Advances in Water Resources Management for Sustainable Use

Nowadays, biaxial geogridGeogrid is extensively used as a reinforcing inclusion to enhance the shearing resistance of pavement sub-grade, backfill materials of earth retaining structures, and also arresting the slope failure of the earth embankments. In the present study, the performance of the geogrid reinforced canal embankmentCanal embankment has been assessed through numerical modelling using a finite element-based PLAXIS 3DPlaxis 3D software package. Slope stability of canal embankment depends on the geometry of side slopes, in situ soil condition, and the effects of excess pore water pressure. The soil samples have been collected from the canal bed and embankments of an existing canal at Durgapur City, West Bengal, India, to investigate the vulnerability condition of canal failure. The canal runs from Durgapur barrage to Durgapur steel thermal power station to fulfil the daily needs of water to the industry. However, the canal-side slopes are presently in a damaged condition. Preliminary stability analysis of the canal slopes indicates low safety margin which may instigate failure under critical conditions. The present study has been conducted in order to improve the slope stability of the aforementioned canal structure with the inclusion of geogridGeogrid layers. The geogrid reinforced slope stability analysis of canal embankmentCanal embankment has been carried out under different critical conditions viz. high reservoir, low reservoir, rapid drawdown, and slow drawdown. The critical values of slope angle and embankment height were found to be 45° and 6 m, respectively. The factor of safety of the embankment increased considerably in critical conditions with the inclusion of geogridGeogrid on side slopes and under canal bed.

River morphology is a subject of great interest to the researchers for long due to its dominant influence on lifestyle, economy and agriculture. It is closely related to the stability of the bank surface. The dynamic nature of the riverbank is linked to the continual variation of water level through the river. In the present study, two different microstructures for the particle arrangementParticle arrangement have been analysed to study the stability of the dynamic river system. The microstructures under consideration are based on “Truncated Pyramid Model (TPM)”Truncated Pyramid Model (TPM) and “Simple Cubic Model (SCM)”Simple Cubic Model (SCM). A comparison has been made between these two models. In this case, inter-granular cohesive force, hydrostatic force, weight of the particle and pore-pressure force play the major roles. The conservation of angular momentum principleAngular momentum principle has been applied to arrive at the escape velocity of the particle, which is the key parameter for stability analysis. A higher escape velocity indicates that a particle is more stable at the micro level. For different microstructural arrangements of particles, both the situations of falling and rising water level have been considered in the present analysis for three different particle sizes (300, 400 and 500 μm of radii) in fully submerged conditions. Also, variation of the escape velocity with the inter-granular distanceInter-granular distance has been studied in a quantitative manner. It has been found that TPM is more stable than SCM in a dynamic flow situation.

Surface and sub-surface flow and storage characteristics are inducing an acute need to study them in a sustainable manner in terms of their quantitative and qualitative approach. Rural and urban patches all over the world are facing drastic and severe demand of water resources that enables them to sustain life. Salinity, inorganic and organic contamination, high groundwater fluctuation, drying of river bed, etc., emphasise to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify the research gaps and elimination of evils effects from water resources. The data for this study has been download from Science Citation Index Expanded from the years 1956–2018. The database has been analysed using the Mann Kendall test in XLSTAT software. The analysis showed that most of the research works are related to water pollution and Asian countries are increasingly executing the projects related to it. Laboratory method and modelling techniques are now predominant to conserve time and cost. The outcome of the paper shows remarkable improvement in watershed management studies. But more and more sustainable techniques are needed to remove the evils of vulnerability with due respect to water crisis.

Management of water resources scenario both for surface and groundwater resources has been a global concern in the recent decade. Various methods have been applied to enhance the present water resource potentiality and also to maintain its overall status. In this paper, a bibliometric observation has been made on 147 highly cited publications to identify the nature and trend of research on river healthRiver health status on a global scale. All the documents were gathered from the Scopus database from 1990 to 2020. To evaluate the future research trend and designs, various indices and a couple of network analyses were applied here using VOSviewerVOSviewer software. The Mann-Kendall trend analysisTrend analysis has also been applied to understand the statistically significant growth in river healthRiver health studies. The outcome shows a gradual increase in publication rate throughout the period. Country-wise output also denotes that the United States has been recognized as the most productive country both in the case of publications and international collaboration. Moreover, analysis of Total Citation since Publication to the end of 2020, Citation per PublicationCitation per Publication, most frequently used keywords, etc., has also played a beneficial role to analyze the global research trend on river healthRiver health studies. This kind of study can provide an overall conception about the global research growth and scientific knowledge in any domain of hydrology which will enable us to develop more relevant work and research direction for future researchers.

WaterXE “Dredging” is one of the prime components for existence and continuation of life on earth. For increasing demands of population, undesired planning and activities, the world is facing a severe water crisis, both in quantity and quality. A proper ‘Water Management’ is necessary to improve the situation. ‘Water Management’ includes two aspects—(i) Supply of utility water at different levels of purifications, to different kinds of end users, and (ii) disposal of storm/used/contaminated water. Elements of utility water supply include, (i) sources of water, (ii) transport the water from source to end users and (iii) supply and control mechanism. Similarly, the elements for disposal of excess and/or wastewater are—(i) collection and control system and (ii) convey the water from the control zone to an ecological system where acceptable, for final disposal or further processing. Usefulness of inland dredging process is discussed here, to restore or enhance the storage or flowing capacity of the surface utility water and storm or wastewater source or disposal reservoirs. Efficacy of dredging to improve transport or conveyance systems (canals, rivers, or channels) for both the above applications is also narrated. To avoid pollutant entry in the food chain, environmental dredging of contaminated sediments in the streams or reservoirs is also mentioned briefly. Dredging equipment, matching with the existing technical, economic, social, and environmental scenario is described, which are developed, designed, built, and operated successfully for decades. No detail research was found about the removal strategy of uncontaminated and contaminated sediment from inland lotic and lentic water sources. This issue is also addressed briefly in this paperXE “Dredging”.

