Innovation in Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure

The dam is the inline structure constructed over the river connecting the storage area to the downstream river catchment area. Large dam constructs serve multipurpose objectives like irrigation, hydropower generation, and water supply for residential, commercial, and industrial use. Though dams have many benefits, the threat of dam break always remains, either due to a large amount of rainfall in the upstream catchment, earthquake, structure failure, etc. To understand the dam breach scenario and find out the inundation extent, water surface elevation, flow velocity, and wave arrival time, a dam breach study is needed. It contributes to reducing loss of life and damage by guiding the preparation of emergency action plans (EAP). This paper describes the analysis of piping failure of the Damanganga dam, Gujarat, India, using the Hydraulic Engineering Centre’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) 2D hydrodynamic modelling and geospatial techniques. Inflow hydrograph, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), topography, and area capacity curve of Damanganga reservoir have been utilized to build a 2D hydrodynamic model. Froehlich equation was used to estimate dam breach parameters. Water surface elevation, flow depth and velocity, arrival time, and inundation area were calculated. The inundation area is 153 km2, and the number of affected villages including cities is 48. This study helps the site’s administrative authority, and the dam owner develops EAP and flood mitigation.

Indian farming industry is a major industry globally, comprising a complex group of enterprises that consume a lot of water. India is a predominantly agricultural country. Many sectors are directly or indirectly associated with this agricultural sector, such as employment, food, and industrial raw material. Farming entirely depends on the availability of water. The maximum amount of freshwater is utilized in agriculture, mainly using groundwater. Water scarcity and depletion of groundwater in the recent years due to changes in annual rainfall and climate change in India will be a major challenge in the day to come. Micro-irrigation systems are currently being. Innovative indigenous micro-irrigation techniques like the proposed ‘capillary wick irrigation technique’ would eliminate the limitation of drip irrigation that requires not only electricity but also technical know-how on the part of the irrigator for its effective use. The present experimental study seeks to examine the applicability of the proposed innovative indigenous ‘capillary wick irrigation technique’ through a small underground water reservoir for row crops by comparing the same with the farmers’ traditional method (check basin method) of surface irrigation. The experimentation for row crop of fennel (saunf) (scientific name: Foeniculum vulgare), also known as ‘variali’ in vernacular language, was carried out with saline water and on an adverse land. Experimental investigations were conducted by designing and installing capillary wick assembly at an agricultural farm at ‘velavadar,’ district Surendranagar. The effect of wick spacing on the crop yield was also studied by employing T1/1, T1/2, T1/3, T2/1, T2/2, T2/3, T3, and T4 types of arrangements. Crop characteristics like height, stem diameter, and yield were studied under various arrangements. Experiments were also conducted to study the wetting front movement under the proposed capillary wick irrigation assembly. Compared to drip irrigation, the additional water saving by the proposed irrigation method was 17.40%. Compared to the regular farmer’s irrigation method, the water saving by the proposed irrigation method was around 85%. The results demonstrate the successful applicability of the proposed irrigation method even under adverse agricultural regimes.

Developing accurate land cover maps is a fundamental prerequisite for natural resource management, environmental modelling and urban planning studies. Several unsupervised and supervised algorithms are available in the literature for classifying LANDSAT satellite images, and selecting an optimum approach is of critical interest. This paper compares two unsupervised (ISODATA; K Means), and three supervised (Spectral Angle Mapping (SAM), Minimum Distance (MD) and Maximum Likelihood) algorithms for classifying a mid-resolution (30 × 30) m LANDSAT 8 satellite image to develop Land Cover (LC) maps for Nashik city in western India region. Post classification stage, sieve filtering and manual corrections are applied for image enhancements. The Kappa accuracy metric is adopted for comparing the accuracy of LC maps against 100 reference ground points using the Google Earth Engine. The Maximum Likelihood algorithm delivered the highest classification accuracy (73.8%), followed by SAM (70.7%), MD (68.1), K means (41.5%) and ISODATA (31.2%) algorithms. Further, accuracy enhancements are attained by the classification sieve filter (83.2%) and by applying manual corrections (89.7%).

Several parameters are combined to form a system; if one of the parameters is changed, it also influences the other parameters. Both biophysical components and features made by humans are dynamic and constantly changing. Resources are being used to rapidly meet the growing population demand, causing changes in land use and land cover (LULC). It is believed that LULC change is a significant component of global change that impacts climate change. A significant amount of effort has been into creating methods for remotely sensed data change detection. LULC change detection of Hyderabad using remote sensed images has been performed in this project. Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery for 19 May 2000 and Landsat 8 (OLI/TIRS) imagery for 5 May 2015 has been obtained from the USGS Earth Explorer. ERDAS Imagine 9.1 is used for image rectification, layer stacking, and cloud cover correction. A spectral signature training file is prepared using the pixel values of the image and its properties in the ArcGIS 10.1. Then, the supervised classification was done using the maximum likelihood classifier in 4 different classes (Class 1: Vegetation, Class 2: Barren land, Class 3: Waterbody, and Class 4: Built-up). Post-classification comparison of the two maps is made on a pixel-by-pixel basis using a change detection matrix. Moreover, the changes from the before image (19 May 2000) and after image (5 May 2015) have been done in Arc GIS 10.1 using raster calculator with the image difference method (Before and After images) and ERDAS Imagine 9.1 using the Change Detection tool. ERDAS Imagine 9.1 performed better than ArcGIS 10.1 and shown distinct changes. From the LULC change map, great changes in the stretch of water body have been observed from 2000 to 2015. The different classes of the before map have been merged into other classes or changed as new classes in the after map. The area under the water body has been transformed into a built-up area and barren land. LULC change in 15 years also induced two new classes in the study area Class 1 and Class 2. The observed new classes and to distinguish this class from other classes ground survey has been done using Google Earth. In ground survey, the Class 1 has been identified as Nehru zoological park and Class 2 as a planned residential society. LULC change map can be used by the government, decision-makers, and policymakers and can help in proper resource management and policymaking.

Floods are disasters; it cannot be prevented; however, their effects can be reduced or minimized using contemporary geospatial and modeling techniques. Floods are unpredictable, though it can be diagnosed and lessen the catastrophic consequences in flood residing areas. India’s more than 40 × 104 million sq. mt. (12% Geological area) lands are flood-prone, affecting the country’s productivity and essential properties. Therefore, flood assessment is a crucial need of the country for societal and economic growth. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) is an important part of geospatial techniques, help to analyze the flood-prone area; however, due to the coarse resolution of RS techniques, it can’t provide the flood inundation information up to sub-metric resolution. To overcome the limitation and apply the contemporary tools, hydrologic and hydrodynamic modeling is a blessing for the hydrologic community to analyze the flood and produce the various flood decision-making maps, i.e., flood arrival, flood velocity, flood inundation, water surface elevation, etc. The hydrologic model is utilized to simulate the runoff from the catchment, and the hydrodynamic model is utilized for flood assessment in 1D and 2D. The present case is the Rel River, which was affected by a flood in 2017. The hydrodynamic model simulates runoff under extreme flooding conditions to identify the flood catastrophe and vulnerability. It helps provide the boundary conditions of Rel River and tributaries for flood simulation at Dhanera city. The 2D HEC-RAS-based open-source hydrodynamic modeling is utilized for flood simulation in 2D. Overall, the paper shows the application of geospatial techniques for preparing various files for flood modeling. In contrast, the hydrologic and hydrodynamic model shows the utility of the contemporary method for flood assessment and management.

