Rajib Sinha

Land use change analysis of Bharatpur district using GIS

Knowledge on area and distribution of land uses plays an important role in district planning. An attempt has been made here to study existing land use pattern and changes in the land use pattern of Bharatpur district. Multi-date remote sensing data (1986 and 1989) has been used for the purpose. Seventeen land use maps on 1∶50,000 scale were prepared. ARC/INFO GIS package has been employed for the land use analysis. GIS package has also been used to relate the land use information to the villages and arrive at tentative comparison of land use as is reported in Census and as obtained from the remote sensing. Major findings in land use pattern of Bharatpur district are a) that the land use pattern in Bharatpur district is not similar to that of general land use pattern prevalent in Rajasthan State as a whole, b) Agriculture is the predominant user of land occupying about 75 percent of the reporting area, c) Forest cover in the district is not very significant and it has been depleted from 5.6 percent to 3.1 percent, d) the area under pastures and tree crops is also negligible and e) Area under waste land (eroded land, undulating terrain with or without scrub and rock out crops has been increased from 6.34 percent to 7.89 percent. The area under salt affected land, sandy area and water logged area has been decreased from 6.83 percent to 2.09 percent.

Progress and challenges to the global waste management system

Rapid economic growth, urbanization and increasing population have caused (materially intensive) resource consumption to increase, and consequently the release of large amounts of waste to the environment. From a global perspective, current waste and resource management lacks a holistic approach covering the whole chain of product design, raw material extraction, production, consumption, recycling and waste management. In this article, progress and different sustainability challenges facing the global waste management system are presented and discussed. The study leads to the conclusion that the current, rather isolated efforts, in different systems for waste management, waste reduction and resource management are indeed not sufficient in a long term sustainability perspective. In the future, to manage resources and wastes sustainably, waste management requires a more systems-oriented approach that addresses the root causes for the problems. A specific issue to address is the development of improved feedback information (statistics) on how waste generation is linked to consumption.

Copper content in lake sediments as a tracer of urban emissions: evaluation through a source-transport-storage model.

A coupled source-transport-storage model was developed to determine the origin and path of copper from materials/goods in use in the urban drainage area and the fate of copper in local recipient lakes. The model was applied and tested using five small lakes in Stockholm, Sweden. In the case of the polluted lakes Råcksta Träsk, Trekanten and Långsjön, the source strengths of copper identified by the model were found to be well linked with independently observed copper contents in the lake sediments through the model. The model results also showed that traffic emissions, especially from brake linings, dominated the total load in all five cases. Sequential sedimentation and burial proved to be the most important fate processes of copper in all lakes, except Råcksta Träsk, where outflow dominated. The model indicated that the sediment copper content can be used as a tracer of the urban diffuse copper source strength, but that the response to changes in source strength is fairly slow (decades). Major uncertainties in the source model were related to management of stormwater in the urban area, the rate of wear of brake linings and weathering of copper roofs. The uncertainty of the coupled model is in addition affected mainly by parameters quantifying the sedimentation and bury processes, such as particulate fraction, settling velocity of particles, and sedimentation rate. As a demonstration example, we used the model to predict the response of the sediment copper level to a decrease in the copper load from the urban catchment in one of the case study lakes.

Modeling both direct and indirect environmental load of purchase decisions

Consumer awareness is continuously increasing towards pro-environmental behavior. Thus, we developed a web-based environmental feedback tool EcoRunner, which is designed for Swedish households aiming at increasing the awareness in a more pro-environmental direction. The conceptual model of EcoRunner has been developed based on top-down and bottom-up approaches connecting economic activities within a household to environmental pressures (both direct and indirect). In addition, the development of the tool includes a multi-level model aiming at better tailor-made advice to consumers. In this paper, we examine the EcoRunner tool with average single Swedish household expenditures as well as explore options for reductions and systems effects. Analysis shows that food and non-alcoholic beverages, fuel for personal transport (e.g. car) and air transports have significant environmental pressures. In addition, this study suggests that EcoRunner could be used in education systems as an environmental feedback tool to enlighten consumers motivation and change consumption patterns. Display Omitted We developed a web-based environmental feedback tool aiming at increasing awareness in a more pro-environmental direction.The tool is based on top-down and bottom-up approaches to address household metabolism with environmental pressures.It offers unique possibility to get simultaneous follow-up of economic spendings and environmental pressure of a household.The tool could be used in education systems as an environmental feedback tool.