Arvind Chandra Pandey

Delineation of groundwater potential zone in hard rock terrain of India using remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) techniques

The present study has been undertaken to delineate the groundwater potential zones in the hard rock terrain of Palamu district, Jharkhand using the advanced applications of remote sensing, geographical information systems and analytic hierarchy process techniques. The integration and analyses of various thematic databases viz., geomorphology, lithology, soil, slope, lineament density, weathered zone thickness, drainage density and rainfall proved useful in the delineation of GWP zones. The study indicates that only 136 km2 of the study area exhibit excellent groundwater potential, 248 km2 has very good groundwater potential, whereas 36.89 and 38.23% are under poor and very poor groundwater potential zones, respectively. Hence, only a total of 11.6% of the area (490 km2) is classified as high to excellent groundwater potential. The final groundwater prospect map obtained was classified as excellent potential, very good potential, good potential, moderate potential, poor potential and very poor potential zone.

Evaluation of urban sprawl pattern in the tribal-dominated cities of Jharkhand state, India

The patterns of urban sprawl over a 20-year period presented in the study indicate unplanned development in the urban agglomerations of Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. The visual interpretation of Landsat (1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001) and IRS-P6 (2005) was used to map land use/land cover and analyse urban sprawl. The saturation of urban areas within municipal limits, along with pressure from the growing population, resulted in the densification of the core urban areas within Dhanbad and Jamshedpur. Comparatively, Ranchi exhibited a very high rate of built-up growth with a reducing population density, indicating a low density of built-up development. The development of built-up land at the expense of agricultural land in Ranchi Urban Agglomeration indicates poor land-transformation practices. An area of 103.6 km2 (165.66% growth) was transformed to built-up land in these cities during 1986–2005. Any future built-up development of these agglomerations should involve the use of the government city development plan.

Use of Satellite Data, GIS and RUSLE for Estimation of Average Annual Soil Loss in Daltonganj Watershed of Jharkhand (India)

The present study demonstrated the utility of high resolution LISS IV satellite data for accurate mapping of landuse landcover which forms an important component while computing the land cover and management factor and erosion control practice factor for soil loss estimation using RUSLE model. The Cartosat-I DEM was used for computing the flow accumulation and the slope length (LS) factor with adequate precision. The results showed that the Daltonganj watershed has an average annual soil loss upto 69 tons ha -1 yr -1 . The maximum area contributing to soil erosion was from agricultural lands where the slope is less than 5˚ and having soil loss upto 10 tons ha -1 yr -1 however the maximum rate of soil erosion was observed near the upper catchment near the 6 th order river channel and over the hilly region with annual average soil erosion between 26 and 30 tons ha -1 yr -1 .

Built-up and vegetation extraction and density mapping using WorldView-II

This study demonstrates the use of high resolution WorldView-II satellite data in extraction of built-up land and vegetation using normalized index techniques. The PCA 1 and NIR 2 bands-based built-up index was proposed for extracting built-up land, which exhibit high accuracy. The normalized difference vegetation index based on Red Edge and NIR 2 bands of WorldView-II produced high accuracy inthe estimation of vegetation compared to the use of Red and NIR bands. The grid technique used in estimating built-up and vegetation density from precisely classified images provided better and accurate assessment of built-up and vegetation density in heterogeneous landscape of urban areas. This shows areas of very high to high built-up density are located in the central, western and southern parts, which are primarily devoid of vegetation. This study indicates possibilities of utilizing high resolution satellite data in urban landscape characterization using a grid-based technique.

Analysing the impact of anthropogenic activities on waterlogging dynamics in Indo-Gangetic Plains, northern Bihar, India

Historical to recent spatial variability in surface waterlogging was evaluated using a topographical map of 1925 and satellite images of 1975, 1988, 1999 and 2006. A visual satellite image interpretation technique was used to delineate waterlogged areas and associated infrastructure details. Areas of 31, 73.89, 163.86, 143.61 and 102.59 km2 were found to be affected by surface waterlogging during 1925, 1975, 1988, 1999 and 2006, respectively. A sharp increase in waterlogging from 1925 to 1975 is attributed to the functioning of irrigation projects in the region. The very high areas under waterlogging during 1988 and 1999 reflect intensification of agricultural activity. A substantial decrease in waterlogging during 2006 is attributed to the implementation of government wasteland reclamation measures. The area statistics of waterlogging computed for the buffer zone along select features showed that the maximum waterlogging occurs along canals and railways followed by rivers and the least along roads.

Spatio-temporal assessment of urban environmental conditions in Ranchi Township, India using remote sensing and Geographical Information System techniques

The present study investigates the status of the urban environment in Ranchi, a rapidly growing city in the eastern part of India. The various environmental indicators viz., ambient air quality, aerosol concentration, ambient noise level and urban green space were analysed in a spatio-temporal framework by employing geoinformatics. The ambient air quality measurement indicates a high concentration of Suspended Particulate Matter (>300 μ g/m3) and Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (>200 μ g/m3), as well as low level concentrations of sulphur dioxide (<60 μ g/m3) and nitrogen dioxide (<60 μ g/m3) in Ranchi Township. The concentration of ambient air pollutants was significantly higher in Ranchi as compared to other major urban centres of Jharkhand. The spatial distribution of aerosol optical depth (AOD) indicated variation with high concentrations at transportation junctions (0.30–0.35% at 340 nm) and road junctions (>0.30% at 340 nm), and low concentrations (<0.22% at 340 nm) at planned residential areas. The AOD concentration in Ranchi was lower (<0.35% at 340 nm) compared to the Patratu coal mining-cum-industrial region (>0.8% at 340 nm). The majority of the locations in Ranchi exhibited ambient noise levels above the prescribed limits with an increasing trend from 2005 to 2010. The core urban area was the noisier one (>65 dB(A)) when compared to the peripheral areas in the city. The spatial assessment of urban green space derived from WorldView-II satellite data indicated the existence of adequate green spaces (12.7%) within Ranchi Township, although urban cores are largely devoid of green space due to dense built-up land. The study exhibited that vegetation significantly contributes in noise attenuation and a reduction in aerosol concentration.