Irrigation of the crop is a necessity for group growth. Several irrigation techniques have been used for watering the crop and cultivating the crops for maximum production. Applying the different irrigation techniques to crops depends on crop-land suitability; however, finding the optimum water requirements to crop is the primary aim of this case study. The present research aims to identify wetting front movement while using wick irrigation technique. The method has been executed to demonstrate and find the developed wetting front at a small farm in Velavadar, Surendranagar in Gujarat. This study reviews an experiment with capillary wick irrigation for cultivating raw crops. IS 2720 (Part-IV)–1985 and IS 460–1978 were used to analyze a representative soil sample taken from the farm. The electrical conductivity (E.C.) of the irrigation water and the soil was relatively high, according to water quality and soil nutrient tests. The knowledge of wetted width, depth, and maximum wetted width beneath the soil’s surface is required to design and manage an efficient wick irrigation system. It can essentially be auto regulated by wick discharge and time of micro-irrigation. Temporal movement of wetting in horizontal and vertical directions under the surface point source was studied in an experimental box size of 1 * 1 * 1 m. The wick diameter considerably impacts the yield as per the types of crops. However, a small underground reservoir with 7 L is used for the best economic returns. The wetting pattern was shaped like a balloon and stretched 30 cm horizontally and 50 cm vertically from the ground level. After 120 h, the wetting front faded and was gone after 12 days. Some shallow-rooted vegetable crops (up to 50 cm depth) such as lettuce, onions, potatoes, radish, and moderately deep-rooted (30–60 cm depth) vegetable crops such as broccoli, beans, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, muskmelon, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini can be grown by observing moisture distribution under capillary wick for alkaline soil with saline irrigation water. Tests suggest that this indigenous technology could be used successfully even in adverse land and water conditions.

This study aims to examine the probability of over spilling from banks of Sabarmati River in reach between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad for various return periods. The probable peak discharge for return periods of 20, 25, 30, 50, 60, 75, and 100 years calculated using Gumbel’s frequency distribution and further simulated under steady condition in HEC-RAS 5.0.1 software. In present study, integration of Arc Map 10.0.1, HEC GeoRAS 10.0, and HEC-RAS 5.0.1 has been practiced to produce geometric data at every 200 m interval utilizing Cartoset 1 DEM. The flow hydrograph of the respective year at Chiloda Bridge, Gandhinagar, and normal depth at Vasna Barrage, Ahmedabad, have been selected as the upstream and downstream boundary, respectively. The flow is simulated under steady condition by selecting the computational time step of 1 min in HEC-RAS. The simulated maximum water surface levels have been compared for elevations of both the left (east) and right (west) banks of Sabarmati River for all the 190 numbers of cross sections. The cross sections having elevation lesser than relative water surface elevation on corresponding bank have marked as unsafe and have probability of water spill. The analysis concludes that the percentage of cross section prone to spilling of water during high discharge on left bank is 58% and for right bank is 35.33% for 20 year return period, while for 50 year return periods, it has come out as 67.01% on left bank and 44.16% on right bank. For all the return periods, it has been observed that left bank of Sabarmati River which represents east side of old wall city is more prone to water spill from higher water levels in river than the right bank of city locating on west side of river considered as new Ahmedabad city.

Extreme events are one of the serious challenges society is facing with the changing climate; extreme events like droughts have a significant impact on both human and animal livelihood. In India, one of the most frequent natural calamities is drought, and its assessment is required in order to support policy makers and water managers in the region. This study presented reliability–resilience–vulnerability (R–R–V) analysis of droughts, which uses the duration and severity of drought properties, estimated using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The study is carried out over Maharashtra (grid-wise) at 0.25° resolution using the precipitation data collected from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for a period of 41 years (1980–2020). The spatial variation of drought parameters, duration and severity at 50, 70, and 90 percentile levels are plotted and analysed to elucidate the regions that have higher drought risks. The most resilient areas are Amaravati, part of the Nashik, and Konkan division. Nagpur and Aurangabad divisions require utmost attention as they have the least reliability. The R-R-V maps of Maharashtra strongly show that the Aurangabad division has the highest drought risk among the other divisions. The results clearly show that Vidarbha and Marathwada are more prone to droughts. The RRV index map showed Latur, Beed, Parbhani, Chandrapur, and Nagpur fall under high to very high category of drought risk. The spatial plots give a clear picture of the areas that require immediate action and thus can be helpful for decision-makers and government bodies.

Apart from other significant environmental issues, one of the severe threats to the continents is soil erosion. As a result, significant cultivable land has been deteriorated. The Purna River watershed, located at south east of Gujarat, India, was selected as a study area for this research work. The rainfall, DEM, soil map, and satellite imagery were used to compute various factors of soil erosion such as rainfall erosivity, topography, conservation practise factor, soil erodibility, and cover management sequentially. NDVI which reflects the percentage of vegetation was used for the estimation of C-factor. The sediment yield was determined by using the SDR model. After spatial evaluation using RUSLE model within GIS interface, it was seen that 1131.73 × 103 t soil was lost annually at average rate, and sediment yield was 122.68 × 103 t/year. Resulted soil erosion map showed that in the Purna River basin, the steeper the slope, the more erosion occurs. That leads to conclusion that soil erosion for Purna River watershed was more correlated with the LS-factor than any other factor. Sediment yield was found out using SDR model as a fraction of soil loss. It was seen that SDR model gave closest result to observed sediment load with R2 = 0.99 for validation of model at Mahuwa station. Net sediment load at the outlet of Purna River into Arabian Sea was found out to be 112,680 t/year with sediment delivery ratio 10.84. All the statistics about soil erosion, SDR model, and sediment yield can be much resourceful for watershed management study of Purna River watershed. On a catchment scale, geospatial technologies proven to be effective tools for evaluation of soil erosion and estimating sediment output at the definite location on the streams.

The stress range of shear at the channel's boundaries has a direct bearing on the flow of fluid inside the channel. Hence, understanding it is critical for defining the fluid field and velocity profile. Many engineering issues, such as design of flood control structures, energy loss calculation, and sedimentation, require shear stress computation. The proportion analysis between width and depth has strong influence over the stress distribution at shear in direct channels. Sinuosity, aspect ratio, and meander length affect shear stress distribution in meandering channels. Henceforth, the necessity of scrutinizing the methods used to determine the stress distribution in the channels. This paper analyzes the pros and cons of several methodologies that helps to estimate the allocating the stress ranges of shear via the prismatic channels. The review states that the vertical depth method, the normal depth method, the Guo and Julien method, the Prasad and Manson method, the Knight et al. method, the merged perpendicular method, and the Preston tube technique are the most popular methods that assist to estimate the distribution of boundary shear passing through the channels. This is due to the fact that these methods are straightforward, reliable, and easy to implement. After examining a number of other approaches, it was determined that the Preston tube technique was by far the most effective way in order to determine the stress range for boundary shear in all different kinds of channel sections.

