River Narmada is said to the lifeline of Central India. It provides drinking water, fertile plains, rich forests to the people there. Almost four states are benefitted by water supply for irrigation and drinking. Continuous anthropogenic activities have severely degraded the ecosystem of River Narmada. The research figures out the causes of degrading environment of river Narmada. The continuous water flow of once Perennial River is broken at numerous times of a year. The objective of the paper is to enlist different anthropogenic activities and identify their relation in degradation of ecosystem. A literature review based mapping is done to identify and map the various stressors. A review of literature to historically map events has been done. Mapping is done in GIS platform and linkages of causes and impacts are studied. Detail study of one site is done. Land use land cover changes are studied by satellite imagery and topographical sheets.
The immediate goal of this Special Issue was the characterization of land uses and occupations (LULC) in watersheds and the assessment of impacts caused by anthropogenic activities. The goal was immediate because the ultimate purpose was to help bring disturbed watersheds to a better condition or a utopian sustainable status. The steps followed to attain this objective included publishing studies on the understanding of factors and variables that control hydrology and water quality changes in response to human activities. Following this first step, the Special Issue selected work that described adaption measures capable of improving the watershed condition (water availability and quality), namely LULC conversions (e.g., monocultures into agro-forestry systems). Concerning the LULC measures, however, efficacy was questioned unless supported by public programs that force consumers to participate in concomitant costs, because conversions may be viewed as an environmental service.
This volume reviews recent hydrological and environmental issues resulting from human-induced water pollution practices while providing case studies on the physical, chemical, and eco-biological techniques used to mitigate the impacts of river ecosystem pollution in South Asian countries. The book demonstrates the key methods of measurement, monitoring, mapping, and modeling of river water quality and how it is impacted by pollution and incorporates contemporary geospatial technological applications for the management and sustainability of future water resources. The major topics that the book addresses are the fundamental concepts of river ecosystem health, riverine ecology and habitats, risk assessment of riverine pollution, and technology-based river pollution control strategies. The book will serve as an interdisciplinary guide for researchers, students, and GIS specialists working in various disciplines, including pollution hazards, river ecosystem restoration, water quality, remote sensing, zoology, natural resources management, and environmental geography.
Large river systems throughout the planet have been dramatically transformed due to river control projects such as large dams and embankments. Unlike other major human impacts like anthropogenic climate change, the alteration of river systems has been deliberate and planned by a small, powerful set of experts. Taking India as a case study, this book examines the way experts transform the planet through their discourse by their advocacy of river projects. This book identifies the spatial aspects of the norms through which the ideal river and the deficient river in need of control are produced. The role of governmental rationality in explaining the seemingly irrational and counter-productive effects of large projects like Kosi river embankments is considered. Finally using autobiographical material, the subjectivity of expert advice is examined, questioning its presumed objectivity. By examining the different subjective stances arising from the same body of expertise, this book discusses the consequences this has for river control specifically and for the relation between expertise and environmental change in general.
The immediate goal of this Special Issue was the characterization of land uses and occupations (LULC) in watersheds and the assessment of impacts caused by anthropogenic activities. The goal was immediate because the ultimate purpose was to help bring disturbed watersheds to a better condition or a utopian sustainable status. The steps followed to attain this objective included publishing studies on the understanding of factors and variables that control hydrology and water quality changes in response to human activities. Following this first step, the Special Issue selected work that described adaption measures capable of improving the watershed condition (water availability and quality), namely LULC conversions (e.g., monocultures into agro-forestry systems). Concerning the LULC measures, however, efficacy was questioned unless supported by public programs that force consumers to participate in concomitant costs, because conversions may be viewed as an environmental service.
The Book entitled “Applied Environmental Sciences & Engineerings” is compiled on the basis of the materials gathered during experiences gained over 45 years in the field of EPC by TT of ASNWWW-HHS (Environmental Pollution Control by Testing & Treatment of Air/Stack/Noise/Water/Waste Water-Human Health & Sanitation), based on hunting countless related journals & the numerous books, which in turn, resulting from the illustration of Double Rs: Reasons & Remedies of globally Hot Topics Viz; global warming, climate change, Spread of Pandemic Covid-19.
