Macro-level study on Climate Change effects on agriculture and human health in Western Himalayas: A Review

The current study reveals that the western Himalayas has a fragile ecosystem, highly susceptible to rapid changes in land morphology due to the consequences of climate change. Land-use and climatic change in this region has negative impacts on agriculture and human health. Increasing temperature, erratic precipitation, and rising CO2 concentrations are the main drivers which show adverse effects on agriculture and human health. The impacts trends in this region can be categorised into exacerbated pathogenicity are pathogens, and hence disease outbreaks, changes in the traditional agriculture techniques, and people’s migration that directly changes in ecological and leading to social inequalities. In the last few decades, there have been changes in vector species distribution in agriculture and increases of forest pest species attacks by climate change in agriculture and forest pest increases, and parasites are emerging during periods of these last few decades. Enhancement of seasonal transmission and distribution of pests pushes food insecurity and vector-borne infections deteriorate human health. This review article tries to analyse different literature on the effects of climate change on agriculture and human health in the Western Himalayas and suggest agroforestry and agroecology is some of the strategies to overcome climate change impact.

Sujalam Suphalam (SS) : A multi-stakeholder Water Resources Management Approach

Rejuvenation of existing water bodies is an important element to achieve village water security in the context of both drinking and agriculture water requirements. Rejuvenation of the water structure leads to the creation of storage or increase in the storage capacity of the existing structure, eventually aiding to groundwater recharge. “Sujalam Suphalam” is a District level time-bound program that focuses on the improvement of village water resources by undertaking the restoration of existing water bodies, and watershed treatments for the augmentation of groundwater. It is an effort to make a parched village 'water abundant' by creating water infrastructure that instils the notion of ownership amongst the stakeholders which is an important element in arriving at a sustainable solution for drought frequented regions in a short period of time. Sujalam Suphalam (SS) takes a multi-stakeholder approach to arrive at village water security. The multi-stakeholder design of the programme involves the Government (State and District Administration) – Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS) -Community/Farmers Group – like-minded civil society organisations and advocacy groups (public representatives and newspaper & electronic media) as the stakeholders. Where Government authority provides necessary sanctions and takes full ownership of the programme, BJS provide their services of heavy machinery and support the Government in programme execution, implementation, community mobilisation, data management and monitoring. This program promises rejuvenating water structures that store run-off generated during monsoons, which recharges groundwater, these earthen works also provide an essential resource to the farmers which is silt to enhance individual farmer's productivity. SS has helped in increasing the agricultural income by bringing the larger area under irrigation and enhanced the income from agro-allied diversified activities. By desilting percolation tanks, water harvesting tanks and village nalas (rivulets) BJS has not only enhanced the storage capacity of these structures but also increased the period of water availability in the parched villages. It increased the number of days of drinking and domestic water availability accessible to all habitations within a village. The approach promises to reduce the gap between demand and supply of both, water and silt, in a short period. It also garners active participation from the farmers that leads to effective management of community water resources by enhancing the capacity of Panchayati Raj Institutions and individual farmers. Since the implementation of IWRM projects back in the 1970s, many water storage structures were created in drought-prone villages. But often it was found that very few programs were concentrated on rejuvenation or repair of these water bodies. Often the Gram Panchayat was given charge of these water bodies who lacked the necessary guidance and resources to rejuvenate or repair. Sujalam Suphalam program is focused on rejuvenation or repair of government and community-owned water bodies. These processes demanded the active participation of district administration, gram panchayat, progressive farmers, farmer boards at village level and those who were on the periphery of these institutions. This paper reviews the multi-stakeholder sustainable water conservation approach adopted by Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana with the support of the government of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The paper also highlights the main components of the programme, methodology of the programme, execution, key achievements, impacts and critical lessons learnt.