River water quality has become more important as a result of the numerous human activities that are contaminating it and the need to assure its safe and reliable use. In light of the fact that water quality has been threatened by human activities, apportionments of potential pollution sources are essential for water pollution control. A thorough investigation on the water quality of the Brahmani River has been done while considering these factors in mind. Twelve sampling sites have provided water samples to be examined. Twenty physicochemical parameters were investigated on yearly basis for a period of four year (2017–2021) by using standard procedures. The water quality index (WQI) was generated using the CCME algorithm, and a geostatistical technique called inverse distance weighting (IDW) was employed to create a forecast map for the region. Information from this research also aims to assist policy makers, to take the right decisions for sustainable agriculture in the study area. Between the observed data and the expected values from the predictor maps in both season, regression prediction was conducted on the three predicted stations, namely Biritola, Nandira D/s, and Kabatabandha. The study's quality database is created using the physicochemical analysis results of various water samples collected at various sites. The pH of the river was just mildly alkaline. In the PRM and POM, the overall CCME WQI grades fell into the fair to good and marginal to fair categories, respectively. Regression prediction values of WQI for all parameters in PRM were given the most acceptable values of determination coefficient (R2 = 0.82) than POM. The current investigation reveals that at stations P-3 (Panposh D/s) and P- 4 (Rourkela D/s), the quality of the local surface water has degraded. It was confirmed that both geogenic events and human activities linked to the origin of TC, TDS, TH, TA, Ca2+, and HCO3–. At these places, it is necessary to first reduce the causes of deterioration to which the surface water is exposed, and the water should be treated before consumption. Therefore, future studies should be conducted in the area to precisely state the quality of water used for drinking and domestic purposes. Hence, this research should also emphasize identifying factors controlling surface water chemistry in the area. Further, measures should be discussed and implemented in managing downstream areas, sewage treatment facilities, and fertilizer and industrial application.

Besides irrigation and power generation, reservoirs in India also play a vital role in protecting the country from floods. During flood, reservoirs store and release the excess water according to its capacity and future requirement. It is imperative that the reservoir has to be operated effectively to conserve water so that competing goals can be accomplished. This requires an extensive investigation and the development of new system analysis approaches using meta-heuristic techniques of soft computing. The Omkareshwar Sagar Project (OSP) Reservoir in India has been designed to satisfy annual demands, protect against flooding, and produce maximum power generation, which is used for analysis in the current study. The present study incorporates one conventional optimization method the nonlinear programming (NLP), a semi- conventional method the genetic algorithm (GA) and a meta-heuristic technique the teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO) to solve the problem of optimum operation in a flood scenario. A flood-release protocol has to be developed keeping the objective of maximum power output and reach the specified storage target at the end of the operation. Present study has been a successful attempt in getting the desired results, and the adoptability of the TLBO for complex problem is also proven.

The precise digital elevation model (DEM) is the need of an hour for flood risk assessment to reduce the loss of lives and properties. The benchmarked free source nationally available DEM is Cartosat and globally available DEM is SRTM, which is widely used for hydrodynamic modeling by developing countries. However, it covers the course resolution. High-resolution DEM is required to execute the hydrodynamic model in 1D and 2D and to improve the flood decision-making system at the sub-metric level for urban flood mapping and assessment. Therefore, to reduce the data deficiency for flood decision-making systems in urban areas in developing countries, high-resolution DEMs are generated. This attempt has been performed over the Sabarmati River with a stretch of 5 km, covering the 8 km2 of the area and its surrounding. The advanced survey was done using a UAV named 4RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) Phantom for the study area. The data collected were processed with the help of Pix4D. This UAV is then converted into different grids size of 0.5 m × 0.5 m to 10 m × 10 m resolution to perform the simulation for the study area using Global Mapper. These DEMs are used as input parameters for performing any hydrodynamic simulation. The high-resolution DEMs can be utilized for the preparation of river geometry extraction and comparisons of the river bed and river banks. This high-resolution DEM is used in the hydrodynamic model to produce flood inundation, velocity, depth, and water surface elevation maps. The research shows that high-resolution DEM is most applicable to creating a high-resolution map for flood decision-making. Hence, high-resolution DEMs influence the accuracy of flood forecasts, so even the most severe catastrophes can be mitigated.

The discharge and sediment load in natural rivers everywhere are enduring significant changes due to present climate changes and anthropogenic activities. Therefore, to inculcate management of water resources and soil conservation practices, it is crucial to identify variation of discharge and sediment load. In present study, the trend analysis of daily discharge and suspended sediment load is carried out using Mann–Kendall test, Modified Mann–Kendall test, and change point was determined using Pettitt test. Here, Sarangkheda from Middle Tapi Basin is chosen to understand the variability. Change point is observed at 2008 at Sarangkheda for both sediment load and discharge. After change point, average annual sediment load has decreased by 50% and average annual water discharge decreased by 20%. The decline in sediment load in Middle Tapi Basin shown major drop of sediment load which has arisen due to sediment entrapment by the dam. Sarangkheda carries average annual sediment load of 15.61 × 106 tons and average annual water discharge of 7.58 × 109 m3. Incorporating the trend in sediment load and discharge can be helpful for water management. Both climatic and human activities appear to be responsible for variation in flow pattern of the river.

The study represents data collection and analysis of the water quality index (WQI) and different parameters considered for calculating water quality index in Khadakwasla dam which is located in Pune district. The dam is major contributor of fresh water in Pune city, and thus, the analysis of the water in Khadakwasla dam is crucial as water for the urban and rural areas as well as for industries is supplied through canals of Khadakwasla dam. The data is acquired and analysed for the study of variation of water quality index, and results were obtained for the year 2011 to 2021. Data is tabulated, and graphs are plotted for better understanding the variation in the data. Precipitation data is also studied for the variation of quality of water and interrelation of precipitation and water quality can be seen from tables and graphs.

Agricultural land constitutes the most important part of a geological component of a country in terms of economy and prosperity. The virtue of an agricultural land solely resides on the type and composition of soil type and quality of that region. The laying of an underground pipeline might affect the soil quality and productivity of the specific area. In addition to this, there is a potential threat of leakage of sediments, pathogens, sewage, waste water or hydrocarbons/chemicals, or other contaminants into the ground. The present study aims to investigate the effects of laying a hydrocarbon pipeline on the soil quality thereby its productivity in two different regions of Gujarat state (Gandhinagar, Bharuch) India. The post-employment effects of pipeline laying on soil quality and productivity were evaluated and the results were interpreted. The parameters for quality check of soil contamination due to pipeline laying included pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter content, available nitrogen, and heavy metal content. The results obtained suggested negligible degradation of soil quality by the underlying pipelines and provided positive results for utilization in several purposes including agriculture. The modelling and analysis of various parameters also supported the same.