Mapping of debris-covered glaciers in parts of the Greater Himalaya Range, Ladakh, western Himalaya, using remote sensing and GIS

Abstract Glacier inventories based on visual interpretation and manual delineation of glacier boundaries are time consuming. Supraglacial debris (debris accumulated on glacier terrain) of Himalayan glaciers creates difficulty with automated glacier mapping when using satellite images. In the present study, a combination of band ratio using the TM image and slope parameter was proven to be useful for delineating glaciers’ debris-covered areas. Compared to original TM bands, supervised classification using a combination of principal components two, three, and six of debris and nonglacierized areas facilitated identification of various types of supraglacial debris. Use of principal components four, three, and two of snow- and ice-covered areas as input bands for supervised classification was helpful in classifying different types of snow and ice. Results corresponded well with manually delineated glacier outlines and field observations. Error matrix revealed that the accuracy of classification of the snow- and ice-covered parts of glaciers was 86.29%. Although manual editing was required to differentiate supraglacial debris from periglacial debris (debris outside the glacier boundary), the approach using the ability of morphometric parameter combined with band ratio for delineation of debris-covered parts of glaciers and supervised classification with principal component analysis for mapping of supraglacial covers is observed to be faster than manual delineation.

Assessment of pollution level in a Himalayan Lake, Kashmir, using geomatics approach

Pollution indices aggregate concentrations of several water quality parameters into a single quantity to indicate the general status of pollution in a region. In this study, a variant of the previous water quality index was used to evaluate the pollution status in the Wular Lake, Kashmir, which is a Ramsar site and wetland of international importance. The index termed as water quality status index (WQSI) is considered as a simple pollution indicator to support management actions in the Wular Lake, Kashmir. WQSI is a valuable and unique rating to depict the overall water quality status and pollution level of the waterbody in a spatial context and is also capable of dealing with those water quality parameters which do not have well-developed standard values. In this study, the water quality of the Wular Lake was investigated in June 2013 for 21 sample locations. The index used in this work is composed of 13 measurable physico-chemical parameters – pH, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, alkalinity, hardness, chloride, total dissolved solids, ammonia, iron, nitrite, nitrate and fluoride. The generation of WQSI is based on weighted overlay technique, in which interpolated raster maps were generated for all the 13 water quality parameters and weights are assigned to each and every parameter using analytic hierarchy process technique, considering their status as benefit or cost criteria. Based on the value of WQSI, the whole lake was divided into five zones, comprising least polluted zone (23%), moderately polluted zone (20%), high polluted zone (30%), very high polluted zone (22%) and extremely polluted zone (5%). From this study, it has been found that 60 km2 (77%) of total lake area constitutes the moderate to extremely polluted zone and only 18 km2 (23%) of the total lake area constitutes the least polluted zone, which is in the north-west region of the lake. The study reveals that the world-famous Wular Lake is undergoing the eutrophication process and as a result of which the lake is losing its water holding capacity to deal with the disastrous flood problem in Kashmir region.

Use of high-resolution satellite data, GIS and NRCS-CN technique for the estimation of rainfall-induced run-off in small catchment of Jharkhand India

The present study demonstrates the use of NRCS-CN technique for rainfall-induced run-off estimation using high-resolution satellite data for small watershed of Palamu district, Jharkhand. The CN model was applied to the daily rainfall data of 15 years (1986–2000) along with use of large-scale thematic maps (1:10,000) pertaining to land use/land cover using IRS-P6 LISS-IV satellite data. The LU/LC map was spatially intersected with the hydrological soil group map to calculate the watershed area under different hydrological similar units for assigning CN values to compute discharge. The study showed that Daltonganj watershed exhibits an average run-off volume of 7,881,019 m3 from an average cumulative monsoon rainfall of 821 mm and the average actual direct run-off generated during the southwest monsoon season was 203 mm. The strong correlation between rainfall and run-off as well as between observed run-off and estimated run-off indicated high accuracy of run-off estimation by NRCS-CN technique.

Assessment of surface and subsurface waterlogging, water level fluctuations, and lithological variations for evaluating groundwater resources in Ganga Plains

Abstract In the present study, the multi-temporal satellite images of IRS P6 LISS III were used to map waterlogging dynamics over different seasons. An area of 594.36 km2 (6.75%) and 4.17 km2 (0.04%) was affected by surface waterlogging during pre and postmonsoon season, respectively. The average annual groundwater level fluctuations were calculated using 18 years (1990–2007) pre and postmonsoon groundwater level data to identify the areas which are under groundwater induced waterlogging conditions. The soil map clearly indicates that salinity and sodicity exhibit the highest severity and occur in areas with shallow groundwater levels. The hydrogeomorphical units mapped using IRS P6 LISS III satellite images are flood plain, alluvial plain, paleochannels, and oxbow lakes. The study revealed that 44.65% areas have very good to excellent groundwater resources. The litholog data clearly indicate an alternating sequence of clay and sand in which deep aquifers made up of coarse sand would be best suited for adequate water supply and good groundwater quality. The integrated study utilizing digital spatial data pertaining to waterlogging, soil salinity, water level fluctuation, and lithological variation proved that planning of any surface and subsurface water resources development activity should be taken up after assessments of said parameters.