Hydrological Modelling Studies of Paravar River Basin, a Tributary of River Godavari using HEC-HMS Model

The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is designed to simulate the complete hydrologic processes of dendritic watershed systems. The software includes many traditional hydrologic analysis procedures such as event infiltration, unit hydrographs, and hydrologic routing. The model is applied to the Pravara River Basin, which is a tributary of the Godavari River in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra (India). For the simulation of runoff, the daily precipitation data and daily observed streamflow data from 1999 to 2012 was collected and ten years of data from 1999 to 2008 was used for the calibration of the model and 4 years of data from 2009 to 2012 was used for the validation of the model. The calibration of the HEC-HMS 4.0 model for the study area is carried out by comparing the simulated daily streamflow with the observed flow at the outlet of the basin. For this particular study, the deficit and constant loss model is used to compute the losses from the watershed. Under prediction of high flows is an inherent problem seen in hydrological modeling of the basin in the present study. This is due to the lack of extreme event modeling capability of the hydrological model. The daily flows except extreme flows are better simulated. The ability of HEC–HMS to simulate the magnitude of the peaks in extreme floods in the river basin underscores the significance of the model application as a flood prediction tool. The HEC–HMS successfully reproduced low flows and thus the model is a useful tool to estimate low flows in advance based on drought forecasts.

Assessment of Climate Change Impact on the Hydrology of the Kabul River Basin, Afghanistan

Climate change and variability affect the availability and management of water resources and the hydrological cycle, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. This research was conducted to analyse the impact of climate change on the hydrology of the Kabul River Basin, Afghanistan by using the outputs of three General Circulation Models under two representative concentration pathway scenarios: RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5. Future climate data (precipitation and temperature) obtained from the climate models were bias-corrected using the delta change approach. Maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation were predicted for the three future periods: 2020s (2010–2039), 2050s (2040–2069), and 2080s (2070–2099) against the baseline period 1961–1980. The o o o mean annual temperature in the basin is projected to increase by 1.8 C, 3.5 C, and 4.8 C in the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s, respectively. The projected annual precipitation is expected to decline by approximately 53 to 65% for the whole river basin under both scenarios in the future period. The well-calibrated and validated Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to simulate the future streamflow in the basin. The mean annual streamflow is projected to increase by 50 to 120% in the future. This study provides valuable information for guiding future water resource management in the Kabul River Basin and other arid and semi-arid regions of Afghanistan.

Planform Dynamics of Kankai River using GIS and Remote Sensing

The Kankai river is a rainfed perennial river of eastern Nepal and carries a large quantum of silt, and enters in Kishanganj of West Bengal, India. Recently, a bridge collapsed in a village in the Kishanganj district due to a rise in the water levels of the Kankai river. This paper presents a study of the dynamics of changes in channel planform and measurement of the erosion and accretion of the Kankai river in Bihar, India from 2000 to 2018. Spatial data were processed in GIS to determine the changes in sinuosity, centreline migration rates, and extent of erosion, and deposition of sediment. The maximum river shift was obtained as 800 to 1600 m and the minimum river shift varied from 6 to 70 m. With a sinuosity ratio for the whole reach of the river of 1.45, the Kankai river is considered a sinuous river and needs river training works at the erosion sites.

Selection of a Hydrological Model and Objective Function for Water Resources Management in Predominantly Rural Watershed using Criteria-Based Evaluation

Selection of a fitting up-to-date hydrological model using an evaluation of the functionality, modeler’s requirements, and modeling experiences are very important for water resources management in rural watersheds. Similarly, the selection of appropriate objective function is equally crucial in hydrological modeling processes. Accordingly, A review study was carried to select an appropriate model and objective function for water resources modeling in the predominantly rural watershed. Hydrological models namely HEC-HMS, MIKE SHE, SWAT, TOPMODEL, and SWMM, and objective functions namely NSE, RMSE, MRAE, and RAEM were reviewed. Hydrological models were reviewed under several criteria viz. temporal scale, spatial scale, hydrological processes, documentation, resources requirement, user interface and, model acquisition cost. Whereas, criteria for the review of objective functions were mathematical implication, flow regime, and modeling purpose. Each of the review criteria was comprised of several factors. The criteria-based evaluation was done to quantify the review outcome of the hydrological model and objective function. SWMM was found to be the most suitable model for simulating rural watersheds for water resources management purposes whereas, MRAE was found to be the most appropriate objective function to evaluate the performance of the model selected for rural watershed modeling.