The waste and by-products of today’s industries are used as supplemental cementitious materials for cement concrete and serve to strengthen portions made of reinforced concrete. Concrete has advanced to new levels because of its continued development to meet the demanding requirements of the construction industry. The sludge that is produced by the paper industry is referred to as hypo sludge. It has been shown that trash is superior to conventional construction materials. It is possible to make the case that it is an opportunity for growth. To meet the challenge, all domains will need to collaborate and make concentrated efforts to adopt the categorization of waste into co-products. Only then we will be able to rise to the occasion. This research explores how 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40% of hypo sludge is replaced with cement in M25 grade of concrete. The following tests were performed to test the mechanical qualities, such as compressive strength (CS) and split tensile strength 28, 56, and 90. The research discovered that affordable composites containing low-cost hypo sludge in infrastructure applications deliver sufficient strength and lower expected costs. Hypo sludge concrete improves the compressive and split tensile strength of concrete.

The use of locally available materials plays an important role in reducing the cost and environmental benefits. It can be such as wastes from industries, plastic fibre, natural fibres, etc. Such materials are found to be effective in the stabilisation process of soils which are having poor geotechnical properties. These materials improve the soil strength by changing the properties and also will be advantageous in reducing the cost of road construction. In the present study, soft clay soil has been considered for its strength and durability assessment. The use of low calcium fly ash (FA) obtained from thermal plants has been used for the stabilisation process. It was mixed with cement in different ratios as per AASHTO guidelines to evaluate the strength and durability parameters. The clayey soil was assessed for the initial consumption of lime (ICL) to reduce the plastic nature. The cylindrical soil samples were prepared and subjected to unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests for strength evaluation. The wetting and drying test method was used for durability analysis. The results revealed that the use of fly ash had led to a significant increase in the strength of the soil. The UCS value was so high that it could be a replacement for the GSB layer of rural roads. The CBR test reported a substantial increase in the value by the stabilisation technique. It can be concluded that the thickness of the pavement ca n be reduced significantly. Also, the results showed a magnificent increase in the durability percentage of the prepared samples.

Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls are an alternative engineering structure to traditional reinforced concrete retaining walls with significant and adaptable height at a lower cost. The main objective of this study is to perform a detailed numerical analysis of the MSE wall for the effect of parameters such as reinforced soil, the vertical spacing between reinforcements, the tensile strength of reinforcement, surcharge magnitude, and wall height on the internal stability of MSE wall under the static and seismic loading conditions. The analysis has been carried out using the Geo-5 numerical tool to obtain the Factor of Safety (FS) against internal stability checks. Variations of FS against rupture and pull-out for reinforced blocks are compared for various parameters considered in this study. From the detailed parametric analysis for the internal stability of the MSE wall, it has been found that the rupture and pull-out resistance is higher for minimum vertical spacing. FS reduces as surcharge magnitudes increase. The pull-out resistance is substantially larger than the rupture resistance for higher wall heights. In clayey soil, the rupture is larger at the top layer than at the lower layers for a given wall elevation, yet pull-out is greater at the lower levels than at the top layers.

Black cotton soil (BCS) as an expansive soil (ES) is the most problematic soil which may cause severe risk to the safety of structures that are built over it. These expansive soils may be modified by compacting effort or by introducing some special additives to such soils. For swelling and shrinkage properties of such soils, soil stabilization (SS) method using various materials such as lime, fly ash (FA), stone dust (SD), coir fiber (CF), bagasse ash (BA), and sugarcane straw ash (SSA) may be preferred. Black cotton soil may undergo severe change in its volume when the moisture absorption phenomenon takes place, and this may lead to swelling and subsequently shrinkage after evaporation of moisture from these soils. The expansive soils may possess strength in its dry state, but the strength may wipe out in its wet state.When stabilizing expansive soils with materials suited for such conditions, the strength and bearing capacity of the soils can significantly increase. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test as well as California bearing ratio (CBR) test may be performed in order to assess existing bearing capacity and strength of ES prior to SS as well as after the stabilization process too. Stabilization of soil may reduce compressibility as well as permeability of the soil mass. It may also modify shear parameters of the soil, thus increasing the shear strength of ES. The main objective of this paper is to review chemical as well as physical characteristics of expansive soils due to introduction of various materials in these soils. In this paper, also, a number of articles have been reviewed to emphasis on various economical as well as effective expansive additives. This study focuses on the effect of introduction of non-traditional stabilizers in the stabilization of the expansive subgrade with the use of chemical stabilization technique.

The utilization of biodegradable substances for the improvement of poor soil has given better outcomes in the field of geotechnical engineering. They diminish the void proportion and thickness of absorbed water in the soil particles and boost the compaction of the subgrade. A decrease in moisture content causes an increase in shrinkage. This will bring about harm to the construction. In the recent years, manufacturers are claiming the increase in soil shear strength, decreasing in liquid limits, and swell index of the soil. Recent studies suggest that adding industry waste products like bottom ash or fly ash into the subgrade soil increases the California bearing ratio (CBR) values of the soil and decreases the swelling potential. In the present study, literature review and laboratory work were carried out on the mechanical stabilization of pavement subgrade mixed with industrial bottom ash (BA). In this study, bottom ash (BA) has been used as a filler material. An attempt has been made to evaluate the properties of soil, such as bearing capacity by replacing it with bottom ash (BA). Environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) study conducted to study shape and texture of particles of bottom ash and soil. Different proportions of bottom ash were mixed with locally available (well-graded sand) soil to assess their effect on the engineering properties of soil. Series of tests like California bearing ratio (CBR) of soil were carried out with different dosages of bottom ash with a varying range of 0 to 30% to compare the results. The addition of bottom ash up to a certain limit increased the CBR value by increasing its load bearing capacity and compressive strength of the soil. Using laboratory tests, it is concluded that bottom ash can be used as a filler material in road construction like embankments when they are properly compacted because their dry density is low as their lightweight particles.

Plain concrete has a very low tensile strength and is susceptible to cracking before the ultimate load. Various types of fibers aid in the resistance of fractures in concrete constructions. The present study aims to understand the engineering properties of M40 grade concrete for the varying percentage of fibers [polypropylene fibers (PF) and basalt fibers (BF)] from 0.2% to 0.8% by 0.2% incrementally for 7 days and 28 days of curing. The optimum percentage of BF and PF were 0.6 and 0.4% by weight of concrete, respectively. Moreover, it was found that BF and PF can potentially increase the compressive strength by 12.90%, split tensile strength by 28.33%, and flexural strength by 16.98%; and the compressive strength by 11.04%, split tensile strength by 18.18%, and flexural strength by 15.47% at optimum percentage on 28 days of curing when compared to plain concrete. Moreover, the optimum percentage of BF and PF decreases the mobility of the concrete in its fresh form by acting as a barrier to the movement of coarse material by 28.57 and 7.14%, respectively, at their optimum percentage.