Porous bituminous pavement is an alternative road surfacing technology that allows water to permeate through pavement surface. The gradation of the pavement structure is kept such that it allows enough void between the aggregates particles for water to go through it freely. Porous bituminous pavement also decreases the surface runoff of nearby areas. This technique can also be used as an additional way of storm water mitigation and ground water replenishment. This paper has focused on replacing the conventional open graded bituminous mix with Low Dense Polyethylene (LDPE) coated aggregates under medium traffic load. Today waste plastic is vastly available and has become an inherent part of daily life. Apart from this, disintegration of pavement surface due to rainwater accumulation is a major problem presently. The focus of this study is to determine aggregate coated with Low Dense Polyethylene (LDPE) in open graded porous bituminous mix under medium traffic load to improve their performance. This paper also looks for an unconventional and effective way for safe disposal of waste plastic to check environmental degradation as well as to find moisture susceptibility of pavement under anti-stripping agent. In this study, dry process of aggregate coated with LDPE with three different plastic contents i.e. 0.50, 0.75 and 1% have been used for preparing open graded porous bituminous mixes. Marshall Mix design is performed for determining the Optimum Binder Content (OBC)Optimum Binder Content (OBC), Marshall Stability, Flow, Marshall Quotient for normal and modified samples and found that 0.50% LDPE content is giving desired value as compared to the normal one.

Arbitrary use of water without proper management has placed this precious resource into a very fragile condition. Multiple demands of water, especially in the agriculture sector put tremendous pressure on this resource triggering more and more groundwater abstraction. Arsenic has been entering into the human body through the food chain and spreading silently from local to distant areas. The traditional practice of water conservation has been continuously ignored over the last few decades. It has been irony of fate that, areas having the huge potentiality of rainfall are facing acute qualitative water scarcity. The case study of AmdangaAmdanga study area block, under the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, is an ideal example of such dichotomy. In this region, rainfall is incidentally more than sufficient leading to flooding of vast areas, particularly during late monsoon. Under such circumstances, rainwater harvesting (RWH)Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) may be treated as an alternative practice to combat the situation.

Coal-based Thermal Power Plants (TPP) have been a prime source of generation of power in India for the last several decades. Almost 65% of the total electricity generated in India comes from TPP, and 85% of all the TPPs use coal as their fuel. Indian coal being low grade, have an ash content of about 40–45%, which is relatively high in comparison to imported coals (10–15%). Thus, a large amount of ash is being produced daily, which not only is one of the significant environmental threats to air, water & soil but also requires large areas of land for its disposal. The fly ash produced are disposed of in the form of slurry in ash ponds. There has been a noteworthy increase in the utilization of fly ash over the last few years, in road sub-base, construction materials, building engineering, backfilling and agriculture. However, the disposal of fly ash remains a concern for TPP in India. The various heavy metals (Cd, Zn, Ni) present in the leachate tend to contaminate the sub-surface soil and groundwater and, consequently, increase the toxicity of the surrounding ecosystem. The earlier researches are mainly confined to the assessment of efficiency of either pure laterite soil or laterite bentonite mixture to be used as liner materials in waste containment structures. However, it is also reported elsewhere in the literatures that the usage of bentonite alone not only decreases the permeability but also decreases the shear strength, which is a very essential factor in catering the overburden pressure of ash ponds. The present study is undertaken to assess the effectiveness of locally available Lateritic soil (L.S.) modified with commercially procured Bentonite (B) & Fly Ash (F.A.) as liner content in the construction of Ash Pond. Because of the high permeability of ~10−8 m/s and the moderate shear strength, lateritic soil is adjusted in a selected proportion with commercially procured Bentonite and Fly Ash, i.e. 8 (L.S.): 1 (B): 1 (F.A.) to determine its pollutants which attenuate the potential for use as a liner material in ash pond structure to limit sub-surface migration of heavy metals present in ash leachate. It is observed that in the amended soil, plasticity, hydraulic conductivity, swelling and shrinkage properties decreases, and the shear strength and dry unit weight increases with the increase in fly ash content. The concentrations of the Cadmium is observed to be in the range of 0.127–0.37 ppm. In the case of Nickel, it is found to be lying between 0.037 and 0.332 ppm, while for Zinc, it is observed to be within the range of 0.004–0.215 ppm. Batch adsorptionAdsorption test results indicate metal removal efficiency of amended soil about 96, 98, 97%, respectively for cadmium, nickel and zinc. In this study, the Linear, Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms are tested for analysing the equilibrium data. Langmuir proved to be the best-fit with R2 values of 0.981 and 0.9759, respectively. The findings of the fixed-bed column experiment also show isotherm for Cadmium with a regression coefficient (R2) value of 0.9739, while for Nickel and Zinc, it follows Temkin isotherm excellent potential for heavy metal adsorptionAdsorption in modified laterite soil. The predicted breakthrough curves (BTCs) using the HYDRUS 1D finite-difference transport software package well corroborates experimental findings with regression coefficientsRegression coefficients of 0.98–0.99. The design life of liner made with amended laterite soil increased significantly in comparison with the non-amended laterite soil for the same liner thickness. Therefore, amended lateritic soil can be considered as a promising adsorbent for the arrest of heavy metal pollutants present in the leachate of ash ponds as well as an excellent candidate for primary liner material in waste containment structures to restrict the migration of pollutants to the aquifer and thereby protecting the precious groundwater from contamination.

