scholarly journals On the water hazards in the trans-boundary Kosi River basin

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 795-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Sh. Chen ◽  
G. Sh. Hu ◽  
W. Deng ◽  
N. Khanal ◽  
Y. H. Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Debris Flows ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Site Investigation ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Landslides And Debris Flows ◽  
Water Hazards ◽  
The Ganges ◽  
Basin Area

Abstract. The Kosi River is an important tributary of the Ganges River, which passes through China, Nepal and India. With a basin area of 71 500 km2, the Kosi River has the largest elevation drop in the world (from 8848 m of Mt Everest to 60 m of the Ganges Plain) and covers a broad spectrum of climate, soil, vegetation and socioeconomic zones. The basin suffers from multiple water related hazards including glacial lake outburst, debris flow, landslides, flooding, drought, soil erosion and sedimentation. This paper describes the characteristics of water hazards in the basin, based on the literature review and site investigation covering hydrology, meteorology, geology, geomorphology and socio-economics. Glacial lake outbursts are a huge threat to the local population in the region and they usually further trigger landslides and debris flows. Floods are usually a result of interaction between man-made hydraulic structures and the natural environment. Debris flows are widespread and occur in clusters. Droughts tend to last over long periods and affect vast areas. Rapid population increase, the decline of ecosystems and climate change could further exacerbate various hazards in the region. The paper has proposed a set of mitigating strategies and measures. It is an arduous challenge to implement them in practice. More investigations are needed to fill in the knowledge gaps.

Effects of dispersal on local population increase

2000 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 479-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Kean ◽  
N.D. Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
Population Increase

RESEARCH OF LANDSLIDES AND DEBRIS FLOWS IN BAILONG RIVER BASIN:PROGRSS AND PROSPECT

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingmin MENG ◽  
Guan CHEN ◽  
Peng GUO ◽  
Muqi XIONG ◽  
Wasowski Janusz
Keyword(s):  
Debris Flows ◽  
Landslides And Debris Flows

Stranding cases of endangered Ganges river dolphins in the Ghaghara–Sharada irrigation canals, Ganges river basin, India: conservation implications

Mammalia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shakti Prajapati
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Population Declines ◽  
Irrigation Canals ◽  
Indus River ◽  
River Dolphin ◽  
Conservation Implications ◽  
Media Reports

AbstractPopulations of endangered Ganges and Indus river dolphins have been under severe threat from diversion of river water by dams, barrages, and canal networks across the Indus and Ganges–Brahmaputra river basins. River dolphins prefer deep water and might enter irrigation canals in the dry-season, getting stranded there. Stranding can cause mortality and local population declines, and poses an emerging challenge to river dolphin conservation efforts. In Pakistan’s Indus river basin, stranding rates of Indus dolphins in irrigation canals are high, and well-coordinated rescue-release operations are undertaken. Despite commendable river dolphin rescue efforts in some parts of India, stranding cases are not always reported. From open-access media reports (2007–08 to 2017–18), I found 26 stranding cases of Ganges river dolphins from the Ghaghara–Sharada canal network across seven districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Of these, 62% reports were from 2015 to 2016. Most cases occurred in secondary and tertiary canal branches. Interviews with fishers, farmers, and government officials revealed low awareness of stranding cases. Stranded dolphins might have no chance of returning to their source habitat, unless rescued. From my results, I discuss how current barrage-canal operations could influence dolphin stranding risk, and their implications for flow management in the Ghaghara–Sharada river basin.

scholarly journals Comparison of length and dynamics of wood pieces in streams covered with coniferous and broadleaf forests mapped using orthophotos acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruka Tsunetaka ◽  
Slim Mtibaa ◽  
Shiho Asano ◽  
Takashi Okamoto ◽  
Ushio Kurokawa
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Debris Flows ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
Japan Meteorological Agency ◽  
Landslide Occurrence ◽  
Direct Measurements ◽  
Wood Piece ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Landslides And Debris Flows

AbstractAs wood pieces supplied by landslides and debris flows are one of the main components of ecological and geomorphic systems, the importance of quantifying the dimensions of the wood pieces is evident. However, the low accessibility of disturbed channels after debris flows generally impedes accurate and quick wood-piece investigations. Thus, remote-sensing measurements for wood pieces are necessitated. Focusing on sub-watersheds in coniferous and broadleaf forests in Japan (the CF and BF sites, respectively), we measured the lengths of wood pieces supplied by landslides (> 0.2 m length and > 0.03 m diameter) from orthophotos acquired using a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The measurement accuracy was analyzed by comparing the lengths derived from the UAV method with direct measurements. The landslides at the CF and BF sites were triggered by extremely heavy rainfalls in 2017 and 2018, respectively. UAV flights were operated during February and September 2019 at the CF site and during November 2018 and December 2019 at the BF site. Direct measurements of wood pieces were carried out on the date of the respective second flight date in each site. When both ends of a wood piece are satisfactorily extracted from an orthophoto acquired by the UAV, the wood-piece lengths at the CF site can be measured with an accuracy of approximately ±0.5 m. At the BF site, most of the extracted lengths were shorter than the directly measured lengths, probably because the complex structures of the root wad and tree crown reduced the visibility. Most wood pieces were discharged from landslide scars at the BF site, but at the CF site, approximately 750 wood pieces remained in the landslide scars approximately 19 months after the landslide occurrence. The number of wood pieces in the landslide scars of the CF site increased with increasing landslide area, suggesting that some wood pieces can be left even if large landslides occur. The lengths and locations of the entrapped wood pieces at both sites were not significantly changed between the two UAV flight dates. However, during this period, the rainfall intensities around the CF site measured by the closest rain-gauge of the Japan Meteorological Agency reached their second highest values from 1976 to 2019, which exceeded the 30-year return period. This suggests that most of the entrapped wood pieces rarely migrated even under intense rainfall.

