Center for Environmental Sciences & Engineering

<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

An attempt has been made to explore, evaluate and identify the sensitive parameter(s) of Cellular Automata Markov chain modeling to monitor and predict the future land use land cover pattern scenario in a part of Brahmaputra River Basin, India. For this purpose, land use land cover maps derived from satellite images of Landsat MSS image of 1987 and Landsat TM image of 1997 were used to predict future land use land cover of 2007 using Cellular Automata Markov model. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to identify the land use land cover parameter(s), which have the highest, lowest or intermediate influence on predicted results. The validity of the Cellular Automata Markov process for projecting future land use and cover changes in the study area calculates various Kappa Indices of Agreement (Kstandard) which indicate how well the comparison map agrees and disagrees with the reference map (land use land cover map derived from IRS-P6 LISS III image of 2007). The results shows that the land with or without scrub appeared to be most sensitive parameter as it has highest influences on predicted results of land use land cover of 2007. The second most sensitive parameter was lakes / reservoirs / ponds to predict land use land cover of 2007, followed by river, agricultural crop land, plantation, open land, marshy / swampy, sandy area, aquatic vegetation, built up land, dense forest, degraded forest, waterlogged area and agricultural fallow land. The least sensitive parameter is agricultural fallow land, which has minimum influence on predicted results of land use land cover of 2007. The validation of CA Markov land use land cover prediction results shows Kstandard is 0.7928. © Authors 2019.

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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives

Ca markov modeling of land use land cover dynamics and sensitivity analysis to identify sensitive parameter(s)

India currently has 5264 large dams in operation and 437 large dams under construction. Many of these dams do not match the emerging hydro-meteorological, hydraulic aspects. Safety of these dams is important to prevent collapse triggered by climate change effects. The increase in inflows to dams due to cloud bursts may cause dam safety concerns due to enhanced hydrodynamic forces. The main focus of this review is to get an insight into the events of cloud burst and GLOF which threaten dam safety. There are 65 completed and 11 under construction dams in India in the category of "Dams of National Importance" of which 22\% of the completed projects are older than 25 years. The review on failure due to cloud burst on few dams nationally and internationally has been done. The behaviour of Tehri Dam and Nathpa Jhakri dam in the past during the Cloud burst and GLOF occurrences and the importance to have a storage capacity for the hydel dams has been discussed along with the discussion on the necessity to increase the spillway capacity of Matatila dam. The scientific tools for conducting incisive case studies are highlighted to develop adaptive measures to deal with the resulting circumstances. © 2019, Central Board of Irrigation and Power. All rights reserved.

Civil Engineering

(SoE) School of Engineering

Water and Energy International

Review of climate change impacts on dam safety and flood mitigation issues in India

Neuropathic pain is a complex chronic pain state caused by the dysfunction of somatosensory nervous system and it affects the millions of people worldwide. At present, there are very few medical treatments available for neuropathic pain management and the intolerable side effects of medications may further worsen the symptoms. Despite the presence of profound knowledge that delineates the pathophysiology and mechanisms leading to neuropathic pain, the unmet clinical needs demand more research in this field that would ultimately assist to ameliorate the pain conditions. Efforts are being made globally to explore and understand the basic molecular mechanisms responsible for somatosensory dysfunction in preclinical pain models. The present review highlights some of the novel molecular targets like D-amino acid oxidase, endoplasmic reticulum stress receptors, sigma receptors, hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated cation channels, histone deacetylase, Wnt/-catenin and Wnt/Ryk, ephrins and Eph receptor tyrosine kinase, Cdh-1 and mitochondrial ATPase that are implicated in the induction of neuropathic pain. Studies conducted on the different animal models and observed results have been summarized with an aim to facilitate the efforts made in the drug discovery. The diligent analysis and exploitation of these targets may help in the identification of some promising therapies that can better manage neuropathic pain and improve the health of patients.

Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

An integrated review on new targets in the treatment of neuropathic pain

Wetlands are one of the most productive and fragile ecosystems on the Earth's surface. They have been providing essential services (irrigation, groundwater recharge, flood control and drinking water) to the society since the beginning of civilisation. The middle Ghaghara River basin is located in middle Ganga alluvial plain and is mainly drained by Ghaghara, Sarju, Rapti, Burhi Rapti and Kuwano rivers. In this study, Landsat 5 and 8 images of the post-monsoon months of 1989 and 2015 were used to extract the open water bodies of wetlands. Density slicing of the shortwave infrared band and the modified normalised water difference index (MNDWI) were utilised for the extraction of open water bodies. The total area of open water bodies was 472 km2 in 1989, while it reduced to 317 km2 in 2015. Thus, the reduction in open water bodies of wetlands is about 33%. Precipitation and temperature collectively play a major role in nurturing the wetlands. Therefore, in this study, trends in these climate parameters were analysed using non-parametric Mann-Kendall (MK) and Sen's slope methods. A significant increasing trend in annual mean temperature and a decreasing trend in total annual precipitation caused to shrink in open water bodies of the wetlands. Besides this, encroachment of cropland and built-up areas on wetlands denotes anthropogenic reason for the reduction in their areal extent. This study is beneficial to the planners and environmentalists for the restoration of shrinking open water bodies of wetlands in the middle Ghaghara River basin. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019.

Water Conservation, Recycling and Reuse: Issues and Challenges

Assessing the impacts of temperature, precipitation and land use change on open water bodies of Middle Ghaghara River Basin

D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO)is an astroglial enzyme abundantly present in the pain sensing regions including brain and spinal cord. There have been studies indicating an upregulation and increased activity of DAAO in different pain models. Furthermore, the upregulation of DAAO also results in the development of morphine tolerance as well as morphine-induced hyperalgesia. Accordingly, the knockdown of DAAO gene or pharmacological inhibition of DAAO reduces pain, reverses tolerance to morphine and hyperalgesia. The pain inducing actions of DAAO are related to augmented production of (hydrogen peroxide)H2O2, pro-inflammatory cytokines and activation of (Transient receptor protein Ankyrin-1)TRPA1 channels. On the other hand, exogenously administrated DAAO has also been shown to attenuate the pain in different pain models. The pain attenuating actions of DAAO enzyme has been linked to extensive metabolism of D-serine, which may not be able to activate NMDA receptor and trigger pain. The current review highlights the pain attenuating and pain inducing role of DAAO in experimental studies.

European Journal of Pharmacology

Dual role of D-amino acid oxidase in experimental pain models

For 2-D simulation of curvilinear flow field, use of momentum equations involves flow dispersion stress terms. Dispersion Stress terms take into account the effect of secondary flow variation arisen due to integration of the product of discrepancy between depth averaged velocity and the true velocity distributions. The objective of this paper is to present empirical mathematical functions to evaluate these terms. These terms can be incorporated in the 2D depth averaged flow equations as an additional source/sink term. In this work, the derivation is done to get revised set of empirical relations are later used in development of enhanced 2D numerical model. When compared with earlier investigations, the proposed formulations are simplified and numerically compatible. It is expected that modified formulation for flow dispersion stress tensor will lead to more realistic and improved simulation of flow field in curved flow domain. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering

Mathematical model development of modified flow dispersion stress tensor in 2-D curvilinear flow domain

The turbulent flow characteristics in the vicinity of mid-channel bar are studied in this paper. The velocity is measured with the help of the acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV). Fractal modelling is done for analysing the fractal nature of bursting events. The conditional Reynolds stress structure was analysed by using the quadrant technique. Decomposition of Reynolds stress help in studying the distribution of stress among the four quadrants. The hole-size concept is utilized for segregating the extreme bursting events from the low intensity events. Variation of quadrants stresses with the hole-size is analysed. The result of hole-size study indicates that the extreme turbulent burst is produced by the mid channel bar. The new parameter inclination ratio is evolved in this research to reflect streambed elevation changes. The results indicate that the high-level turbulence is generated at region near upstream end of mid-channel bar. The presence of mid-channel bar causes the critical changes to the turbulent structure of flow, where high Reynolds stresses are generated at region near upstream region of mid-channel bar. Third order moments are computed for vertical lines in the proximity of mid-channel bar. High value of third order moments for bar condition indicate that the intense turbulent mixing and momentum exchange take place. © 2019, Korean Society of Civil Engineers.

KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering

Investigation of Coherent Flow Turbulence in the Proximity of Mid-Channel Bar

Forests are the potential source for managing carbon sequestration, regulating climate variations and balancing universal carbon equilibrium between sources and sinks. Further, assessment of biomass, carbon stock, and its spatial distribution is prerequisite for monitoring the health of forest ecosystem. Moreover, vegetation field inventories are valuable source of data for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB), density, and the carbon stored in biomass of forest vegetation. In view of the importance of biomass, the present study makes an attempt to estimate temporal AGB of Tripura State, India, using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf area index (LAI) and the field inventory data through geospatial techniques. A model was developed for establishing the relationship between biomass, LAI, and NDVI in the selected study site. The study also aimed to improve method for quantifying and verifying inventory-based biomass stock estimation. The results demonstrate the correlation value obtained between LAI and NDVI were 0.87 and 0.53 for the years 2011 and 2014, respectively. The correlation value between estimated AGB with LAI were found as 0.66 and 0.69, while with NDVI, the values were obtained as 0.64 and 0.94 for the years 2011 and 2014, respectively. The regression model of measured biomass with MODIS NDVI and LAI was developed for the data obtained during the period 2011–2014. The developed model was used to estimate the spatial distribution of biomass and its relationship between LAI and NDVI. The R2 values obtained were 0.832 for estimated and the measured AGB during the training and 0.826 for the validation. The results indicate that the methodology adopted in this study can help in selecting best fit model for analyzing relationship between AGB and NDVI/LAI and for estimating biomass using allometric equation at various spatial scales. The developed output thematic map showed an average biomass distribution of 32–94 Mg ha−1. The highest biomass values (72–95 Mg ha −1) was confined to the dense region of the forest while the lowest biomass values (32–46 Mg ha−1) was identified in the outer regions of the study site. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

Forest biomass estimation using remote sensing and field inventory: a case study of Tripura, India

Farmers, agencies, agricultural research community and firms require access to tools to analyze and estimate stressed and productive regions to obtain higher yield. At present, this is performed manually using visual interpretation. Recently there has been some development in the detection and mapping of the stressed crop by use of hyperspectral analysis; but, there is an information gap between farmers and information about the location of the crop under stress in the given area. There is an urgent need to provide a robust solution to identify the stressed region in the agricultural area. To address this, a unique application called as VegNet (Vegetative-Network) has been developed, which aims to provide the necessary tools to detect stressed crop locations using the spectral images obtained from UAVs, and provide stressed crops condition, location and area covered by those stressed crops. In this paper, a combination of spectral vegetation indices techniques has been highlighted to produce a comprehensive solution for precision agriculture using a UAV and VegNet. This incorporates several algorithms; segmentation, Canny-edge detector, dilation, gap-filling, image extraction and locating the stressed region using spectral modelling based Graphical User Interface (GUI) application for precision agriculture, societal benefit and Environmental research. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment

UAVs technology for the development of GUI based application for precision agriculture and environmental research

The very geography of Nepal and India is such that these two countries must engage with each other in social, economic, and political spheres; water resources is one of the most important spheres. This study reviews the experience of cooperation in the Kosi basin between India and Nepal, focusing on the perceptions of risks and opportunities by decision makers. The following five categories of risk are examined at four tipping points, 1954, 1966, 1991, and 2015: capacity and knowledge, accountability and voice, sovereignty and autonomy, equity and access, and stability and support. The study provides deeper insights about the perceived risks as far as negotiations on the proposed Kosi high dam are considered. The perceived risks have grown significantly from 1954 to 2015 for Nepal as compared to India. In 2015, Nepal has all five categories of perceived risks. The study also proposes risk reduction strategies to reduce the level of perceived risks for both Nepal and India, which is an area of future research. The study may facilitate the negotiation process for the Kosi High Dam Project leading to mutually agreed win-win solutions for both riparian countries. © 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.