This study attempts flood simulation, in a simple and economical way, in the region covered by the bounding box (study area) of the flood prone Ghatal blockGhatal block of West Bengal. Only, the hydrograph of the Silabati river, and the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEM (Digital Elevation Model) of the study area, are used as inputs. Simulation is done with the FLO-2D Basic Model, and the resultant flood simulation map (for simulation time: 24 h), when compared with the maps of the roads and the settlements, in the study area, prepared from the LISS-III (Linear Imaging Self-Scanning System-III) image, reveals that mostly the southwestern part of the study area will be affected. Calculations show that, around 40 km2 will be inundated with water level >1 m, and around 62 km2 will be inundated with water level ≤1 m (Ghatal block’sGhatal block total area is nearly 230 km2). The flood simulation map, and the maps of the roads and the settlements of the study area, are published in GeoServer; hence these maps are ready to be accessed through the web services. The accuracy of the flood simulation is tested by using five actual flood maps, pertaining to 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, which are obtained from Bhuvan; calculations show that approximately 76.43% of the area of the simulated flood is covered by the total inundation depicted in these actual flood maps. Hence, there is a good correlation between the simulated and the total actual inundations.

The entire world is facing serious problems with the emergence of pathogensPathogen in water environment; aroused due to antibacterial resistance. Bacteria evolve multiple mechanisms to survive the treatment with strong oxidants (disinfectants) and antimicrobial agents. Chlorine disinfectants are commonly used for water treatment, due to its low-cost and easy availability. Chlorine is an effective disinfectant that leaves behind a residual effect for inactivating bacteria; although some species have evolved mechanism to tolerate free chlorine. The bacterial species when subjected to chemical warfare which threatens its extinction often evolve mechanisms to survive under stress leading to the development of resistance. The objective of the present study is to understand the mechanism through which bacteria pertain to resistance and to measure the degree of antimicrobial resistance in the water environment. Few mechanisms of the resistance may be efflux pump activation, porin channels, plasma membrane-mediated protein scaffolding, biofilm formation, cellular aggregation, and starvation. Some solutions for mitigating issues of emerging pathogensPathogen may be the use of ozone and UV radiations though both methods do not assure residual effects. Some costlier yet effective treatment methods are nano-sorbents particles, nano-particle enhanced filtration methods, nano-catalysts, and bioactive nano-particles.

Industrialization and urbanization, along with all their blessings and boons bring major problem toward the sustainability of our future generations in terms of water pollution. Among various techniques employed to overcome this difficulty adsorptionAdsorption technique has proven itself as an efficient technique. Nowadays several natural adsorbents such as agricultural waste and residues have been explored for the elimination of toxic pollutants like synthetic dyes from wastewater since they are easily available, inexpensive, and eco-friendly. The present study deals with the removal of a cationic dye, Rhodamine B (RhB) using a natural adsorbent, Waste Camellia sinensisWaste Camellia sinensis (WCS) leaves prepared from agricultural waste. The prepared natural adsorbent was characterized by FTIR, TGA, and SEM. AdsorptionAdsorption experiment was carried out in a batch process. The percent dye removal (%R) was determined and the influence of different operating variables like quantity of the adsorbent, initial adsorbateInitial adsorbate concentration, pH, temperature, and time of contact on percent dye removal were thoroughly investigated. Addition of 4 wt% WCS leaves adsorbent into a 20 mg/L dye solution was found to remove about 91.9% dye at 30 °C after 24 h. The high efficiency of this green and low-cost adsorbent encourages its usage for the removal of other toxic pollutants present in the industrial effluents.

Arsenic is most precarious element in the chemical world and excessive presence in drinking water can cause disaster. In West Bengal 104 blocks of 11 districts are poorly affected, which is one of the worst instances in Indian arsenic scenario. Several conventional technologies are used for arsenic removal from contaminated water. In this study a Cost-Effective Laboratory-Based model was developed. This study presents an arsenic removal process by ion-exchange resins from contaminated aqueous solution. An acrylic column of 75 cm long and 1.0 cm in diameter having a stopper valve was used as gravity filter column. 15 g of ion-exchanges resins were used as a single (anionic) and combined (anionic–cationic) filter bed for the experiments. 100% removal efficiency was found in aqueous solution containing 75, 112 and 192 ppb arsenic by Anionic-Cationic filter bed and pH of the treated water was found very low (pH 3.19). Removal efficiency of anionic resinAnionic resin was found 97, 93 and 70% without affecting the pH of treated water, where arsenic concentration in aqueous solution was 78, 131, and 212 ppb, respectively.

As commonly known, qualitative and quantitative assessment of groundwater poses substantial challenges toward determining the best use to maintain the balanced aquifer at any point of time for the fulfillment of the needs of society. Hence, for a certain location at a given time, the overall quality of water can be represented by a number called Water Quality Index (WQI). In the present study, 480 numbers of samples were collected during the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons from twelve different wards of BoroughBorough X located under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in the state of West Bengal, and analyzed as per the APHA guidelines to assess the suitability of groundwater as drinking water. WQI for these samples revealed that about 34% of groundwater samples were categorized as “excellent” and 46% as “good” during monsoon period, whereas 30% of groundwater samples were categorized as “excellent” and 55% of these as “good” during monsoon period. Clearly, groundwater quality of the post-monsoonal samples was moderately better compared to that of the monsoon season. This study also revealed that the three water quality parameters,Water Quality Parameters (WQP), namely, chloride, hardness, and iron were found to be greater than the permissible level. This also revealed that the TDS value increases. However, this may be owing to the intrusion of salt water in this region. This paper attempts to describe the water WQI of KMC area and its reliability.

