Tracking hidden crisis in India’s capital from space: implications of unsustainable groundwater use

National Capital Region (NCR, Delhi) in India is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan cities which is facing a severe water crisis due to increasing water demand. The over-extraction of groundwater, particularly from its unconsolidated alluvial deposits makes the region prone to subsidence. In this study, we investigated the effects of plummeting groundwater levels on land surface elevations in Delhi NCR using Sentinel-1 datasets acquired during the years 2014–2020. Our analysis reveals two distinct subsidence features in the study area with rates exceeding 11 cm/year in Kapashera—an urban village near IGI airport Delhi, and 3 cm/year in Faridabad throughout the study period. The subsidence in these two areas are accelerating and follows the depleting groundwater trend. The third region, Dwarka shows a shift from subsidence to uplift during the years which can be attributed to the strict government policies to regulate groundwater use and incentivizing rainwater harvesting. Further analysis using a classified risk map based on hazard risk and vulnerability approach highlights an approximate area of 100 square kilometers to be subjected to the highest risk level of ground movement, demanding urgent attention. The findings of this study are highly relevant for government agencies to formulate new policies against the over-exploitation of groundwater and to facilitate a sustainable and resilient groundwater management system in Delhi NCR.

Prevention of Soil Erosion and Torrential Floods

Climatic conditions, precise relief features, variations of soil, flora cover, socio-economic conditions together lead to torrential flood waves as a result of current soil erosion processes. Erosion and torrential floods are aggravated due to over exploitation of agricultural and forest land along with urbanization. Effects of soil erosion include nutrient loss, land use changes, reduced productivity, siltation of water bodies, among other effects like affecting livelihood of marginal communities dependent on agriculture globally and public health. Nearly 11 million km2 of soil is impacted by erosion precisely by water. Other factors like intensified agriculture and climate change contribute to and aggravate the erosion rate. Contemporary torrential floods are characterized by their increased destruction and frequency unlike the pre-development periods when their occurrence was rare. The focus of this review is to compile and aid as a data base for understanding methods of preventing erosion of soil and torrential floods as put forth by various researchers.

Complete mitochondrial genome of Manis pentadactyla pentadactyla (Mammalia: Pholidota), an endemic subspecies of Chinese pangolin: mitogenome characterisation and phylogenetic implications

The Chinese pangolin Manis pentadactyla is critically endangered because of over-exploitation and illegal trafficking and includes three subspecies. However, the taxonomic status of the three subspecies of the Chinese pangolin has not been well resolved, which impedes regional conservation and illegal trade traces. In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of M. p. pentadactyla, an endemic subspecies of the Chinese pangolin in Taiwan, was determined. The complete mitogenome of M. p. pentadactyla is 16,570 base pairs (bp) in length with 13 protein-coding genes (PCG), 23 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs and a 1164 bp control region. The overall base composition of the genome showed a slight A + T bias (59.9%), positive AT skew (0.1515) and negative GC skew (-0.3406), which is similar to that of other pangolins. All PCGs started with a typical ATN codon and all tRNAs were typical cloverleaf-shaped secondary structures, except for tRNA-Ser(GCU). Phylogenetic analysis indicated a monophyletic relationship for M. p. pentadactyla and M. p. aurita and was monophyletic for M. p. pentadactyla, but paraphyletic for M. p. aurita. The paraphyly of M. p. aurita resulted from an incomplete lineage sorting. This study enriched the mitogenome database of the Chinese pangolin and the molecular information obtained should be very useful for future research on mitogenome evolution and genetic diversification in M. pentadactyla.

Community Local Wisdom and Efforts to Create Quality Marine Tourism

Marine tourism has the potential to develop various activities because it is supported by nature, culture and tourist activities. However, coastal and marine areas are vulnerable to damage and over exploitation. Various problems encountered in coastal and marine areas, such as garbage, damage to coral reefs, excessive fish management, social problems, conflicts of interest or limited governance. Local wisdom has a fundamental role as a way of life for people in preserving civilization. Likewise, the roles and efforts of stakeholders to participate in contributing to monitoring and providing protection for coastal and marine areas so that they can provide sustainable benefits. This research uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, especially the explanatory sequential mixed method. Data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative, Importance Performance Analysis and Customer Satisfaction Index. Data were collected by observation, questionnaires, and interviews by raising several cases in Indonesian territory related to local wisdom from a cultural perspective, the role of NGOs from a nature conservation perspective, and tourism assessment from a tourist market perspective. Local wisdom from a cultural perspective, a community that has potential and a central role in conservation and preservation efforts, resource development and science and technology that can be passed on to the next generation based on knowledge, values, skills, resources, decision-making and local solidarity. Stakeholders in terms of nature protection have a major role and potential contribution by supporting, implementing, advocating, engaging and influencing, and having a high commitment to realizing responsible and sustainable tourism. From a tourism point of view, it has several weaknesses related to the quality of tourist attractions in indicators, management, amenities and value for money, so that efforts are needed to improve the quality and variety of products, professional management, and various tourism activity innovations that have the value of novelty and meaningfulness for tourists.

