Geospatial technology was utilized in this study to specifically delineate groundwater potential zones. IRS-LISS III data in conjunction with Survey of India toposheet (1:50,000) and extensive field data were used for the preparation of various thematic maps. Various thematic maps have been prepared for geology, geomorphology, slope, relative relief, land use, drainage density, lineament density, transmissivity, storativity and water table fluctuation. Thematic maps have been integrated in GIS by assigning suitable rank and weightage to each parameter based on their respective significance. Integrated groundwater potential map is a genuine tool decidedly resourceful for sustainable groundwater development and management. The charisma of this innovative method is that, this model can be used in any other area to functionally demarcate groundwater potential zones, and hence will be of immense societal significance.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2013 to find out the effect of mulching and NPK levels on pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in bael (Aegle marmelos) based agri-horti system under rainfed condition of Vindhyan region. There were twelve treatment combinations comprised of three levels of mulching (no mulch, wheat straw mulch and dust mulch) and four levels of RDF NPK (50%, 75%, 100%, 125%). The experiment was laid out under split-plot design with three replications. Significant improvement was recorded in growth and yield attributes viz., plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of tillers per plant, dry matter accumulation per plant, number of ears per plant, ear length, number of grains per ear, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, stover yield, harvest index (%), nutrient uptake and economic returns. Significantly higher yield of pearl millet (1908 kg/ha) was observed in the plot that received 125% RDF, which was found at par with the 100% RDF and in case of mulching, the maximum yield was observed with dust mulch (1942 kg/ha) than all other treatments. The application of dust mulch and 125% of the recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) NPK (T12) treatment have distinct superiority as compared to all other treatments under bael based agri-horti system and more suitable for moisture conservation practice in pearl millet.

Cracks are the main cause for structural failure. One way to circumvent costly manual maintenance and repair is to incorporate an autonomous self-healing mechanism in concrete. This study exploited the potential to apply calcite-precipitating bacteria as a crack-healing agent in concrete. These bacteria were prepared in different cell concentrations and incorporated in the concrete mix. Compressive strength tests were performed at the stage of 28th day of curing. The effects of different cell concentrations of Bacillus sphaericus on concrete, reducing the crack, were studied. We used mortar cubes with 30mL of bacteria/mortar cube and sequentially increased up to 50mL (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50mL) in the ratio of mortar cubes in 1:6. The concrete grade used for the study was M25. At last, we had made concrete blocks of size 150×150×150 mm with concrete of grade M25. For those blocks, the compressive strength and non-destructive tests such as, rebound hammer and ultrasonic pulse velocity tests were performed. The results obtained in the work are that the compressive strength of blocks of size 150×150×150 mm is good when compared to control concrete. When load is applied to control concrete, the crack gets developed earlier and when bacterial concrete is used, the crack does not develop at an early stage.

The Yongding River is the mother river of Beijing. However, due to the environmental pollution caused by the economic development, the water and coastal environment of this river has suffered from great destruction. The ecological restoration of the Yongding River is imperative. In this paper, we analysed seven basic water quality indicators in Yongding River based on Information Entropy and found that the main factors for affecting water quality were ammonia and CODMn. Then the basic water quality indicators were predicted, based on Grey System GM(1,1) model and we concluded that turbidity and conductivity would grow fastest in the next 20 years. Finally, we made some reasonable ideas and methods in Yongding River ecological restoration.

Activated carbon has been prepared from sewage sludge of the municipal wastewater treatment plant using chemical activation method. Porous structure of activated carbon was characterized by nitrogen adsorption and scanning electron microscopy. It was also characterized by its surface area and porosity. Its surface is an irregular and porous structure. Then it was used as an adsorbent for the removal of nickel ions from aqueous solution. The effects of parameters such as contact time and initial nickel ion concentration were investigated. The adsorption kinetics of nickel ions in aqueous solution onto activated carbon was investigated through experimental data. The results showed that the adsorption process was perfectly fitted to the pseudo-second order model with very high regression coefficient. It may be evaluated as an environmental friendly and extra economic treatment of nickel ions in aqueous solution.