India and Bangladesh are the major countries affected by arsenic contamination in groundwater. These countries in collaboration with the various national and international organizations have installed Arsenic and Iron Removal Plants (AIRPs)Arsenic and Iron Removal Plants with different technologies to mitigate this problem. This study was conducted on four numbers of distinguished technologies installed in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. This paper studied the performances of these AIRPs and statistical analysis is performed to compare among them. The Raw water arsenic concentration among the four AIRPs ranges between 22 and 400 µg/l and the Iron concentration lies between 510 and 4230 µg/l. Among the technologies, T1 seems to be the most efficient technology in removing arsenic with a mean of 98.25% overall arsenic removal efficiency with a standard deviationStandard deviation of 1.04%. The T3 technology seems another efficient technology with a mean overall removal efficiency of 91.46% but in the last few months a problem of backwashing affects the treated water quality and arsenic concentration found more than the acceptable limit as per WHO and BIS guideline. The other T2 and T4 technology were not so efficient in maintaining the arsenic and Iron level below the permissible limit constantly. There are plenty of operation and maintenance-related issue was found during the field visit and a critical review and percussion measurement also been made to improve the performance of the AIRPs.

The Damodar river, one of the potential freshwater resources of the state of West Bengal, India is now treated as the contaminated river of the country. The riverbank enriched with varied mineral resources becomes the hub of different industries as, for example, coal-oriented plants for coal washing & coke processing purpose; cement, zinc, steel industries and thermal power plants. Consequently, contamination takes place because of excessive digging process; production of oil, coal dust, fly ash, poisonous metals from the industries and is slowly choking millions of people to a serious health hazard. Several researchers reported drastic water pollution of the Damodar river, however, proper analysis about the root cause of the water pollution and to find out the water quality indices have not been done earlier. Therefore, it is highly essential to find a powerful monitoring tool for sustainable development of the river water under a changed climate. With this regard, analysing the root cause of water pollution is the primary task which has not been done earlier in detail. In this paper the authors have studied the changing patterns of the physical (i.e. temperature, pH, conductivity); chemical (i.e. DO, BOD and nitrate-N + nitrite-N) and biological parameters (i.e. fecal coliform and total coliform) of surface water at six different locations of the Damodar river basin and these have been analysed using statistical tools. Quality Index (QI) also has been calculated and the water has been categorized for their utility. In this study the researchers analysed the descriptive statistics for each location and changing pattern for different physico-chemical parameters in fourteen years duration from 2003 to 2016. They also categorized suitability of the water for each location by calculating Quality Index (QI). The electrical conductivity observed significantly high for station code 1335 fluctuating in between 3371 µmhos/cm and 14,042 µmhos/cm where the threshold limit is 2250 µmhos/cm. Water Quality Index (WQI) ranging from 24448.52 to 45726.38 is much higher for drinking purpose and even for bathing purpose. The new findings from this study may help the public health department, policymakers, industrialists, farmers and associated government agencies.

The purpose of this studies is to investigate the water quality of drinking water (DW) resource in Habra Block-II under North 24 Parganas District of Gangetic West Bengal, India with an objective to analyse groundwater quality in respect to suitability for drinking and highlighting the extent and magnitude of arsenic contamination. Totally eighty groundwater (GW) samples from tube-wells and private tube-wells of different locations of eight Gram Panchayats (GP) were collected and analysed. The results have been compared with Indian standardIndian standard (IS) for drinking water based on seven parameters, such as total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, chloride (Cl), total hardness (TH), iron (Fe), sulphate and arsenic (As). In the overall study, high contamination with arsenic and iron of GW has been indicated. Most GPs are found to have contaminated groundwater with iron (85%) and arsenic (42.5%). TDS (5%) and Total Hardness (TH) (51.25%) are found to be above desirable limit. On the other hand, pH, Chloride, TDS, and TH have been found to be within the permissible limit and sulphate is not found. A good correlation has been obtained between iron and arsenic in respect to depth. The results point out that the rural people in these areas are prone to higher risk of contracting gangrene and black-foot disease. The groundwater in these gram panchayats is not completely suitable and fit for direct drinking. It needs treatment for minimizing contamination, where regular monitoring and analysis is recommended to know the extent of contamination. World Health Organization emphasizes on the protection of public health and for this purpose it directs to take proper steps and efforts to get drinking water safety as much as possible and practicable.

The trend of frequency of rainfall events in India and their duration shows that there has been an increasing tendency of heavy rain days and decreasing tendency of moderate rain days coupled with a rising trend in short spell as well as dry spells since the middle of the last decade. But the variation of rain days and spells do not follow a regular pattern. The proposed study highlights a comparative assessment of pattern, spell and intensity of rainfall in temporal and spatial scale in a comprehensive manner in order to evaluate their behavioural pattern and interaction among intensity and spells using data available in the published literature. Mann-Kendall trend test has been carried out in order to establish linear trend of the observed data. Autoregression model has been employed to develop a more realistic trend line leading to better prediction of future events. This will help the water resource engineers in the prediction of precipitation required for analysis and design along with the risk management of various projects.

A drought is a condition of a drier period that prevails over an area when normal rainfall decreases for weeks, months or even years. Its consequences mainly include water-related issues which seem to come then we can understand about this climate-induced hazard. The present study has shown that the Shilabati river catchment is located in one of the driest regions of West Bengal. Here the drought risk zone has been assessed using Landsat 8 OLI images by calculating Standardized Precipitation Index, Normalized Difference Moisture Index, Land Surface Temperature and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Water Index and groundwater level. These indices are useful for recognition and monitoring drought in a larger area at different time series. In this study mainly NDVI and NDMI indicate agricultural drought, the metrological drought is specified by SPI and the hydrological drought is designated by NDVI and well depth. Correlation and regression studies have been performed between NDVI, NDWI and NDMI and as a result these are accepted for understanding drought scenario. The results of SPI, LST and different groundwater level scenario also helped to identify the risk-prone zone.

