. In this study six thematic layers were considered such as slope, land use/land cover, road proximity, land value, lineaments and aspect, the generated thematic maps of these criteria were standardized using pair wise comparison matrix known as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A weight for each criterion was given by comparing them with each other according to their importance and all the six maps were converted into raster. Finally with the help of these weights all the six maps were integrated and overlaid for the preparation of site suitability map for the urban development. The final site suitability map was divided into five different suitability categories. The area under very low, low, moderate, high and very high lands stand at 1.81 km², 12.71 km², 37.94 km², 66.88 km², and 22.44 km² respectively. The present study allows the local people as well as planners for the appropriate plans of land use planning in sustainable urban development.
Background:
Although there are many initiatives to improve maternal health services use, utilization of health facility delivery and postnatal care services is low in Ethiopia. Current evidence at global level showed that antenatal care increases delivery and postnatal care services use. But previous studies in Ethiopia indicate contrasting results. Therefore, this meta-analysis was done to identify the effect of antenatal care on institutional delivery and postnatal care services use in Ethiopia.
Methods:
Studies were searched from databases using keywords like place of birth, institutional delivery, and delivery by a skilled attendant, health facility delivery, delivery care, antenatal care, prenatal care and postnatal care and Ethiopia as search terms. The Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Tools and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses were used for quality assessment and data extraction. Data analysis was done using STATA 14. Heterogeneity and publication bias were assessed using I2 test statistic and Egger's test of significance. Forest plots were used to present the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI).
Result:
A total of 40 articles with a total sample size of 26,350 were included for this review and meta-analysis. Mothers who had attended one or more antenatal care visits were more likely (OR = 4.07: 95% CI 2.75, 6.02) to deliver at health institutions compared to mothers who did not attend antenatal care. Similarly, mothers who reported antenatal care use were about four times more likely to attend postnatal care service (OR 4.11, 95% CI: 3.32, 5.09).
Conclusion:
Women who attended antenatal care are more likely to deliver in health institutions and attend postnatal care. Therefore, the Ethiopian government and other stakeholders should design interventions that can increase antenatal care uptake since it has a multiplicative effect on health facility delivery and postnatal care services use. Further qualitative research is recommended to identify why the huge gap exists between antenatal care and institutional delivery and postnatal care services use in Ethiopia.
The transformation of deprived urban areas is important for strengthening social sustainability in particular localities, and it is also instrumental in attracting new investments to cities. Speculative urban development, however, often ignores the social importance of localities and considers them mere economic assets that can be stripped of historical, social, and symbolic meaning and turned into easily marketed commodities. This article examines the somewhat contradictory role of the transformation of deprived urban areas in cities. It compares Barcelona and Seoul, two cities with different historical, cultural, and institutional contexts. The 22@ Activity District in Poblenou and Wangsimni New Town are explored as case studies to understand how urban regeneration and urban redevelopment are embedded in a particular locality and what consequences they have on social sustainability. Although the two cases differ in terms of planning approach, stakeholders, and institutional contexts, the findings suggest that the consequences for social sustainability were similar in both. The article argues that declining social cohesion and a lack of citizen participation were a consequence of speculative urban development, in which urban regeneration and urban redevelopment were instrumentalized to attract investments, strengthen economic competitiveness, and improve the city’s global appeal rather than address diverse local challenges.
The vulnerability of the Indian forests to fire varies from place to place depending upon the type of vegetation and climate. The coniferous forest in the region is very prone to fire. Objective of the current work is to prepare a model which articulate the forest fire risk and assess the fire vulnerability so that the concerned authorities can minimize the fire danger. Fire hazard mapping was performed using knowledge based and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) models. For each fire hazard map six classes, i.e., very high to very low and were overlaid to generate cumulative fire hazard map. Census data were used to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of the region through computation of total population, cultivators, total male population, total female population, children in age group 0-6 years and literates. A composite socioeconomic vulnerability index map was generated. For each fire vulnerability map, five classes, i.e., very high to very low were assigned. Fire risk map was generated using fire vulnerability and hazard map in which, results indicate that 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.34% (high), 25.90% (moderate), 36.23% (low) and 30.56% (very low) fire risk zones using knowledge based technique whereas 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.46% (high), 24.53% (moderate) 27.22% (low) and 40.80% (very low) fire risk zones using analytical hierarchy process technique. Thereafter validation was performed with previous forest fire records. The overall result shows that there was very minor change in the forest fire risk zones using both the techniques.
