eChapters

8.1. Documented ITKs on Moisture Conservation

The ITKs were documented under following specific categories

• Agronomic Measures
• Tillage
• Bunding & Terracing (Mech. & Vegetative barrier)
• Land Configuration
• Soil Amendment / Mulching
• Erosion Control & Runoff Diversion Structures
• Water Harvesting, Seepage Control & Ground Water Recharge

15.1. IFS Components Tested for Wetlands

Area Allocation;

In 1 ha of land

75 % - Cropping

10 % - Fodder cultivation

3 % - Goat shed

12 % - Fish pond

Possible Integrations:

Water vapour changes to the liquid water through condensation process. Condensation is the direct cause of the various forms of precipitation. It occurs as a result of changes in air volume, temperature, pressure or humidity. Water vapour can also be converted directly into the solid form through a process called sublimation. The latent heat expended in evaporation is liberated in the process of condensation. Four mechanisms may lead to condensation.

Summary

The main greenhouse gases (GHGs) that have caused the global climate change or global warming are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). CO₂ is the principal anthropogenic GHG that affects the earth’s radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other GHGs are measured and therefore has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1. CH₄ and N₂O have a GWP of 21 and 310, respectively. CO₂ is responsible for most of the enhanced greenhouse effect of more than 50%, CH₄ for about 10-15% and N₂O for about 8%. The global atmospheric concentrations of CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O have increased since 1750. While CO₂ increased from a pre-industrial value of 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005, CH₄ increased from 715 ppb to 1774 ppb and N₂O increased from 270 ppb to 319 ppb during the same period. Rich countries and large developing countries account for most of global CO₂ emissions (China 23.5%, USA 18.27%, India 5.83%, Russia 5.72%, Japan 4.04% and European Union 13.98%). A new climate agreement called ‘Warsaw International mechanisms (November 2013) on loss and damage’ agreed to help the poor countries to cope with loss and damage from heatwaves, droughts, floods, typhoons, desertification and rising sea levels. The Warsaw agreement also includes a set of decisions to help developing countries to reduce GHG emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests which is backed by pledges of US$280 million financing by the United States, Norway and the United Kingdom. Projections for global average temperature rise is in the range of 1.1-6.4°C; a doubling of CO₂ (from pre-industrial 280 ppm) and average sea level rise is in the range of 0.18-0.59 m (Meehel et al. 2007) and 0.5–2.4 m (Brown et al. 2013). Hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent. Projected data show that there is an increasing global trend in the rise of average temperature in all countries, regions or sub-zones; a decreasing trend in average precipitation in most sub-tropical areas and an increasing trend of precipitation in most of the tropical and high latitudes.

Summary

Climate change (floods, droughts, rise of temperature and sea level) can directly impact the incidence of water related diseases through effects on water temperature and precipitation frequency and intensity. This chapter focuses on some common water quality related diseases that may enhance due to climate change such as arsenicosis, cholera, cyanobacterial toxins, dengue, diarrhoea and malaria. Arsenicosis is the disease caused by arsenic (As) contamination. As poisoning via groundwater has become a worldwide problem with 21 countries experiencing As groundwater contamination including Bangladesh, India, and China. In Bangladesh, out of 64 districts, As levels in 60 districts have exceeded WHO recommended guidelines of 10 µg/L and in 51 districts it exceeded Bangladesh recommended guidelines of above 50 µg/L. Chronic exposure to As has been linked to carcinogenic effects in both humans and animals. These include cancer of the various skins and internal organs (lung, bladder, liver and kidney) and reproductive and developmental effects; cardiovascular disease; reduced intellectual function in children and mortality. Alternate floods and droughts (due to climate change) have been found associated with the release of As and contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh, therefore may increase the risks of the disease due to rise of extreme events such as floods and droughts. Cholera is a diarrhoeal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. In 2012, WHO reported 245, 3931 cases of cholera in 48 countries, with more than 3,034 deaths with a case-fatality rate (CFR) of 1.2%. The highest cases were from Africa, followed by Latin America and Asia. The epidemic of cholera is reported to be linked strongly with climate change. Changes in temperature, salinity, rainfall and abundance of phytoplankton have been shown to cause an impact on distribution and survival of V. cholerae. In Bangladesh, cholera (cholera-toxin producing strain of V. cholerae) outbreaks are related to plankton blooms and rise of sea temperature.

Abstract

The anomalies observed in the reverine systems have been demonstrated to be the potential tool in deciphering the tectonically active zones. Such various drainage anomalies viz: radial drainages, anomalous compressed meanders, eyed drainage and the youthful floodplains observed in Annamali – Palani - Varushanad hill ranges of the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu show that the N-S and NE-SW trending faults are tectonically active in the recent years.