The extensive demand for natural aggregate from the quarries results in a huge amount of dust particles which negatively impact on water resources and induce serious hazards to ground-water quality. This encourages to use locally available and waste materials in the road construction. Such material like over burnt brick aggregate (OBBA)Over Burnt Brick Aggregate properties (OBBA) can be used as a substitutive material for natural aggregate. The bituminous mixes prepared using OBBA yield inferior properties than the control mixes. In this study, crumb rubber powder (CR) is used to reinforce the properties of bituminous mix prepared using OBBA. The CR has incorporated through the wet process, dry process and coating method at different concentrations, i.e., 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12% by the weight of OBC. The optimum crumb rubber content (OCC) attains at 10, 8 and 10% in the wet process, dry process and coating method, respectively. It is observed that the CR-modified OBBA mix using dry process exhibits higher stability compared to the other two processes. Moreover, Indirect Tensile strength (ITS)Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS) and Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR)Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) tests are conducted. It shows that CR-modified OBBAOver Burnt Brick Aggregate properties (OBBA) mixes using the dry process and wet process have met the minimum required TSR value of 80%, according to MoRT&H guidelines.

The increase in population and the economic growth demand a huge amount of natural aggregate for construction practices. The extensive demand for natural aggregate from the quarries results in dust particles which negatively impact on water resources and induce serious hazards to ground-water quality. Thus, researchers are interested in replacing the coarse natural stone aggregate (CNSA)Coarse Natural Stone Aggregate (CNSA) with the coarse recycled concrete aggregate (CRCA)Coarse Recycled Concrete Aggregate (CRCA) in asphalt concrete preparation. Asphalt mixes using CRCA (i.e., RCA mixes) require higher binder and yield lesser stability than the control mixes. The presence of attached mortar in CRCA is the main response to this. This study focuses on the strengthening of RCA mix using low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These polymersPolymers are incorporated by the coating of CRCA at different concentrations of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8% by the weight of optimum binder content (OBC)Optimum Binder Content (OBC). The optimum polymer content (OPC)Optimum Polymer Content (OPC) for LDPE and PET polymers attains at 6 and 5%, respectively based on Marshall Stability value. The results show that polymer-modified RCA mixes require lesser binder content than the unmodified RCA mixes. Moreover, both LDPE and PET-modified RCA mixes exhibit higher stability, i.e., 34.50 and 38.40% than the unmodified RCA mix, respectively.

Arsenic is one of the toxic elements for human health when it is entered into the human body at a high range for a prolonged time and reported as one of the world’s extreme natural groundwater calamities. Several technologies are used towards the mitigation of arsenic from contaminated groundwater to supply arsenic-free drinking water. However, the main objective of this study is the comparison of different coagulants for efficient removal of arsenic from groundwater using oxidation followed by the chemical coagulation method, which is a conventional and useful technique of water treatment. In this experiment, naturally contaminated water samples were collected from tube wells and bleaching powder solution at different concentrations was added followed by proper mixing so that oxidation of arsenite to arsenate could be achieved. Different level of doses of coagulant such as alum, ferrous sulphate, and ferric chloride was rapidly and slowly mixed and allowed the mixture to settle for 2 h. After the filtration of supernatants, various water quality parametersWater Quality Parameters (WQP) had been analysed. Depending upon the dosing of oxidizing and coagulating agents the efficiency of arsenic removal varies from 57 to 89%, 61 to 95%, and 67 to 98% for alum, ferrous sulphate, and ferric chloride, respectively.

Hexavalent Chromium (Cr (VI)) is known for its toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic property. The present study showcases the adsorptionAdsorption capacity of sawdust in Cr (VI) in its raw as well as carbonaceous form. Batch parameter optimization was done to know the removal efficiency of the sawdust and its derivatives. The parameters optimized are pH (2–10) Temperature (25–40 ℃), adsorbent doseAdsorbent dose vs. removal of hexavalent Cr. (1–10 mg/ml), initial metal ion concentration (50–500 mg/L), contact time (15–1440 min.). The result from this study shows that, with increasing temperature the removal capacity of the adsorbent increases, the optimized pH was found to be pH 2. With increase in adsorbent dose, adsorptionAdsorption capacity of the adsorbent decreased but the percentage removal increased. The adsorbent could efficiently remove up to 250 ppm of Cr (VI). The equilibrium attained within 2 h. At pH 4 the adsorption capacity was 9.0 mg/g, at 35 ℃ temperature, 1 g/L adsorbent dose, could effectively remove 10 mg/L Cr (VI) solution, within 120 min. Isotherm modelling was done in this study to know the mechanism of the adsorptionAdsorption process. The thermally treated sawdust was more efficient in removing Cr (VI) than the raw sawdust.

The paper examines the nature and involvement of the participatory water institutions in the Central dry zone of Odisha, focusing on the assess the economic efficiency of irrigation and productivity of water use with the intervention of WUAs. Irrigation sources are mostly open or common property access resources in India which are subjected to the problem of free riding. Because of poor governance and ignorance, the groundwater is being overexploited in most parts of the country. Two types of tanks in Odisha, i.e. irrigation system managed by farmers and Minor Irrigation Department (MID)Minor Irrigation Department (MID) managed were considered for the research. The results revealed that, the net returns per ha cm of water used potato-based cropping systems were higher in farmers managed tank area than in MID managed tank area. It also has found that the difference in economic and physical water use efficiencies can be attributed to the low level of net returns and yield obtained by the tail end farmers in MID managed tank area. Among the irrigation-related problems, price fluctuation and labor scarcity during processing in both farmers managed and MID managed tank were the most serious ones, which requires the consideration of the policymakers on importance basis. Hence, the farmers’ participation in water user associations is critical in improving efficiency of farm water management and crop production in profitable and reasonable manner under the canal command area.