Based on the migration and transformation features of pollution sources in wide and shallow rivers, several monitoring points of water quality were set in the downstream to obtain a series of monitoring information. The changes of source intensity were, therefore, determined to present the problems in the inversion of instantaneous pollution sources during sudden pollution accidents. The research employs a differential evolution (DE) algorithm to inverse the location and number of emissions of pollutants discharged. The results show that the DE algorithm can accurately identify the sizes and locations of pollution sources and provide technical support for the identification of pollution sources. The research explored the impact of monitoring schemes on the accuracy of inversion results. It is of technical significance for manipulating and optimizing the emergency monitoring plans.

The Vansda National Park is situated in Navsari in South Gujarat. It has a unique identity because the Park falls on the northern-most limit of the Western Ghats, and is famous for the biodiversity of flora and fauna, especially for birds, such as Indian great black woodpecker, heart-spotted woodpecker, lesser golden backed woodpecker, grey hornbill, spotted munia, racket-tailed drongo and pheasanttailed jacana, etc., which have become extremely rare species, but are fairly common in the Dang’s forest. The majority of birds are observed during the winter followed by rainy and summer season. The area is inhabited by more than 99 different type of birds, out of these 28 are residential migratory or local migratory, 10 are migratory, 4 are water migratory and 57 are resident. Family Accipitridae was found as dominant containing maximum species (15) followed by Ardeidae (9), Phasianidae (7), and Anatidae, Dicaeidae, Muscicapidae, Rallidae and Sturnidae (4). About 50 per cent of all the species recorded have been insectivorous. Based on the frequency of occurrence and the numbers of different species encountered, it was found that a large number of bird species occur with a small population.

To ensure the safety of drinking water, understanding the trends of water quality in water resource and to provide a scientific basis for water quality management, a three-layer BP neural network is selected to simulate and predict six water quality indicators of the outbound of Dahuofang Reservoir. The six water quality indicators are dissolved oxygen, five days’ biochemical oxygen demand, permanganate index, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus. Training the model with water quality data from 2005 to 2011, Levenberg-Marguardt optimization algorithm is adopted to train samples. After reaching the error requirement, simulate the model with the water quality monitoring data in 2012 and test the model accuracy. Simulation results show that the accuracy of the model prediction is higher in 2012. It is proved that this model can be used to predict water quality of the outbound mouth in Fushun section, and the model provides a theoretical basis for improving the water quality of the reservoir area and can be used to guide the actual water quality management.

Using wheat and corn as the selected crops, this study aims to explore the effects of different ways to return biomass, on soil and crop yield with wheat and corn straw, and the biochar made by them as the material. The results exhibited that the different ways of returning biomass could significantly improve the soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) and the content of organic matter after the harvesting of two annual crops. The soil nutrient content showed a rising trend in general, and the effect was most significant when the biochar consumption was the most. The soil total nitrogen content in wheat and corn season significantly increased by 100% and 16.2% respectively compared with the control. The soil mineral nitrogen content and available P content in wheat season significantly increased by 0.9% and 217% respectively compared with the control. And the soil mineral nitrogen content, available P content and available K content in corn season significantly increased by 21.2%, 30% and 90% respectively compared with the control. The effects of direct straw application to soil was a bit poor, and it had no significant effect on crops yield, but it can promote plants to absorb nutrients, and the effect increased with the increase of biomass usage. The effect of sole biochar application is better than that of direct straw application.

The study aims to understand the distribution of groundwater quality in coastal regions from Injambakkam-Thiruvanmyiur areas, Chennai. Groundwater samples were collected from the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu. The objectives of the study are to determine the groundwater quality characteristics such as pH, alkalinity, electrical conductivity, chloride, hardness, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen and map the spatial distribution of groundwater quality in the study area by using open source software Quantum GIS (QGIS). The physico-chemical parameters and the quality of the water vary with space and thus mapping it with the GIS is an efficient way to draw conclusions about the study area. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation method was used to create various raster maps which show the spatial distribution. With the present study it is found that, most of the regions in the southern part of the study area have poor to very poor quality based on the Water Quality Index (WQI).