Abstract

The Remote Sensing and the followed up field based investigations show that the Tamil Nadu coast, India, is facing series of geoenvironmental problems due to tectonic movements and morphodynamic processes. Such problems pose a challenge to the engineering geologists. The paper discusses such challenging engineering geological problems and plausible remedial measures.

Introduction

Spatial variation structure of soil properties is a key input for digital soil mapping and generally determined through geostatistical techniques (Webster and Oliver 2007). In geostatistics, spatial variation is expressed by semivariogram ?(h) , which measures the average dissimilarity between data separated by a vector h. It is generally computed as half of the average squared difference between the components of data pairs:

Summary

Climate change can affect the quantitative and qualitative status of water resources by altering hydrological cycles, systems and through changes of water quality via chemical and biological contamination. Changes in these variables lead to impacts on all the socio-economic and environmental goods and services that depend on these variables directly or indirectly including water supply, damage to ecosystems, water dependent food production. The most dominant climate drivers for water quantity or water availability are precipitation, run-off and river flows, floods, droughts, snows, glaciers, sea level rise etc. The observed climate change related impacts on world’s water resources/water quantity include increased precipitation at high latitudes and temperate areas and decreasing trends at low latitudes. The annual run-off in some regions may experience increased run-off, such as in high latitudes and large parts of the USA, whereas there has been a decrease in run-off such as parts of West Africa, southern Europe and southernmost of South America. Floods have been the most reported natural disaster events in Africa, Asia and Europe than all other natural disasters and in case of Bangladesh, six extreme floods have occurred in the last two decades. More intense droughts have been reported from Australia, semi-arid and semi-humid regions, western USA and southern Canada, the Sahel. Precipitation is projected to increase at mid- and high latitudes, in the tropics, whereas precipitation is projected to decrease over many sub-tropical areas (North Africa, northern Sahara), tropical Central American (Caribbean) and the Mediterranean. In areas where evaporation rates are expected to increase it would lead to reduced river and stream run-off. In contrast, areas receiving higher precipitation would likely have higher lake and river levels and may experience floods. The annual stream flow in the Murray-Darling basin (Australia) is projected to fall by 10-25% by 2050 and 16-48% by 2100 which would have severe consequences on irrigated agriculture in the region. Rivers depending on the Himalayan glaciers such as the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Syr Darya and Amu Darya could face water shortages or river run-off due to retreat of glaciers, and this would cause dramatic impact on drinking water supplies, biodiversity, hydropower, industry, agriculture and ecosystems on which about 2.4 billion people in Asia depends. Globally, ground water is the source of one third of all freshwater withdrawals, supplying an estimated 36%, 42% and 27% of the water used for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes, respectively. The demand for groundwater is likely to increase due to global increase of water use for irrigation and a decline in surface water quality and reduced summer flows in snow-dominated basins. It is projected that climate change (drought, floods) will affect groundwater recharge rates (e.g. floods would increase recharge, drought would decrease recharge).

Summary

Biodiversity (the variety of living things) is fundamental to ecosystem structures and functions, and provide the broad spectrum of goods and services that humans derive from natural systems such as food (e.g. fish), protection from disasters such as cyclones, storms, floods (e.g. mangroves) or maintenance of water quality. Species (biodiversity) respond to climate change either staying or moving out or dying out. For example, the rise of temperature as a consequence of climate change may cause some species to (a) stay in the same environment since they can tolerate to adapt to changes; or (b) may cause some species to move out in a suitable environment (e.g. some species to move pole ward, some up in elevation) or (c) some species (fish) to go deep to increased depths in the oceans to escape heat or warming or (d) may cause some species to die out or get extinct (species with restricted distribution, longer generation time will not be able to migrate or adapt to climate change). A pattern of range shifts such as pole wards and upwards has been documented in hundreds of species of plants and animals and is one of the strongest signals of biotic changes from global warming. These shifts result from two processes: cold-edge expansion and warm-edge contraction. There is now abundant evidence for local extinctions from contractions at the warm edges of species’ ranges or warm edge contraction because the species may have already reached the limits of their climatic tolerance. Investigations conducted reveals that many terrestrial and aquatic species are shifting their geographic ranges in response to rapid changes in temperature and precipitation regimes. For example, many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in response to changing climate. It has been estimated that plants and animals have recently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 m per decade, and to higher latitudes at a median rate of 16.9 km per decade.