Heavy metals are toxic contaminants that enter the human body from the environment. These contaminants have an impact on newborn leukocytes and may be associated with chromosomal changes that might alter the length of the leukocyte telomeres. Heavy metals often contaminate water and soil; consequently, accumulate in the food chain. The present investigation was conducted at the Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, New Delhi; considering 312 pregnant women and newborns. 200 people of all age groups were also taken into consideration. Urine samples were collected and analyzed through mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). This study explores the progress of knowledge related to the toxic effects of heavy metals in pregnant woman and their neonates. Assessment of heavy metal concentration in maternal urine was done to examine prenatal heavy metal exposure. Arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead exposure were inversely related to birth weight, mortality, and effects on newborns. Blood smear preparations, qPCR chromosomal telomere length assay, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) study illustrates the effects of heavy metals. Correlation between prenatal exposures of toxic heavy metals (in the environment), and detrimental birth outcomes was evaluated. The effect of heavy metal inducing leukemia was significantly high in neonates than in adults.

Rivers are one of the bearers and carriers of any civilization and play an important role in the development of civilization and culture. The Ganges and the Nile rivers have contributed a lot to the development of two ancient civilizations, India and Egypt. Research of these areas might characterize as research led by economists, socialists, and environmentalists connected with proper linkage with establishments of the fields. It speaks to this ‘core’ investigate a country might contend without outside deal assistance. Concentrate the independent research of a nation will give an even image of the examination limits of the area. This paper investigated an idea in regards to the independent research on India and Egypt on basis of two rivers Ganga and Nile, as of independent articles arranged at the Science Citation Index (SCI) Expanded, also distributed among 2006 and 2015. The inspection dedicated to creating research themes distributions and journals, associations, and testimonials of river Ganga and Nile articles. It discovers that albeit Egyptian and Indian independent research on the river Ganga and Nile involve some components. However, they vary to some fantastic extent, such as of example, for instance, the benchmark effect and informative article subjects.

Wetlands are the essential equipment of our natural environment which is both ecologically and economically quintessential system due to their excessive yield. About half of global wetlands have been abolished from earth surface and most of the remaining is showing environmental degradation due to natural as well as anthropogenic causes. So the restoration of the degraded wetlands along with their sustainable management is an emergent issue now a days. Gumti wetland is one of the important wetlands of Tripura and has occupied special place in the state wetland scenario for its zoological, ecological, botanical, hydrological, and limnological importance. In this paper a study has been carried out for conservation and sustainable use of this valuable wetland based on its bio-diversity and also for Socio-economic importance. A total 100 households have been chosen for the primary data collection. Systematic random sampling method has been adopted for our current study for which concentration has been given to trace out the Socio-economic factors along with perception about the conservation of the stakeholders. A linear regression model has been designed by choosing different Socio-economic attributes as model variables for getting idea about WTP of the households for estimating the economic value of this wetland which is very beneficial for farming the activities following the improved conservation program and sustainable management of this wetland. This paper comprehensively describes the importance of Gumti wetlandLinear regression Gumti wetland for citizenry towards achieving sustainable environment in a very simple, manageable, and cost-effective way.

The Water Poverty IndexWater poverty index is intended to reflect an interdisciplinary metric that links household health to the availability of water and shows the degree to which human populations are impacted by water scarcity. Across the Rajarhat CD block, North 24 Paraganas, water poverty is a complex and deeply rooted problem. This continues to be a persistent and pervasive problem across the region, despite some progress in reducing water insecurity in recent years. Insufficient water quality, low economic growth and quality of life, limited water resources, relatively high population growth, less or no accessibility to primary health care, higher education, safe drinking water which constitute the basic social services and in accessibility of water supplies have caused water scarcity to continue in the area. Persistent water scarcity is also a result of lack of proper institutional framework both at government and non-governmental level. This research was aimed at measuring the WPI and drawing a map of the water shortage of the area, given the close relationship between water and hunger. The research was conducted at the smallest administrative unit of the CD Block, the Patharghata GP. A clear assessment of the prevailing situation, including an index listing the components of the facilities, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment of the WPI, is required to achieve the objectives. As a consequence, the data obtained for this study focused on water scarcity assessment related to metrics such as water availability, quality, water stress, water usage for household usage. For calculation of WPI both primary data that has been obtained from field survey and recorded secondary data have been taken into consideration. Water Scarcity Maps are drawn using the GIS program. Finally, Patharghata village has poor levels of water poverty, despite its poor quality of life.

The term urbanization has been described as a process that implies any urban area through its spatial, temporal, and sectoral changes in the form of demographic, social, economic, technological, and environmental aspects of life in a given society. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between urbanization and development through the process of landscape transformation of Chandipur-Erashal Census Town of Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal. This study aims to build an understanding of the landscape transformation issues and challenges with the strength, opportunity, and weakness of this turban or peri-urban or growth center area. Since the journey of the emerging census town at its childhood phase influences the regional development as the growth center, the smarter land use and resource management of this growth center may consider for its full flourishment adjusting the human and environmental costs over time. Extensive literature survey, purposive interviewing, crisscross landscape survey, perception survey, sampling data compilation and analysis, and Spatio-temporal and sectoral mapping by proper GIS and statistical software, etc. the ways to SWOC analysis of the study areaSWOC analysis of the study area and to make the blueprint for its sustainable journey from its recent childhood maintaining the anti-urban sprawling policy and urban ecological footprint in near or far future.