Debris Flows Resulting From Glacial-Lake Outburst Floods in Tibet, China

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 508-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Cui ◽  
Chao Dang ◽  
Zunlan Cheng ◽  
Kevin M. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Debris Flows ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Outburst Floods ◽  
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods

Size characteristics and mineralogy of suspended sediments of the Ganges river, India

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Chakrapani ◽  
V. Subramanian ◽  
R. J. Gibbs ◽  
P. K. Jha
Keyword(s):  
Suspended Sediments ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
The Ganges

scholarly journals Geohazards Susceptibility Assessment along the Upper Indus Basin Using Four Machine Learning and Statistical Models

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 315
Author(s):  
Hilal Ahmad ◽  
Chen Ningsheng ◽  
Mahfuzur Rahman ◽  
Md Monirul Islam ◽  
Hamid Reza Pourghasemi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Debris Flows ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Topographic Wetness Index ◽  
Susceptibility Maps ◽  
Landslides And Debris Flows

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project passes through the Karakoram Highway in northern Pakistan, which is one of the most hazardous regions of the world. The most common hazards in this region are landslides and debris flows, which result in loss of life and severe infrastructure damage every year. This study assessed geohazards (landslides and debris flows) and developed susceptibility maps by considering four standalone machine-learning and statistical approaches, namely, Logistic Regression (LR), Shannon Entropy (SE), Weights-of-Evidence (WoE), and Frequency Ratio (FR) models. To this end, geohazard inventories were prepared using remote sensing techniques with field observations and historical hazard datasets. The spatial relationship of thirteen conditioning factors, namely, slope (degree), distance to faults, geology, elevation, distance to rivers, slope aspect, distance to road, annual mean rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index, profile curvature, stream power index, topographic wetness index, and land cover, with hazard distribution was analyzed. The results showed that faults, slope angles, elevation, lithology, land cover, and mean annual rainfall play a key role in controlling the spatial distribution of geohazards in the study area. The final susceptibility maps were validated against ground truth points and by plotting Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC) curves. According to the AUROC curves, the success rates of the LR, WoE, FR, and SE models were 85.30%, 76.00, 74.60%, and 71.40%, and their prediction rates were 83.10%, 75.00%, 73.50%, and 70.10%, respectively; these values show higher performance of LR over the other three models. Furthermore, 11.19%, 9.24%, 10.18%, 39.14%, and 30.25% of the areas corresponded to classes of very-high, high, moderate, low, and very-low susceptibility, respectively. The developed geohazard susceptibility map can be used by relevant government officials for the smooth implementation of the CPEC project at the regional scale.

Taking the pulse of Mother Ganga - Revealing the visible and invisible water pollution crisis along the Ganges River

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
River Network ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Sediment Samples ◽  
Water And Sediment ◽  
The Ganges ◽  
Water And Sediment Samples

<p>It is probably hard to overestimate the significance of the River Ganges for its spiritual, cultural and religious importance. As the worlds’ most populated river basin and a major water resource for the 400 million people inhabiting its catchment, the Ganges represents one of the most complex and stressed river systems globally. This makes the understanding and management of its water quality an act of humanitarian and geopolitical relevance. Water quality along the Ganges is critically impacted by multiple stressors, including agricultural, industrial and domestic pollution inputs, a lack and failure of water and sanitation infrastructure, increasing water demands in areas of intense population growth and migration, as well as the severe implications of land use and climate change. Some aspects of water pollution are readily visualised as the river network evolves, whilst others contribute to an invisible water crisis (Worldbank, 2019) that affects the life and health of hundreds of millions of people.</p><p>We report the findings of a large collaborative study to monitor the evolution of water pollution along the 2500 km length of the Ganges river and its major tributaries that was carried out over a six-week period in Nov/Dec 2019 by three teams of more than 30 international researchers from 10 institutions. Surface water and sediment were sampled from more than 80 locations along the river and analysed for organic contaminants, nutrients, metals, pathogen indicators, microbial activity and diversity as well as microplastics, integrating in-situ fluorescence and UV absorbance optical sensor technologies with laboratory sample preparation and analyses. Water and sediment samples were analysed to identify the co-existence of pollution hotspots, quantify their spatial footprint and identify potential source areas, dilution, connectivity and thus, derive understanding of the interactions between proximal and distal of sources solute and particulate pollutants.</p><p>Our results reveal the co-existence of distinct pollution hotspots for several contaminants that can be linked to population density and land use in the proximity of sampling sites as well as the contributing catchment area. While some pollution hotspots were characterised by increased concentrations of most contaminant groups, several hotspots of specific pollutants (e.g., microplastics) were identified that could be linked to specific cultural and religious activities. Interestingly, the downstream footprint of specific pollution hotspots from contamination sources along the main stem of the Ganges or through major tributaries varied between contaminants, with generally no significant downstream accumulation emerging in water pollution levels, bearing significant implications for the spatial reach and legacy of pollution hotspots. Furthermore, the comparison of the downstream evolution of multi-pollution profiles between surface water and sediment samples support interpretations of the role of in-stream fate and transport processes in comparison to patterns of pollution source zone activations across the channel. In reporting the development of this multi-dimensional pollution dataset, we intend to stimulate a discussion on the usefulness of large river network surveys to better understand the relative contributions, footprints and impacts of variable pollution sources and how this information can be used for integrated approaches in water resources and pollution management.</p>

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