In recent years, change in lifestyle mainly due to overuse of different products for personal use, cleaning, packaging, etc., which majority made from the various types of plastics like PET, HDPE and LDPE affected the living organism on the planet earth directly or indirectly. Currently, entire world is finding tangible solution to minimize the use of plastic materials and also recycling or reuse of such materials. This paper presents the reuse of the plastic waste for modification of properties of clayey soil. In this study, PET types of plastic were utilized to analyse the properties of soil. Used plastic water bottles were collected and converted in to form of stripes. Series of experiments were conducted with different percentage of PET waste (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1%) and aspect ratio (2 and 4). The observation of the study shows the significant change in behaviour of clayey soil with inclusion of PET type of waste. This methodology can be use potentially for the construction of pavements having bed subgrade soil.

This study investigates the researchers conducted on the microstructure of different types of concrete using the X-ray diffraction technique. Generally, the compressive strength, durability and other properties change due to the changes in the microstructure, and hence, a thorough study on the use of XRD technique were done. A detailed study of the XRD results and findings which are obtained by different researchers was done, and their results were analysed.

As the world’s population continues to grow at an alarming rate, cities are being built up at a rate that is detrimental to the environment. Sand, a natural resource, is a key ingredient of cement mortar, the most popular building material. The scarcity of fine aggregate is the primary worry as the demand for sand grows. Quarry dust is a by-product of quarrying. Quarry dust is generally 5–7% per ton crushing quarry aggregate. Before quarry dust is replaced with natural sand in cement mortar, the physical and chemical properties of the two are examined. However, it seems to have virtually the same qualities. Quarry dust and Bacillus pesteurii bacteria at various concentrations like 105, 106, 107, and 108 cell/ml are used to substitute natural sand in this study because Bacillus pesteurii may form calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as a filler material and serve as a binding element in cement mortars. Bacterial mortar has a higher compressive strength than ordinary mortar or sustainable mortar, according to this research. A 107 cell/ml cell concentration yields a compressive strength test result of 31.01 N/mm2. This way, a cost-effective and environmentally friendly cement mortar may be utilized to recycle trash and safeguard the environment.

This sector represents one of India’s oldest and most widely dispersed economic activities. Most of the metal casting processes in this business used a method called sand-casting molding, which resulted in a substantial amount of sand waste. Sand dust that has been reclaimed is produced in the industry as part of the reclamation process. These take place in the cyclone separator and the bag filter. The waste produced due to the sanding process is disposed of at landfills and other disposal sites. The disposal of waste sand dust causes the poisoning of the surrounding environment. As a result, it has developed into an issue for the environment. This paper presents a complete examination of the use of industrial waste as a construction material that is ecologically acceptable. The topic of the inquiry is offered. In place of fly ash, recycled sand dust waste, also known as RSDW, was used to produce fly ash bricks (FABs). Various percentages of RSD waste are used in place of fly ash, including 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, respectively. The paper devotes considerable space to analyzing and discussing the results of compressive strength and water absorption testing.

An experimental study was conducted to regulate the impact of the mechanical behaviour of quaternary concrete made with additional cementitious ingredients. In predetermined ratios, fly ash (FA), lime powder (LP), and silica fume (SF) were combined by swapping out 30–50 per cent of the weight of regular Portland cement (OPC). For all mixtures, water-to-binder ratio and the total amount of cementitious ingredients were held constant at 0.35 and 402 kg/m3, respectively. At 7, 28, 56, 90, 180, and 365 days, tests were conducted to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of quaternary concretes, and the results were compared to those obtained for controlled concrete (100% OPC). According to the normal code of practise in India, the complete exercise was prepared, cured, and tested. In addition, durability properties were investigated in terms of permeability and chemical attack. In some permutations of mixes, it was discovered that the strength of the concrete with quaternary binders was greater than that of the controlled concrete because of the cement’s synergistic activity with the addition of additional cementitious materials. According to the test results, optimal mixes of FA, SF, and LP as a partial replacement for OPC as quaternary concrete would be a better choice than 100% controlled concrete.

There are a number of applications of nanotechnology, particularly in concrete. The addition of nano-silica improves both the mechanical and durability properties of concrete. During the hydration process, the reaction of nano-silica with calcium hydroxide creates an additional calcium silicate hydrate bond, which improves the mechanical characteristics of concrete. The effect of the inclusion of nano-silica on the mechanical properties of paste, mortar and concrete is investigated in this study. Nano-silica was introduced as a replacement of cement from 1 to 5% with an increase of 1%. Various mechanical properties and setting time of different mixes were evaluated and compared with the control mix. The cement paste’s consistency increased while the setting time of the paste was reduced by 8 and 47%, respectively, due to the inclusion of nano-silica. The optimum dosage of the addition of nano-silica was 3%. At 3% of nano-silica, the compressive strength of the mortar specimen was higher than control mortar by 15 and 28% at 7 and 28 days, respectively. Above three percentages of nano-silica, the strength will be reduced. Similarly, in concrete, the inclusion of nano-silica by 3% led to an increase in compressive strength by 15 and 20%, respectively, at 7 days and 28 days over control concrete. Flexural and split tensile strength was also increased by 3% nano-silica by 15 and 22%, respectively. Nano-silica did not produce a significant change in the modulus of elasticity of concrete.

The present work focused on the use of plastic bottles and plastic wrappers to make ecobricks which can be used as a building material. PET bottle of sizes, 250 ml (cylindrical), 750 ml (cylindrical) and 1 L (cubical) has been used in the present study and were filled with shredded and compacted plastic wrappers to prepare an ecobrick. These ecobrick can accommodate 170 to 350 gm of plastic wrappers waste. Plain ecobricks and ecobricks with mortar havebeen tested for compressive strength and then prototypes have been created using both types of ecobricks. Plain ecobrick showed strength in the range of 25–45 MPa, however with mortar the strength in the range of 27–31 MPa was noted. The strength of plain ecobrick and with mortar has been found to be more than the first-class brick and thus can be used as construction building blocks. It can be concluded that ecobrick is an economical construction material for social projects in region where litter and informal dumpsites are a common problem and industrial recycling might not be yet available. Using ecobrick as plastic disposal measures shall help in achieving the sustainable development goals 2030, namely SDG:11 Sustainable cities and communities, SDG13: Climate action, SDG14: Life below water and SDG15: Life on land.

An important and long-standing sector in India is the textile industry. Its numerous operations result in an enormous quantity of liquid waste being produced. During textile wastewater treatment, sludge is generated in the effluent treatment plant (ETP). The government has designated a specific location for its waste disposal. The majority of the generated sludge is disposed of in landfills or dumped in designated locations by the government. The improper disposal of textile sludge contributes to environmental damage. As a result, the disposal of textile sludge has become a major environmental concern. An extensive overview of the literature review on the utilization of textile effluent treatment plant sludge as concrete, blocks, paver blocks and bricks is discussed. Using textile ETP sludge as a cement replacement in M30 grade rubber mould paver blocks (RMPB) is the goal of this work. As a cement replacement material, rubber mould paver blocks made from textile sludge may be used at a weight percentage of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40%. Compressive and abrasion resistance decreases with increasing sludge concentration. When ETP sludge replaces cement to a greater or lesser extent, it falls short of the desired esteem.