Satellite remote sensing of coastal water quality using the sensors that operate in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) bands for measuring ocean colour and estimation of Sea Surface Temperature (SST), is extensively carried out across various regions. The present study focuses on the analysis of water quality on the east coast of India using Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS (Level-1C), 30 m resolution data for the period 2016–2019. The parameters that could be measured using remote sensing through various band combinations are Chlorophyll-a, Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM), Total Suspended Matter (TSM), Turbidity. Reflectance data is converted into radiance, later on land masking and atmospheric corrections were carried out for the cloud free images. Algorithm used for the estimation of chlorophyll-a is OC2, which is a ratio of band 2 (483 nm) and band 3 (561 nm) that varies between 0 and 6 mg/m3. CDOM is derived using ratio of band 3 (561 nm) and band 4 (655 nm), wherein the values range from 0.785 to 8.58 m−1. Turbidity is derived using ratio of band 3 (561 nm) and band 4 (655 nm). Turbidity along the coast is observed to be in the range of 4–21 FTU (Formazin Turbidity Unit). CDOM is predominant near the mouth of River ‘Mahanadi’ inferring that this has originated in the catchment area rather than the one generated in the Bay of BengalBay of Bengal (BoB). The impact of rainfall, discharge and cyclones on the water quality variability along the coasts of West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh is assessed in the present study. Similarly, the anthropogenic impact on the turbidity, suspended matter and chlorophyll is assessed.

This paper outlines the morphometric analysis and its relevance for watershed recognition, planning, maintenance, and characterization. The Sagar islandStudy area, Sagar Island has been taken as a case study, which is located in the state of West Bengal and part of the Sundarbans, occupies an area of 231.83 km2 (2019). The GIS hydrology tool was used to delineate a total of 25 micro-watersheds. Parameters of linear, aerial, and relief, such as catchment length, the bifurcation ratio, drainage density, drainage frequency, texture ratio, shape factor, form factor, coefficient of compactness, elongation ratio, circularity ratio, overland flow length, basin relief, the number of ruggedness, and relief ratio were determined. Based on its erodibility, a rating was allocated to each parameter and compound values (Cp) were determined for each micro-watershed. A very high priority was assigned to the lowest Cp value and a very low priority was given to the highest value. Other priorities were eventually introduced, such as high, medium, and low.

Soil loss is one of the major distress in any watershed where natural agents and anthropogenic activities predominate. Quantitative evaluation of soil loss is a prerequisite for proper planning and effective conservation of watershed or basin. Nowadays various approaches of modelling techniques help to estimate soil loss under a wide range of conditions. An ungauged river basin with a lot of bare land and dry fallows makes it important to carve out the information related to its intensity and magnitude towards soil erosion. In this study Revised Universal Soil Loss EquationRevised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) Integrated with remote sensing and Geographical Information SystemGeographical Information System (GIS) has been utilized to estimate the soil loss in Shilabati river basin located in the south eastern part of West Bengal, India. The basin is immensely criss-crossed by numerous rills and gullies at the middle stretch and has a total area of 3881 km2. Total estimated soil loss from the basin ranged from 40.079 to 677.93 t/ha/year. For the estimation of its erosion efficiency Sediment Delivery Ratio from a number of empirical equations has also been calculated. The basin has been divided into 23 sub-basins and prioritization rank has been assigned applying Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution model including the morphometric attributes and Sediment Delivery Ratio values. Sub-basin number 1, 2, 3, 5, 16, 18, 20 and 7 has been incurring the highest loss and should be under foremost conservation measure.

River basin characterization is an important parameter to understand the hydrogeological behavior of a particular area. The river basin quantification in terms of various morphometric analyses is the main theme of this work, to give an overview of the interrelationship between the physiography and morphological aspects of that region. Kuya RiverAreal aspects, Kuya River is an importantAreal aspects, Kuya River tributary of the Mayurakshi River that has been selected for this study, which passes through a varying topography of the Chhotonagpur plateau to the lower alluvial tract of the Bengal. Using advanced remote sensing and GIS techniques an assessment has been made on different aspects of morphometric parameters such as linear, areal, and relief, which indicates that all the parameters are very much influenced by each other and affect the physiography of that region. To analyze the physiographic heterogeneity, Relative relief, Slope, Drainage Density, Ruggedness IndexRuggedness Index Kuya River, Dissection Index, and Length of Overland Flow have been selected to explore the nature of the topographic complexityTopographic Complexity Kuya River of the study area which shows five distinct zonations of the physiographic complexity. Such a kind of physiographic asymmetry has also imposed an effect on land use and land coverLand use and land cover classification- C factor practices of the region. This kind of output represents asymmetric response among the morphometric variables resultant difficulties in land-use practices of that particular region, affecting the natural riverine ecosystem of the watershed mainly within the higher complexity zones. Therefore, to achieve maximum resource utilization and stabilize the river basin area as a whole sustainable land management plan is necessary.

Being one of the rapidly developing countries of the world, India has become the heart of unstructured civil construction and demolition of the same. The old structure was demolished after completion of life span and started new construction works. Adding on to the existing issue of waste management and lack of landfills, the demolished materials increase waste volume leading to problems of pollution, transportation, and hygiene. A specific and pre-designed dumping space is essential for Construction and Demolition (C&D) Management. Natural resources and the environment can be saved by using these C&D waste management. Waste generation should be closely monitored to protect the environmental degradation. The prime factor for environmental degradation regarding C&D waste disposal is dust and noise. The economic and ecological issue is the main influential factor in the construction sector and the C&D waste disposal sector. In this paper, the static analysis has been made on the potential of C&D material. An eco-friendly and cost-effective method has been proposed to manage this problem. This paper also elaborates on the guideline and use of sustainable C&D waste management.