Summary

Water security can be defined as reliable availability of water in sufficient quantity and quality to sustain human health, livelihoods, food (agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture) and the environment (biodiversity and ecosystems). Discharge of chemical and biological pollutants (from agriculture, industry and domestic uses) into rivers and development of engineering infrastructure such as dams and weirs over rivers have modified river ecosystems threatening the global water security, water quality and water dependent biodiversity. Climate change (increase in the intensity and frequency of floods, droughts, bushfire and sea-level rise, ocean acidification, etc.) is an additional stress on water security. There is a need to reduce climate change impacts on water security which can be done via adaptations to climate change. Adaptation is adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. In other words, the adaptation can be considered as, tackling the effects of climate change. Adaptation to climate change in terms of sustainable use of water may include increasing water availability by developing hydro-basins and transferring water from areas in which it is abundant to areas in which there is scarcity, the reduction of water losses, increasing storage capacity by building reservoirs and dams, rainwater harvesting, improvement of water use efficiency, desalination of seawater, water savings (leakage management, metering, retrofitting existing homes with water efficient products in toilets, showers, baths, using energy efficient dishwashers and washing machines), mandatory rainwater tanks in new and old buildings (for toilet flushing, washing clothes, gardens, car washing), use of recycled or reclaimed water for landscape irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers, and to meet commercial and industrial water needs.

Effect of Air Pollutants on Plants
 
Elements of those air pollutants which accumulate in plants (S from SO2, heavy metals from anthropogenic emissions etc.) may be used for specific bio-indication of possible effects caused by these pollutants, and for mapping their spatial and temporal distribution. Measuring accumulated components in plants rather than directly in the environment, provides the dual advantages of an integrated rather than a momentary value, and of a biological content rather than a mere concentration (Stocker and Gluch, 1990).

The response of plants to air pollution can be understood by analyzing the physiological and biochemical parameters of plants.

Physiological Parameters

The epidermal cells are the first to interact with the air pollutants and also lack chloroplast. Epidermal cells hence cannot remove excess sulphur through the production and release of H2S. Damage to plants by air pollutants depends upon the amount of pollutants entering the cells and their reactivity with cellular constituents. Plants regulate the entry of gaseous molecules through stomatal movement thereby affecting the photosynthesis and transpiration. Response of plants to gaseous pollutants varies from species to species. This is due to differences in the stomatal conductance, aperture size and permeability of plasma membrane (Yunus et al., 1996).

Atmosphere serves as the medium through which pollutants are transported and dispersed. While being transported, the pollutants undergo chemical reactions, which may be lethal or scavenged by chemical or physical process/method. But it all exclusively depends upon the meteorological conditions (Lee et .al, 1994). Historic air pollution episodes reveal that atmospheric conditions influence the pollutant concentrations as well as their toxicity (Goldsmith & Friberg, 1976; Wichmann et.al, 1989 and Pope et.al, 1992). However, the location, duration of release, height as well as the pollutant concentrations are also important, which effect the secondary pollutant transformation under the influence of meteorological conditions, but the atmospheric behavior is independent of their sources (Holzworth, 1974).

Through the sharing of experience of developed countries, which faced the massive health problem due to vehicular pollution in the past and remedial measures adopted by them, it is needed to avoid mistakes made in the past and instead introduce effective measures for the future to reduce or confine the damage that has already been incurred. A progressive policy of motor vehicle emission control strategy, which may be more feasible/affordable, has to be adopted for solving immediate air pollution problems. Uncontrolled growth of vehicular fleet and its emission is taking place in the urban areas, which must be controlled/regulated in order to prevent future disaster. Because of economic development and speed of motorization expected over next decades this problem will become more vulnerable and even greater, If control measure are not adopted timely. It is suggested that planning must begin to provide alternatives to the motor vehicles and to reduce emission of the vehicles. The country without high capital resources will face challenging problems for evolving control strategy that will be acceptable both economically and socially.

Urban Air Pollution and Its Impact on Roadside Plants
Urban Air Pollution

Modern industrial society produces a large number of gases and particles in quantities to harm human, plant or animal life. The amount of pollutants released to the atmosphere by fixed or mobile anthropogenic sources is generally associated with the levels of economic activity. Deterioration of air quality is a major environmental problem in many urban centers in both developed and developing countries. Automobiles constitute a major source of air pollution in the urban areas. Motor vehicle emissions result from fuel combustion or evaporation. The most common types of transport fuel are gasoline and diesel. CO₂ and water vapors are the main products of the combustion, emitted in vehicle exhaust. The major pollutants emitted from the vehicles are particulate matter (suspended fine and ultra fine), sulphur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and metals.

Air

Estimation of Total Suspended Particulate Matter (TSPM) and Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM)

Requirements
Instrument

High Volume Sampler (HVS) APM 415-411 (Envirotech Instrument India), Respirable Dust Sampler (RDS) APM 451 (Envirotech Instrument India) with midget impinger containing absorbing solution were used.