India’s construction industry plays a vital role in our country’s economy. Over the past few decades, development in infrastructure has been a boon but has also led to serious environmental issues. Development in infrastructure has a dark side in the generation of an enormous amount of construction and demolition waste due to the construction, renovation, or demolition of a structure. This article discusses the status of C&D waste, sustainable methods to reduce environmental impacts, challenges, and current scenarios around the world. This review study also discusses implementing a zero-waste strategy in the construction industry to reduce and optimize C&D waste. Mishandling and mismanagement of the waste have been done for a long time, and the potential in terms of materials recovery is realized. Also, the article discuss about the reuse of various material available as recycled materials. Government of the India also implied various rules and regulations for a zero-waste strategy and motivated the public to use recycled materials. Recycled materials have some specific characteristics to other materials so more reliable than normal raw materials and more economical. The recycled materials have 10% less price than the normal materials.

Managing water resources is becoming difficult due to projection uncertainty in the future climate. Traditional top-down modeling paradigms do not provide sufficient information to water resource managers for proper decision-making in the present uncertainties. It is due to huge uncertainty in the future projection of GCM and uncertainties in GCM downscaling techniques parameterization of hydrological models. We built upon a recently developed bottom-up approach to estimate the catchments' vulnerability to climate change. The framework identifies the vulnerable combination of climate (temperature and precipitation) that causes adverse conditions for an indicator of vulnerability, such as depletion of water or less water availability. In this work, we specify the vulnerability of the catchment by the reduction in the mean annual runoff by 50% of its historical flow. We simulate synthetic climate scenarios using historical data of the past few decades with three techniques, Synthpop, KNN-CAD, and Maximum Entropy Bootstrap Weather Generator (MEBWG), which can best simulate the frequency and extrema event of the future climate. Synthetic climate data were used to compute the indicators that we divided into the vulnerability classes. A data mining algorithm [classification and regression tree (CART)] is used to associate the vulnerability classes with the synthetic climate combinations. We use a total of 77 US catchment data in the study and compute the critical threshold for each catchment for climatic variables (precipitation, temperature, and land use). The critical threshold provides an estimation of catchments' vulnerability to climate change and can be used for critical decision-making under uncertainties for water policies.

Offshore wind harvesting has grown vividly in recent decades, as it is recognized as a promising source in many parts of the world. The less interaction of landmasses makes it more efficient when compared with onshore winds. The impact of climate change on the energy sector, especially changes in wind energy output, is gaining traction. As a result, determining the future of offshore wind energy is critical for developing an effective energy plan. However, how offshore wind generation will respond to rapidly intensifying global warming remains inconclusive. Wind energy is an integral part of India's energy mix. Therefore, it is essential to know how it changes as the climate changes. Consequently, global climate models (GCMs) can simulate climate change and effectively evaluate atmospheric circulation patterns. However, GCMs have systematic errors leading to improper output. Hence, the selected CMIP6 models have been evaluated with RAMA buoy data using five statistical parameters in this paper. Furthermore, the weighted multi-model ensemble is produced by the MCDM technique using the parameter's output. The model's performance is then compared to ERA5 data, which shows that when compared to uniform weighted MME, the weighted MME developed in this study for predicting future wind energy over the Indian offshore region has more notable outcomes.

Trend analysis of hydro-meteorological data is one of the essential procedures in climate change detection studies. Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA) methods are relatively new graphical procedure for determining the trends of time series datasets. This paper proposes the applications of two recent variants of ITA method namely Innovative Polygonal Trend Analysis (IPTA) and Innovative Trend Pivot Analysis (ITPA) method for analysing the temporal trend along with the trend propagation of monthly and seasonal rainfall data of (1871–2016) period of All India main land and North East (NE) region, to capture the signature of climatic changes. The mean-based and standard deviation-based IPTA could capture the progression in the trend. More complex polygons and presence of two or more cycles indicating difference in climatic conditions are obtained for standard deviation in comparison with mean-based analysis. The trend length and slope are computed which depicted the amount as well as transition associated with the rainfall in between the months. A decreasing trend is obtained for the series of months as well as seasons from standard deviation analysis and the highest magnitude of rainfall transition is observed from May to June. To examine the presence of sub trends and risks, ITPA method is applied. Positive trend slope indicates an increase in rainfall from month to month and season to season. From IPTA analysis there is no month or season in which there is a significant change between the first and second half of the datasets of the study period. Thus, the risk factor is low for All India region, which conclude that the climatic change impacts have more visible changes at local spatial scales than very large spatial domain like All India.

Statistical post-processing of the ensemble outputs of meteorological and hydrological forecasts is essential to address the errors and uncertainty introduced in the forecasting. Post-processing (PP) generates well-calibrated predictions by analyzing the statistical relationship among the historical predictions and their corresponding observations. In the scientific communities of statistical, meteorological, climatological, hydrological, and engineering many recent developments are now thriving. These techniques range from simple to complex from straightforward bias corrections to quite complex procedures for modifying the distribution that take correlations between the prognostic factors considered. The foremost activities working out in the area of statistical post-processing from statistical advancements to functioning applications, focusing on different methods available and their comparison is summarized in the paper. The review shows good performance of the logistic regression in several studies for the PP of numerical weather forecasts.

Climate change is a biggest threat that has impacted hundreds of millions of people. It is critical to calculate the severity of rainfall and temperature in locations prone to hydro meteorological disasters in transitional climatic patterns. As a result, the primary goal of this research is to evaluate the severity of rainfall and maximum temperature under three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) using CanESM2 data from the Global Climate Model. The historic data of 40 years (1981–2021) of the Vadodara district are used which is considered as base period. Our findings were based on CanESM2 scenarios, specifically RCP8.5, which is modelled in the SDSM to determine decade wise future rainfall and maximum temperature from the years 2021–2100 under various carbon emission scenarios. The results reveal that due to the climate change, the general amount of rainfall and temperature in this region of Vadodara District shows increasing trend from 2021 to 2100 when compared to the base period. It is observed that decade wise monthly maximum temperature is increasing in every month. The maximum increasing rate of maximum temperature is 10.22% for the month of July and minimum increasing rate is 1.27% for the month October is observed from 2021 to 2100 compared to base period. It is observed that decade wise monthly rainfall is increasing in each month. For the month of July, rainfall is increasing at the average rate of 9.47% from 2021 to 2100 with respect to base period. Similarly for the month September, rainfall is increasing at the average rate of 3.28% from 2021 to 2100 with respect to base period. The maximum increasing rate of rainfall is 64.72% for the month of June and minimum increasing rate is 3.28% for the month September is observed compared to base period.