In this experimental setup three different types of biodiesel are derived from the waste of soya bean oil, sunflower oil and rice bran oil by transesterification. The blends of each type of biodiesel have been used to evaluate the performance analysis of a Compression Ignition engine. Biodiesel is a good alternative, as its properties are similar to conventional diesel. Waste cooking oil has given an appreciable yield of biodiesel in each case. Its physicochemical properties are within the limits of biodiesel standards. Each type of biodiesel in blended form (B-5, B-10 and B-20) has been used to run the engine to study combustion characteristics with the increasing load and then compared to that of diesel. The fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperature has been recorded for each kind of blend under varying load conditions. Thus, a comparative analysis can be done about the performance of different kinds of biodiesel.

In the present study, the effect of commuting by private cars on energy consumption has been evaluated, corresponding to real-time traffic data. On-road data for this study has been acquired during real-time operation of three sample four wheelers and with varying number of passenger occupancy. Variations in speed-time profile has been obtained with an ATmega microprocessor-based GPS data logger, at a sampling rate of 10 Hz. The relation between passenger occupancy and specific energy consumption of four-wheeled vehicles has been quantified for the city of Kolkata and the survey was extended to a total distance of 3796.32 km. It has been observed that the specific energy consumption for the test vehicles varied within a range of 0.489–3.413 MJ/pkm.

Soil–water relationship plays very important role in ecosystem and plant indirectly controls the relationship. The vegetation cover decides the rate of infiltration, soil erosion and run-off to some extent. In this study the relationship is studied under different land use pattern in northern part of West Bengal. Neora is an important tributary of Teesta River and it runs through different land use and landscapes. Neora River flows down from Kalimpong to Jalpaiguri and thus it flows from undulating terrain to terai region of Himalaya. Based on the different land use the catchment of Neora is divided into three sub catchments: Disturbed catchment, where human interference is maximal; Semi-disturbed catchment, where human interference is controlled and undisturbed catchment, where human interference is minimal. The water quality is tested under different catchments. Water budget is also calculated for the catchments to see the effect of land use on water quality and quantity. The soil of these catchments is also studied through physical and chemical properties. The plants of the catchments are also studied as it is related to soil and water. Plant–water–soil relationship is studied under three different catchments. It is observed that undisturbed catchment is better in terms of water quality. Quantity of water is also much controlled in undisturbed catchment. The soil property is better in undisturbed catchment. In this study the sustainable solution for protection of soil and water resources is studied.

Grid connected solar Photovoltaic (PV) plant needs land to the tune of 5 acre or 0.02024 Km2/MWp for multi crystalline silicon solar cell and 7 acre or 0.02833 Km2/MWp for thin film solar cell. This indicates that, the MWp level power plant consume large land area. As agriculture is the backbone of economy of the developing countries consumption of large land in putting solar power plant puts problem on food security. Thus, integration is needed for dual use of land both for power generation and at the same time it can be used for other economic activities. These two requirements were studied in MWp level power plants operating in Charanka Solar Park at West Gujarat. A typical MWp capacity power plant in this park is exporting about 1.68 million kWh of electricity per year to Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO) grid. Long term studies indicated that the salt marshy barren land of the park has been converted into a fertile land and developed ambience for growing plant and vegetables. The possible reasons behind the improvement of land fertility is due to increase in land humidity by decreasing evaporation rate. Maybe the shadow from PV modules initiated growth of bacteria and virus to implant Carbon and Nitrogen into the soil surface. Typical plant like tomato was cultivated under the shadow of the solar module strings. The production of tomato generated revenue which added 30% reduction in payback period.

Presently, waste to energy conversion is a leading technology throughout the World due to diminishing fossil fuels day by day. By anaerobic digestion process producing methane-rich biogas from wastes as an alternative source of energy that can fulfil the energy demand in future with depletion of the waste volume. In Kolkata city, a major issue is huge waste generationWaste generation and its open dumping waste disposal system which causes environmental degradation. In this city, the responsible authority for waste management system is Kolkata municipal corporation (KMC). The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of biogas generation from the municipal organic waste generated under the KMC area on basis of the performance analysis of biogas and methane production rates. For this purposes, three experiments have been performed in a lab-scale batch digester for 30 days. Municipal organic waste has been used as main feedstock and mixed with inoculums such as cow dung, sewage water and leachate in each experiment. The quantity of produced biogas per day has been measured by the water displacement method and by the syringe method estimated the presence of methane and carbon dioxide in produced biogas. By the destruction of VSS and COD, the biogas generation has been measured. Comparing all aspects, it has been obtained that municipal organic waste under KMC is viable to produce biogas in presence of inoculum and cow dung is the most effective inoculum. So, in future this process can be utilized for both energy generation and waste reduction purposes.

East Kolkata Wetlands area has been declared as Ramsar Site under Article 8 in the year 2002 by Ramsar Bureau of Convention on Wetlands of International importance. Resource-reutilisation is practiced here for a long period of time. Wastewater inflow from adjoining Kolkata city and parts of South and North 24 Parganas districts in this region flows through dry weather flow canal and reutilised for pisciculture partly and as irrigation water for agriculture. Agriculture is important as it is only solution to the world food security problem. This study has been executed within East Kolkata wetlands area at selected points where wastewater irrigation practices are prevalent. Wastewater quality reused for agricultural purposes show presence of heavy metals in small proportions due to mixing of effluent which are untreated or partially treated when discharged from industries located nearby. Presence of heavy metals in crop samples have been found in crops irrigated with water and wastewater containing heavy metals. Heavy metals get absorbed in soil and by crops on irrigation with freshwater and wastewater. Heavy metals function as essential micro-nutrient for crops which help to maintain the crops growth and development and forms source of micro-nutrients for consumers of these crops.