Wastewater Treatment and Management in Health Sector of Sri Lanka

Hospitals are highly populated facilities that function 24 hours a day. They generate a large amount of wastewater through various sources which are very complex and hazardous. Furthermore, the emission of healthcare wastewater into the cities sewerage, rivers and groundwater pollute the entire system. Therefore, disposal of healthcare wastewater without adequate treatment can cause short and long-term ill-effects to the public's health. An onsite wastewater treatment would give a dual benefit of preventing the release of hazardous materials into other sources and bring the wastewater into the consumption cycle. At present, most countries utilize the treated wastewater to reduce the consumption of potable water. However, the literature review and preliminary studies revealed that wastewater management is poorly practised in the Sri Lankan healthcare sector. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify the extent of wastewater treatment, utilization and management in Sri Lankan state sector hospitals. The aim of the paper was achieved through a literature review and questionnaire survey. The required data were collected from nine state hospitals in Colombo. Findings of the study revealed that a high quality of wastewater treatment and efficient reuse of reclaimed water is a big challenge for the healthcare sector due to the complex nature of the wastewater process, higher cost of treatment and poor management. Moreover, it was found that currently wastewater generated from the state hospitals are discharged directly into the city's sewerage without any treatment. Finally, this paper discusses the current level of wastewater treatment, utilization and management in the state hospitals and identifies the critical barriers for the lack of poor practice of wastewater handling.

Assessment of Groundwater Quality in parts of Jalna district of Maharashtra, India using Water Quality Index

In the present study, fifty-five groundwater samples were collected from the parts of the Jalna district of Maharashtra, India. The water samples were analyzed to determine various physic-chemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness, alkalinity, chloride, sulphate, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. The groundwater’s geochemical control and hydrogeochemistry were evaluated using the Piper plots and water quality index (WQI). The hydrochemical analysis reveals that the groundwater is predominantly of CaNaHCO3 type, Water quality index (WQI) indicates that 33% and 2% of groundwater samples fall in poor and very poor categories for drinking purposes. This study reveals that groundwater quality is unfit for drinking purposes at a few places. The effective leaching, dissolution process and rock-water interaction process are the main sources for degrading the groundwater quality.

Development of Soil Moisture Index for Planning Water Management in the State of Sikkim (India)

Soil moisture and soil temperature are two important parameters that have a wider implication on crop production. The drop of soil moisture and temperature has an impact involving climate, vegetation and drought. The presence of soil moisture does not ensure its availability to a crop but the force by which water is held by soil particle is important. The amount of work done to extract soil moisture is generally expressed as stress. It is necessary to understand the extent of stress for proper water resources management. The soil moisture index (SMI) is a criterion that denotes the extent of stress experienced by a crop. The temperature also has an impact on germination and production. In the present study, we developed a SMI for different locations in Sikkim. The index ranges from +5 to -5. The negative index indicates extreme stress. The study indicated during winter the index goes beyond-3. Considering wilting point stress as 500 and 700 kPa. The soil temperature was also observed to fall below 15 C. Further, it was observed that soil temperature and moisture are strongly correlated to each other. The SMI can play an important role in adopting suitable water management practices for improved crop production.

Production of Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea) Plant and Seed ofRohu (Labeo Rohita) in a Recirculating Aquaponic System

A 60-day experiment was conducted to optimize fish and plant component ratio in a recirculating aquaponic system. Three different fish: plant component ratio of Rohu (Labeo rohita) spawn to Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) plant viz. T1 (40 spawn:10 plants), T2 (40 spawn:14 plants) and T3 (40 spawn:18 plants) were assigned as treatments. All the treatments were compared for fish growth, plant growth, and various water quality parameters were observed to determine the best component ratio which maintains better water quality and gives better growth. Among all the treatments, the higher growth rate of fish was observed in T2 (5.08±0.12) followed by treatment T3>T2>C. At the end, the total production of spinach in terms of weight was 508.10±8.89 g in T2 followed by treatments T3 and T1. Based on the results, the fish: plants component ratio of 40 spawn:14 plants can be recommended for production of rohu seed and spinach in recirculating aquaponic system