Rapid urbanization is a factor in climate change, which has negative effects on the environment. Change must occur as much as feasible in order to lessen the effects. Understanding the climatic conditions over years, if not decades, is necessary to analyze the shift. The temperature and rainfall patterns for a certain site are the most frequently researched climate change factors, however it differs from place to place. Therefore, both long-term trends and recent variations in rainfall and temperature in the Bharuch district are examined in this study. Researchers examined data on precipitation and temperature from 1981 to 2020. Statistical trend analysis methods like the Mann–Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator were used to examine and analyze the problems. The annual maximum and minimum temperatures have showed a growing trend, whereas the monsoon's maximum temperature has shown a falling trend, according to a thorough analysis of the statistics over the past 39 years. Throughout the monsoon season, rainfall is gradually increasing (Sen's slope = 0.76). The lowest temperature trend was modestly warming or growing over the study period, while the maximum temperature trend was declining (Sen's slope = −0.13). The lowest temperature trend analysis result, however, is statistically significant at the 95 percent level of confidence, but the highest temperature trend analysis result is not.

The recent climate change coupled with extreme anthropogenic activities which enhance greenhouse gases has highly impacted the existence of sea ice over the Northern Poles. The temperature rise has a first-order impact on sea ice conditions over the Arctic. Analyses of seas, namely the Laptev and Greenland seas give a general understanding of the influence of these atmospheric parameters (air temperature, sea surface temperature and outgoing longwave radiation) on the cryosphere (sea ice area, sea ice extent and sea ice concentration) for the recent time scales; 2012–16 and 2017–21. Laptev being a marginal sea of the Arctic shows high variability in sea ice area compared with the Greenland Sea which is only an outlying portion of the Arctic Ocean. While classifying the life cycle of sea ice into the growth and decay phase, it is observed that the temperatures are high during 2017–21 compared with those during 2012–16. During the growth phase of sea ice, over Laptev, 2012–16 r2(SIA, SST) = 0.69 and r2(SIA, T2M)  = 0.74 is lower compared to r2(SIA, SST) = 0.92 and r2(SIA, T2M) = 0.76 during 2017–21. Similarly over Greenland Sea, r2(SIA, SST)  = 0.88 and r2(SIA, T2M)  = 0.70 during the time frame: 2012–16 and r2(SIA, SST) = 0.89 and r2(SIA, T2M) = 0.84 during the period: 2017–21. Since outgoing longwave radiation positively influences both the seas during both spans; r2(SIA, OLR) = 0.76 for Laptev and r2(SIA, OLR) = 0.37 for the Greenland Sea show positive trend. The sea ice extent and area trends vary widely by month depending on region and season. For both Laptev and Greenland Seas, the influence of temperatures is seen more during the growing season than the melt, indicating the recent hike in winter warming causing Arctic amplification. This work demonstrates the importance and the extent of influence of atmospheric temperatures and outgoing longwave radiation on the sea ice conditions over the two geographically distinct seas of the Arctic.

Many factors affect the progress and life cycle of a real-estate project. Therefore, evaluating such factors has become an indispensable and fundamental component of every firm operating in the real-estate industry. This paper aims at identifying and evaluating the control variables associated for the development of blockchain model applicable to construction projects. When a cutting-edge technology like blockchain is applied to this kind of job, it has the potential to become far more efficient. As a result, the purpose of this research is to develop a preliminary process framework that can direct users who are interested in utilising blockchain technology as a tool, as well as to identify the factors that influence the use of blockchain technology as a smart contract, supply chain management, and financing instrument tool by presenting them in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs). Eight major project factors like technology, organisation, finance, environment, BIM, data management and security, input–output, and project-process related have been identified. Subsequently significant KPIs have been identified under each category. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool analytic network process (ANP) is used to establish the weights of the criterion based on the replies from three-stage questionnaire surveys performed among industry professionals working for prominent construction businesses in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. This study will reduce the possibility of time and cost overrun and enhance the probability of successful completion of a project within stipulated time and cost frame.

After the bid wins and the contractors receive the notice to continue or a letter of commencement, the job-site layout is routinely established and designed for construction project delivery. Temporary offices, sanitary facilities, worker rest spaces, crane sites, storage and workshop areas, access points and access roads, utilities, and other key characteristics are all considered while planning the layout of the job site. These worksite design decisions have an impact on the site's operational capabilities and, through productivity, have a direct impact on cost and schedule. This study will look at several worksite layout design and optimization methodologies that have been used in practice and proposed through research. The influence on worksite productivity and contract delivery is examined and evaluated using the factors and variables considered in the identified methodologies. Through a survey of working professionals in India important elements for job-site layout are investigated further. The results of the survey are reported, analyzed, and discussed in connection to the factors, and essential parameters identified, as well as their impact on job-site performance and contract success. A discussion of potential directions for job-site perks concludes the study.

Infrastructure is necessary for any development, and for development, finance is required. Therefore, the government introduced the public–private partnership in infrastructure development to fulfill the need for finance. Generally, in India, three basic models, namely EPC, BOT (toll), and BOT (annuity), are adopted to fulfill infrastructure needs using private investment. As a result, they will get a good return on investment. However, due to specific terms and conditions of finance and a few government loopholes, the private firms interest is declining in PPP infrastructure development, particularly in the road sector. Therefore, the government introduced a new model in January 2016, the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM), in the road sector, combining EPC and BOT (annuity). In the present study, a financial study has been carried out for three different PPP models for a case study of Porbandar-Dwarka. HAM is the best suitable model for a financial return on investment and the development of new infrastructure in low traffic, a region having only religious and social importance.

The construction industry's productivity is mostly determined by three factors: labour factors, management methods, and external challenges. Over the years, various aspects affecting labour productivity in building sector have been identified. It is critical to understand the degree of productivity in order to design innovative methods to improve construction productivity. The objective of this paper is to find the improvement measures in labour productivity. This paper presents a combination of a literature review and a data analysis of questionnaire survey on the aspects of labour productivity. The identified productivity factors have been divided into five groups, i.e., communication, labour management, management factor, supervision and leadership, and use of construction methods. During the data collection, a total of 86 responses has been collected from various contractors, project managers, consultants, and site engineers working in the building construction sector. The analysis of the study provides a better understanding of productivity concerns in India and directs their efforts to enhance productivity for construction professionals.

For nations and organisations, infrastructure development is considered to be one of the most advantageous activities in renovation and rejuvenation of the society for bringing strategic objectives and goals from merely written plans to reality. Although delays in construction industry has been the focus of extensive investigation over a few decades now, few academics made an attempt to investigate how delays affect both public and private building projects in many countries around the world, particularly in developing and financially struggling nations. The purpose of this work is to close a critical knowledge gap in this area by identifying, assessing and overcoming the major causative factors of delays in construction projects in Nashik, India. The main objective of the study is to develop and construct a systematic processing framework in the form of flowchart for the study area. The procedure for gathering data for the study is carried out by questionnaire survey involving 250 construction industry professionals based on simple random sampling, with 48 critical delay factors that are divided into seven main categories. Relative importance index (RII) analysis was used to rank the respondents’ feedback. Using IBM SPSS Statistics, the data's internal consistency and reliability, or Cronbach's alpha, were examined (Version 28) and it was found out to be 0.74. Results showed that disputes in labour and labour strikes (RII = 0.855), poor material management (RII = 0.851) and contractor's incompatibility with new technology (RII = 0.845) were listed as the top three reasons for construction project delays in Nashik, India. The top most factors influencing delay were shown in simplified manner with Ishikawa diagram. The systematic processing framework was developed to overcome the problem on hand. The municipal corporation of Nashik, in order to become successful and efficient, construction employees need to be trained in the necessary technical skills, which requires significant investment from higher education institutions as well as other stakeholders. This study paves the pathway for the future developments of construction management models to use in residential and infrastructure projects in Nashik as well as in Indian construction industry.