Water scarcity is a common phenomenon in coastal Bangladesh due to the elevated level of arsenic and salinity concentrations in groundwater. Since arsenic is a documented carcinogen, this paper mainly seeks to explore arsenic-safe drinking water source at different depths of shallow and deep aquifer. Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method along with the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to fulfil the objectives of this research. The relevant arsenic concentrations in tubewell water were collected with field-testing kits (FTK), tubewell attributes with field observation and questionnaire survey, and spatial data with Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS) from Magura union of Satkhira district in the southwestern part of coastal Bangladesh. The study site covers about 27.58 km2 of area with a total population of 20,375 and a total of 2650 tubewells. About three-quarter of the study site are contaminated following the level of Bangladesh Drinking Water Standard (BDWS) of 50 µg/L. The study identified a few scattered areas for arsenic-safe water “pockets” at different depths in the northeastern part of the study site. The findings could be helpful in formulating a policy to achieve “Clean Water and Sanitation” (Sustainable Development Goal 6) at some extent with exploring the safe aquifer.
Water distribution systems are vulnerable to hazards that threaten water delivery, water quality, and physical and cybernetic
infrastructure. Water utilities and managers are responsible for assessing and preparing for these hazards, and researchers have developed
a range of computational frameworks to explore and identify strategies for what-if scenarios. This manuscript conducts a review of the
literature to report on the state of the art in modeling methodologies that have been developed to support the security of water distribution
systems. First, the major activities outlined in the emergency management framework are reviewed; the activities include risk assessment,
mitigation, emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Simulation approaches and prototype software tools are reviewed that have been
developed by government agencies and researchers for assessing and mitigating four threat modes, including contamination events, physical
destruction, interconnected infrastructure cascading failures, and cybernetic attacks. Modeling tools are mapped to emergency management
activities, and an analysis of the research is conducted to group studies based on methodologies that are used and developed to support
emergency management activities. Recommendations are made for research needs that will contribute to the enhancement of the security
of water distribution systems.
Vegetable growers in Europe are continually under increasing pressure to optimize irrigation and nutrient management. This results from the widespread effects of climate change and of competition from other sectors for water, and increasing societal pressure to reduce nutrient contamination of water bodies. The widespread and growing adoption of drip irrigation and fertigation provides vegetable growers with the technical infrastructure for greatly improved irrigation and nutrient management. However, quantitative decisions to achieve optimal irrigation and nutrient management, and increasingly of the two together, require complex decision-making. Numerous factors regarding climate, soil characteristics, field infrastructure, and crop characteristics need to be considered. Decision Support Systems (DSSs) and simulation models are tools that process large and diverse amounts of information to provide irrigation and nutrient recommendations that are specific to individual crops and sites. Commonly, DSSs incorporate simulation models, which enables site and crop specific assessment, and the possibility for dynamic responses to fluctuations in climate etc. There is an on-going trend for web-based DSSs that can access on-line data bases such as of climate and soil data, and that users consult with smartphone Apps. This article firstly reviews several general aspects regarding the use of DSSs/models in commercial vegetable production, such as how to enhance their user-friendliness. Subsequently, it describes DSSs/models that have been developed or are being used to assist with irrigation or nutrient management, or both, of vegetable crops. The most relevant aspects of these DSSs/models are highlighted. In addition to DSSs/models for practical on-farm management, the use of DSSs/models for scenario analysis to demonstrate theoretical case studies to policy makers, growers and advisors is discussed. A focus throughout is on how to make these products attractive and effective to potential users. The geographical focus is on Europe; however, particularly relevant cases from elsewhere are also considered. With the current state of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and considering the inevitable future developments, DSSs can provide vegetable growers with effective and user-friendly tools to assist them to optimize irrigation and nutrient management.
The aim of this study is to assess the water quality of Lower Jhelum Canal (LJC) and its suitability for irrigation purposes. An effort has been made to develop a method by integrating water quality index with geographic information system (GIS) for an effective interpretation of LJC water quality. The pollution status of LJC was estimated by different physicochemical and biological parameters. Based on results of analysis, a spatial distribution map of selected water quality parameters was prepared using GIS. An inverse distance weighting (IDW), which is an interpolation technique, was applied to prepare a thematic layer of parameters at each station of Lower Jhelum canal. The results of individual parameters showed that the concentrations of contamination were within permissible limits of WHO and NEQS guidelines except for E. coli. Overall, most of the water falls in excellent quality category indicating the suitability of water for irrigation purpose. The results suggest that most of the water can be used for irrigation and various intended purposes except direct use of water for potable or drinking purposes without treatment.