Naeem Ejaz

Investigation of temporal change in glacial extent of Chitral watershed using Landsat data

Glaciers are also known as solid reservoirs, and in this regard, Pakistan is a blessed country to have enriched glaciers. The change in glacial extent becomes very crucial for rivers whose discharges are associated with glacier melt. Even a little change in the glacial extent may bring a significant change in the resulting river flows. Considering climate change scenarios, many researchers have predicted future flows in such catchments. But in almost all such studies, the reduction in the glaciers is not normally based on any rational. Therefore, research is needed in order to estimate how glaciers are actually behaving under the change of temperature and precipitations to better estimate the future flows. For this purpose, Chitral watershed was considered as the study area. The seasonal change in the snow extent was estimated by using MODIS data for various years that helped to identify the month with minimum glacial extent. With the help of remote sensing, unsupervised classification was performed to estimate the glacier area in Chitral watershed. The results show a definite receding trend with respect to time in the glaciers of the region for the past decade.

Environmental impacts of improper solid waste management in developing countries: a case study of Rawalpindi City

Solid waste damps are seriously spoiling the environmental conditions in developing countries. Negative environmental impacts from improper solid waste dumping can be easily observed everywhere in the developing world. In Pakistan, due to a lack of proper planning and funding, the solid waste management scenario is becoming worse day by day. To highlight the main causes of improper solid waste management in developing countries, Rawalpindi city is selected as a case study. This city is facing miserable solid waste management crises due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and insufficient funding. Improper solid waste dumps are spreading different diseases in the study area. It is investigated during the research that due to rapid growth in population, increments in solid waste generation rate, management deficiencies, lack of legislative implementation and funding, the solid waste management systems of Rawalpindi are not working effectively. The major causes for the inefficient municipal solid waste management systems in Rawalpindi are the unintended invasion of the city, severe weather conditions, lack of social awareness/community involvement, improper resources including improper equipment and lack of funds. An inefficient municipal solid waste management system may create serious negative environmental impacts like infectious diseases, land and water pollution, obstruction of drains and loss of biodiversity.

Sustainable groundwater – a need of sustainable agriculture

Globally, irrigated agriculture is the largest extractor and the most frequent consumer of groundwater resources, with important groundwater-dependent and largely spread agro-economies. Quality of irrigation water is one of the key factors which have either direct or indirect impact on plant growth, soil and water management practices and plant yields. This work aims at highlighting the importance of periodic assessment of groundwater quality for irrigation, impact of different chemical parameters on plant yield and agriculture and water management practices needed in adverse irrigation water conditions. This study was conducted in semi-arid area where salinity and alkalinity are considered the main threats to the sustainable irrigation agriculture. Thirty representative samples were collected for chemical analyses from various sources of groundwater, within an area of 36 km 2 , lying in the north-east of the Lakki Marwat district Pakistan. The standard values suggested by WAPDA, FAO and USDA Handbook 60 were used as benchmark for comparison. The electrical conductivity and pH values together classify groundwater as saline-alkaline. It is revealed that none of the water samples has an adverse impact on the yield of barley, sorghum and wheat while 7% and 17% of this water respectively reduce the yield of corn and onion by 50%. Besides, 7% of this water reduces the yield of alfalfa by 25%. This work recommends management practices such as deep ploughing, provision of adequate drainage and crop rotation for improving the use of such water.

Withdrawn: Dissolved oxygen model for a river with extreme flow variations

This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to errors in the results. A dissolved oxygen (DO) model is calibrated under low and medium flow conditions, while verification of the model is done under low flow condition, for a heavily polluted river. The Soan River is located in Pakistan, with large flow variations. The biokinetic rate coefficients for nitrogenous biochemical oxygen demand and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD) are determined through ammonia river profiles and measured CBOD. A close agreement between the DO model results and the field values shows that the verified model can be used to develop DO management strategies for the Soan River. The biokinetic coefficient is known to vary with the degree of treatment (DOT) and needs to be adjusted for a rational water quality management model. The effect of this variation on the level of treatment has been evaluated by using the verified model to attain a DO standard of 4 mg/l in the river using the biokinetic rate coefficient. The r...