Climate Change has emerged as one of the most serious environmental concerns of recent times. The most imminent climate change is increase in atmospheric temperature due to increased levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and hydrochlorofluoro carbons (HCFCs). Because of increasing concentrations of the greenhouse gases in atmosphere, there is much concern about future changes in the climate system viz., Atmosphere, Lithosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Cryosphere. Direct or indirect effects on the society linked sectors like water, forestry, agriculture, animal agriculture, fisheries, land and marine biodiversity and health due to climate change/variability are many-fold and economic impact of climate change is enormous. The recurrent drought and desertification threaten seriously the livelihood of over 1.2 billion people who depend on land for most of their needs.

Food security is one of the most important issues during this century under the projected climate change scenario. The world is facing severe food crisis due to weather vagaries as a part of global warming and climate change. One sixth of world’s population is under starvation. It is estimated that 300 million people in the world do not get food three times a day. About 18,000 children die every day due to malnutrition. Many Asian-African countries are under severe food crisis. It is also estimated that out of the World’s most hungry people, 29 per cent is in India. 47 per cent of children below three years of age are suffering from malnutrition problem. 75 per cent of world’s population is dependant on agricultural activities for their livelihood. Therefore, there is an urgent need to produce more and more foodgrains at the global as well as national levels to meet the food requirement of growing population under the projected climate change scenario. There has been a major decline in world rice production since late 2007 due to various reasons including global warming and climate change in top rice producing countries. Deficit monsoon over India during 2009 resulted to poor foodgrains production including rice as the area under rice cultivation was less. There were also devastating floods in southern States of India viz., Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Andhra Pradesh, one of the major rice producing states of India, was affected first by drought and then by floods. Thus rice production decline in India was a real set back in 2009. Similar was the case in 2010 due to excess rain during monsoon and floods during NE monsoon across the rice growing regions. At the same time, Philippines got hit by two major typhoons in September-October, 2009 causing damage to rice crop on ground. Approximately one million tonnes of rice in storage also got damaged. These events resulted to low world rice production over the country in 2009. The immediate impacts of global warming and climate change on rice production systems and food security will be felt in the form of adverse effects of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat and cold waves, hailstorms and cyclones on rice production. Less immediate but significant impacts are anticipated due to changes in mean temperatures, increasing weather extremes and sea level rising.

India is the seventh largest country in the world with 17 per cent of the world’s population and with a total geographical area of 329 Mha, extending from 8°4’ to 37°6’ in the North and 68°7’ to 97°25’ in the East. It is bounded by the World’s highest mountains- the Himalayas in the North and surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the South. The Indian Coastline along the southern part of the Country is over 7500 km long. The Country includes vast plains like the Indo-Gangetic Plains, and the Central Deccan Plateau, bordered by the Western Ghats on either side in the West and the South. The biodiversity in the terrain leads to a wide variety of climatic conditions, ranging from tropical to temperate climates across the Western Ghats. These range from permanent snowfields to tropical coastlands; areas of virtual desert in the northwest to fertile intensively cultivated rice fields in the northeast. A large proportion of India’s population continues to live in rural areas and depends heavily on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, animal agriculture and forestry for its livelihood. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy. The Indian climate is dominated by the great wind system called the Monsoons, on which the Indian agriculture is dependant. The southwest monsoon is critical to the kharif crop (first crop), which accounts for more than 50% of the foodgrains production and 65% of the oilseeds production in the Country. The inter-annual monsoon rainfall variability in India leads to large-scale droughts and floods, resulting in a major effect on Indian foodgrain production (Parthasarathy and Pant, 1985; Parthasarathy et al., 1992; Selvaraju, 2003; Kumar et al., 2004) and on the economy of the Country (Gadgil et al., 1999a; Kumar and Parikh, 2001). Climatic variability and occurrence of extreme events are major concerns for the Indian subcontinent as they are inbuilt features under the projected climate change scenario. All the projections on climate change are based up on the General Circulation Models (GCMs). All the models project increase in temperature over the Country under different GHG emission scenarios. Rainfall variability is felt in different sub-meteorological divisions across the Country. Though the GCMs have been successful in depicting the gross features of the observed large scale climatological features, there is large uncertainty associated with these projections on regional scale, since the GCMs are yet to realistically reproduce the observed features at regional scale, particularly over the monsoon region (Kumar, et al., 2002). Several downscaling approaches are being used to derive the regional features from large scale model simulations. Under the projected climate change scenario, India will be one of the Countries facing the adverse impacts of climate change as agriculture is the mainstay of people of India. Hence, understanding of rainfall and temperature variability across the Country deserves attention in the projected climate change scenario.