Fire incidents have increased drastically due to rapid urbanization. More than 9000 fire incidents causing large casualties were recorded in 2020, as documented by the India risk survey 2021. Thus, it becomes of utmost necessary to assess the risk associated with urban areas, especially metro cities. The present work critically reviews fire risk assessment studies of urban areas. It involves the review of critical factors affecting the urban fire, Indian standards and code used in practice, factor integration techniques for preparation of risk maps, and optimization of the fire station. The factors affecting fire hazards are bifurcated into satellite data, metrological data, bio-physical data, planning and regulation data, and other ancillary data. Based on the review, the eleven parameters significantly influence the city under consideration are derived. Further, as a case study, the land utilization of Ahmedabad City is studied. The isochrones map is developed for the city, and fire stations are marked. The generated map shows the coverage area by a particular fire station. The map also highlights the area at higher risk where the timely response to calls for service is difficult from the nearest fire stations. This study provides an essential contribution for new researchers, assessing the fire risk of buildings and old structures in urban cities. The study can help administrators, city planners, and civil society organizations plan to provide facilities, minimize fire hazards, and solve related issues to decrease fire risk.

One of the greatest environmental concerns for the long-term viability is to develop sustainability of future cities and to plan heat mitigation techniques for improving human outdoor thermal comfort. In this research work, a case study for Ahmedabad City has been considered which has hot, semi-arid climate-Bsh based on Köppen climate classification and aim of the study is to improve the outdoor thermal comfort and to plan heat mitigation strategies of Ahmedabad City, Gujarat, India, by assessing the outdoor thermal comfort of a city with analysing mean radiant temperature with thermal indices such as PET, PMV/PPD and UTCI with the application of ENVI-met V5.0.2 Software. For conducting the study, an urban canopy of Ahmedabad City has been examined from Maninagar area, and it has an administrative boundary of 7692.33 m2 was model in ENVI-met (SPACES). The analysis was done during 09 May 2021 a hot summer day and 17 December 2021 a cool winter day to create a challenging environmental situation, and the input data for the simulations process are based on the meteorological station of GPCB located in Maninagar area. Software simulations were performed (for 24 h), and based on simulation of modelling, the four different case scenarios in ENVI-met model result are presented. The simulated results show that the suggested strategies have an effect on OTC, which means adopting case-2 and case-3 in particular location can reduce the temperature around 1.5–2 °C with Tmrt reduce up to 1.02–6.20 °C in summer and also, adopting case-2 and case-3 in particular location can increase the temperature around 0.5–1.0 °C in winter. The study provides better understanding of heat mitigation strategies on human thermal comfort at a city level (Ahmedabad), and the findings of this research provide finer suggestions for improving outdoor thermal comfort environment.

The careful identification and treatment of sensitive building design and operation parameters can aid sustainable building modelling and optimization efforts. Using Design Builder software, this paper applies Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) and standard regression coefficient (SRC) for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis (UA/SA) to ascertain influential building design features influencing annual energy demands and thermal comfort levels. A commercial office building in Gandhinagar, India (Koppen-Geiger: Bsh climate), is chosen for analysis. The building’s simulation model shows 90.01% agreement with the utility bills. Specifically, the influence of four unique wall constructions, five roof insulations, four window-to-wall ratios (WWR), five window types, four overhang depths, five air conditioner’s (AC) coefficients of performance (COP) and five cooling set points (CSP) are assessed on building annual energy demand (AED) and annual thermal discomfort hours (ATDH) as per ASHRAE 55 2004. LHS permutes these eight parameters to produce 300 unique building design and operation possibilities, simulated sequentially to generate the model outputs. Notably, the lowest and highest AED and ATDH vary by a factor of four (5423–22923 kWh) and three (742–2242 h), respectively. The standard regression coefficient global SA identifies AC COP and CSP as the two critical influential parameters swaying AED, followed by WWR, Wall Construction and Roof Insulation. ATDH chiefly depends on AC CSP, followed by WWR, wall construction and roof insulation. Thus, substantial AED and ATDH cutbacks can be achieved by selecting optimal AC COPs and CSP, WWR, wall construction and roof insulation. Other less influential parameters like building orientation and overhangs do not produce comparable benefits and do not require further optimization.

India’s steady economic growth since independence has positioned it as a leading emerging economy. This growth is crucial for overall development, with cities’ commercial base serving as a major pillar. India’s unique tradition of blending heritage with commerce contributes to both economic and cultural values. Notable examples of such commercial centres include the Walled City of Jaipur, Walled City of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Delhi. These centres not only drive economic growth but also embody a rich blend of history, tradition, art, and culture. Therefore, safeguarding the resilience of these traditional commercial centres becomes imperative. The Walled City faces issues from changing needs, friction between tradition and development. Historic cities shape modern cities’ functionality and economy, with 60% commercial activity in Jaipur’s Walled City. Considering socio-economic prospects and development pressures, conserving the bazaars is vital. This study explores issues in Jaipur’s traditional commercial centres and proposes sustainable empowerment. A holistic conservation strategy can address Walled City’s problems and sustainably preserve its bazaars. The study’s prospects act as directive principles, supporting the conservation objectives.

Prefabricated buildings are adopted in the construction industry because they are more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and faster to construct and provide higher quality and safety. The most essential and recognizable aspect of prefabricated buildings is precast components. Precast component management is still inefficient, and precast manufacturing efficiency is inadequate. The precast component lifecycle must be managed because the designers, manufacturing producers, and on-site installers are all from separate regions. Some of the most recent technologies include the Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time visibility and traceability, Cloud Computing for data management, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for digital presentations and quality management, significantly reducing precast component lifecycle management difficulties in prefabricated buildings. BIM seems to be a model based information-sharing approach that allows multiple key stakeholders to collaborate on 3D BIM models. Cloud services enable project stakeholders to collaborate through the Internet and make decisions quickly from any location. RFID is an IoT technology that allows project stakeholders to monitor and track precast components in real time. Integrating BIM with RFID and Cloud technology enables the project stakeholders to access real-time information on precast components and prefabrication building lifecycle management. Therefore, this research study highlighted challenges in the life cycle management of precast components in prefabricated buildings and proposed a framework based on Internet of Things–Cloud–Building Information Modeling. The data flow model and information management systems are also described. Throughout the lifecycle of the precast component and the prefabricated building, this framework would improve real-time information communication among both the precast manufacturer and the construction project site so there will be no travel or duration gaps. Prefabricated component and building lifecycle information may be tracked, and cost, quality, schedule, and safety management will be monitored.