Groundwater management zones and their groundwater water level thresholds in the Tongliao plain

The West Liao River (WLR) basin located in Inner Mongolia, is an important food production area in China. In recent years, the problem of groundwater over exploitation has become increasingly prominent in the basin due to the expansion of agriculture. This paper developed adaptive management initiatives of the local groundwater resources using Tongliao, located in the east part of the WLR basin, as a case study. Groundwater management zones were divided based on hydrogeology, precipitation, land use, the groundwater over exploitation areas, groundwater depth, and the administrative units (Banners/ Counties/ Districts). The Tongliao basin was divided into 21 management zones. Subsequently, assessment rules for determining groundwater level thresholds in each groundwater management zone were developed based on groundwater observation conditions and the current groundwater depth. Based on the assessment rules, in 2020 the management threshold of groundwater level for each zone were determined. The results provided a scientific basis for the ‘Water Availability Based Local Development Initiative’ in the Tongliao plain.

Clustering analysis of movement kinematics in reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning has been used as an experimental model of motor skill acquisition, where at times movements are successful and thus reinforced. One fundamental problem is to understand how humans select exploration over exploitation during learning. The decision could be influenced by factors such as task demands and reward availability. In this study, we applied a clustering algorithm to examine how a change in the accuracy requirements of a task affected the choice of exploration over exploitation. Participants made reaching movements to an unseen target using a planar robot arm and received reward after each successful movement. For one group of participants, the width of the hidden target decreased after every other training block. For a second group, it remained constant. The clustering algorithm was applied to the kinematic data to characterize motor learning on a trial-to-trial basis as a sequence of movements, each belonging to one of the identified clusters. By the end of learning, movement trajectories across all participants converged primarily to a single cluster with the greatest number of successful trials. Within this analysis framework, we defined exploration and exploitation as types of behaviour in which two successive trajectories belong to different or similar clusters, respectively. The frequency of each mode of behaviour was evaluated over the course learning. It was found that by reducing the target width, participants used a greater variety of different clusters and displayed more exploration than exploitation. Excessive exploration relative to exploitation was found to be detrimental to subsequent motor learning.

Combined Wavelet Transform With Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network for Water Table Depth Prediction in Baoding City, North China Plain

Accurate estimation of water table depth dynamics is essential for water resource management, especially in areas where groundwater is overexploited. In recent years, as a data-driven model, artificial neural networks (NNs) have been widely used in hydrological modeling. However, due to the non-stationarity of water table depth data, the performance of NNs in areas of over-exploitation is challenging. Therefore, reducing data noise is an essential step before simulating the water table depth. This research proposed a novel method to model the non-stationary time series data of water table depth through combing the advantages of wavelet analysis and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network (NN). A typical groundwater over-exploitation area, Baoding, North China Plain (NCP), was selected as a study area. To reflect the impact of anthropogenic activities, the variables harnessed to develop the model includes temperature, precipitation, evaporation, and some socio-economic data. The results show that decomposing the time series of the water table depth into three sub-temporal components by Meyer wavelets can significantly improve the simulation effect of LSTM on the water table depth. The average NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient) value of all the sites increased from 0.432 to 0.819. Additionally, a feedforward neural network (FNN) is used to compare forecasts over 12-months. As expected, wavelet-LSTM outperforms wavelet-FNN. As the prediction time increases, the advantages of wavelet-LSTM become more evident. The wavelet-LSTM is satisfactory for forecasting the water table depth at most in 6 months. Furthermore, the importance of input variables of wavelet-LSTM is analysed by the weights of the model. The results indicate that anthropogenic activities influence the water table depth significantly, especially in the sites close to the Baiyangdian Lake, the largest lake in the North China Plain. This study demonstrates that the wavelet-LSTM model provides an option for water table depth simulation and predicting areas of over-exploitation of groundwater.

Ecological dependencies make remote reef fish communities most vulnerable to coral loss

Ecosystems face both local hazards, such as over-exploitation, and global hazards, such as climate change. Since the impact of local hazards attenuates with distance from humans, local extinction risk should decrease with remoteness, making faraway areas safe havens for biodiversity. However, isolation and reduced anthropogenic disturbance may increase ecological specialization in remote communities, and hence their vulnerability to secondary effects of diversity loss propagating through networks of interacting species. We show this to be true for reef fish communities across the globe. An increase in fish-coral dependency with the distance of coral reefs from human settlements, paired with the far-reaching impacts of global hazards, increases the risk of fish species loss, counteracting the benefits of remoteness. Hotspots of fish risk from fish-coral dependency are distinct from those caused by direct human impacts, increasing the number of risk hotspots by ~30% globally. These findings might apply to other ecosystems on Earth and depict a world where no place, no matter how remote, is safe for biodiversity, calling for a reconsideration of global conservation priorities.

Stable isotopes in global lakes integrate catchment and climatic controls on evaporation

Global warming is considered a major threat to Earth’s lakes water budgets and quality. However, flow regulation, over-exploitation, lack of hydrological data, and disparate evaluation methods hamper comparative global estimates of lake vulnerability to evaporation. We have analyzed the stable isotope composition of 1257 global lakes and we find that most lakes depend on precipitation and groundwater recharge subsequently altered by catchment and lake evaporation processes. Isotope mass-balance modeling shows that ca. 20% of water inflow in global lakes is lost through evaporation and ca. 10% of lakes in arid and temperate zones experience extreme evaporative losses >40 % of the total inflow. Precipitation amount, limnicity, wind speed, relative humidity, and solar radiation are predominant controls on lake isotope composition and evaporation, regardless of the climatic zone. The promotion of systematic global isotopic monitoring of Earth’s lakes provides a direct and comparative approach to detect the impacts of climatic and catchment-scale changes on water-balance and evaporation trends.