Performance Evaluation of Aquatic Macrophytes for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Municipal Sewage of Taxila was selected for evaluation and comparison of the performance of three aquatic macrophytes regarding sewage treatment. A bench scale laboratory model was developed and used for experimentation. Six experimental runs were conducted and each run laps over thirty (30) days. In each experimental run continuous monitoring of municipal sewage was done for each macrophyte specie. The aquatic macrophyte species used for the performance comparison were Water Hyacinth, Duckweed & Water Lettuce. For performance comparison four parameters including BOD 5 , COD, Nitrogen and Phosphorus were selected. These parameters were monitored for both the influent and effluent sewage samples. During the entire study, the average reduction of 51% for BOD 5 , 47% for COD, 19% for phosphorus, and 41% for nitrogen were found with water hyacinth. When the same sewage was treated with Duckweed the values came out to be 34% for BOD 5 , 27% for COD, 16% for phosphorus and 18% for nitrogen. Similar trend was observed in the experiments with Water Lettuce as 33 % for BOD 5 , 29% for COD, 11% for phosphorus and 15% for nitrogen. Sewage treatment in macrophyte based system included both the anaerobic & aerobic microbial processes. The treatment is further followed by chemical conversions, sedimentation & volatilization. The highest pollutant removals were observed for at temperature range of 15-38 o C and at pH variation between 6 and 9. In developing countries like Pakistan, where no importance is being given to municipal sewage treatment, the method found to be environmentally and financially sustainable.

EFFICIENT TREATMENT OF DAIRY EFFLUENT CONTAINING RICH NUTRIENTS USING UP-FLOW MULTILAYER BIO-REACTOR (UMBR)

Two pilot-scale biological nutrient removal systems having combination of up-flow multilayer bio-rector (UMBR), aeration tank (AT) and sedimentation tank (ST) were installed to check their treatment efficiency for replicated and dairy effluent. These systems were operated under five stages to achieve better results. Hydraulic retention time (HRT), inner recycle (IR), sludge recycle (SR) and organic loading rate (OLR) were systematically changed to optimize the operational conditions. System-I and system-II were operated for dairy and replicated effluent respectively for appropriate analysis. De-nitrification efficiency in up-flow multilayer bioreactor (UMBR) was observed significantly during the operation. It was observed that the involvement of UMBR improved the overall Total Chemical Oxygen Demand (TCOD), Soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand (SCOD). Nitrite-Nitrogen (NO3-N). Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), Nitrate Nitrogen (NH3-N) and Total Phosphorous (TP) removal efficiency as compared to other traditional biological treatment systems. Both systems showed practical treatment of replicated as well as dairy effluent. These systems were operated under different set of operational mode and collected results are discussed in term of treatment efficiency of different components. The overall treatment efficiency of the combined systems was also discussed.

DEVELOPMENT OF FLOOD DISCHARGE MODELS USING GIS

Hydrological command of waterway system has been altering beneath the crash of mutually environment disparity and human actions in the overall milieu. With the advent of technology it is now possible to modelthe complete resource allocation of any hydrological network duly integrating both natural and artificial networks. Advance applications allow an excellent automated system to monitor, control and manage water allocations to better utilize water resources, minimize wastage and predict hazards. The first step to all of this is to have accurate information of the catchment areas, so that in coordination with concerned departments, modeling and predictions of futuristic results is possible which will yield better decision making leading to fructifying outcome. Physical hydrologic models for drainage areas are significant utensils to hold water assets management and foresee diverse hydrologic contacts and risks. Indus River is considered as salvation of Pakistan and it is also the largest river of the country. The approximate length of the river is 3180 kilometers and its drainage area exceeds 1165000 km 2 . Having in view the worth of Indus River and its socio economic implication on Pakistan it was planned to carry out research work on upstream of Terbela from Kachura. The intended approaches of this work were to generate empirical equations based on hydrologic model on a particular reach of the river i.e. from Kachura to Tarbela reservoir and by utilizing Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing means. Also the watershed analysis of the upstream of Indus river basin was performed, thus fashioning an essential tool for running and setting up of water resources for state.