Estuaries are among the most complex and complicated ecosystems in the biosphere because they are at the interface of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems. Estuaries and the lands surrounding them are places of transition from land to sea and from fresh to salt water. Although influenced by the tides, estuaries are protected from the full force of ocean waves, winds, and storms by the reefs, barrier island or fingers of land, mud or sand that define an estuary's seaward boundary. In India, estuaries have been a focal point of activities for human settlement, for development of port and harbors. The health status and the biological diversity of the Indian estuarine ecosystem are deteriorating day-by-day through man-made activities and dumping of enormous quantities of sewage and industrial effluent. Estuaries are ecologically very important because it provides vital habitats for thousands of marine species. They are "nurseries of the sea", as it is an ideal location for fish, shellfish, and other marine animals to reproduce in protected environment and availability of abundant food. Besides, estuaries are important for the health of the oceans as it can filter sediment and pollutants from the water before it flows into the oceans. Estuaries are vulnerable to excessive loading of nutrients by runoff containing fertilizer and other pollutants. In recent decades, population growth and related activities (agricultural practices, wastewater treatment plants, urban run-off, and the burning of fossil fuels) have increased nutrient inputs by many folds than the levels that occur naturally. The present book Eutrophic Status of Narmada and Tapi Tropical Estuaries of Gujarat, India point-out an intensive study at two major estuaries (Narmada, Tapi) of Gujarat, India. The authors have investigated hydrochemistry, geochemistry, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthic community, along with site-specific problems and their suggestions in both the estuarine environs. This book will certainly be a ready reference guide to the students, researchers, academicians, scientists, and riverine and marine authorities of Gujarat and India, to enrich their knowledge in cutting edge of research in the field of estuarine ecology, biodiversity, conservation, restoration, and management.
This book offers a unique collection of inter- and multidisciplinary studies on river systems. Rivers have been the prime source of sustenance since the advent of civilization and river systems often form the basis for agriculture, transport, water, and land for domestic, commercial, and industrial activities, fostering economic prosperity. A river basin is a basic geographical and climatological unit within which the vagaries of natural processes act and manifest themselves at different spatio-temporal scales. Even if compared side-by-side, no two river basins respond to natural processes in the same way and thus, it has long been recognized that each river basin is unique. Hence, any developmental activity or conservation effort has to be designed and implemented to match each unique river basin. With the burgeoning population and increasing dependency on natural resources, understanding and maintaining river systems has become increasingly important. This book provides a varied reference work on and unprecedented guidelines for conducting and implementing research on river basins, and for managing their ecological development.
The Mother Planet (Earth) is the only one in our solar system, characterized and shaped by abundant liquid; water - a necessity for life. Aquatic ecosystems are diverse habitats, endowed with physical, chemical, and geographical variations in the world, where the gradation from highly productive organisms to highly specialized organisms exists. Although water characterizes this planet, majority of it is saline in nature (97.2%) and contained in the world's ocean. Only 2.8% is fresh water, including 2.05% frozen in glaciers, 0.68% as groundwater, and only a tiny fraction (0.011%) of our water resources is contained in freshwater i.e. ponds, rivers and lakes. This water is available first in the form of surface water through rivers and lakes. The river is a prime example of lotic ecosystem. It is a wide, natural stream of fresh water that flows into an ocean, and is usually fed by smaller streams, called tributaries that enter it along its course. A river and its tributaries form a drainage basin or watershed that collects the run-off throughout the region and channels along with erosional sediments toward the river. Rivers are described by unidirectional flow, continuous state of physical change, high degree of spatial and temporal heterogeneity including biotic (aquatic plant, organisms and plankton) as well as abiotic (physical and chemical) interactions. There are 14 major rivers, 44 medium rivers and 53 small rivers in India. Major rivers have been proved to be the seat for the setup of big cities and their educational, political and regional developments. The Gujarat State is profusely endowed with a number of perennial rivers such as Narmada, Tapi, Mahi and Sabarmati. The book Pollution Studies of Sabarmati River and Kharicut Canal, Ahmedabad, Gujarat focuses on environmental, ecological, and biological studies of two rivers viz. Sabarmati (River Front) and Kharicut Canal (Industrial River), Central Gujarat, India, covering abiotic (hydrochemical characteristics, geochemical characters), nutrient budget, recycling of nutrients, biotic components (microbial analysis: Total Coliform, Faecal Coliform; phytoplankton, zooplankton), eutrophic status, and heavy metals in surface water and bottom sediment. The book also highlights an in-depth study of surface water and bottom sediment quality, diversity, density, abundance, commonness, rarity of plankton (phytoplankton, zooplankton) including qualitative and quantitative characters, diversity indices, population dynamics, and correlation between abiotic and biotic components. The book would indubitably be a standard reference guide for riverine conservationists, river managers, policy makers, and decision makers to prevent the unrestrained exploitation of stream biodiversity, destruction of potential riverine habitats, and uncontrolled interactions of man and technology with lotic ecosystems of the world.
