Parametric and non-parametric approaches for runoff and rainfall regionalization

The information on river flows is important for a number of reasons including; the construction of hydraulic structures for water management, for equitable distribution of water and for a number of environmental issues. The flow measurement devices are generally installed across the workspace at various locations to get data on river flows but due to a number of technical and accessibility issues, it is not always possible to get continuous data. The amount rainfall in a basin area also contributes towards the river flows and intense rainfall can cause flooding. The extended rainfall maps for the study areas to analyze these extreme events can be of great practical and theoretical interest. This thesis can be generally regarded as a work on catchment hydrology and mapping rainfall extremes to estimate certain hydrological variables that are not only useful for future research but also for practical designing and management issues. We analyzed a number of existing techniques available in literature to extend the hydrological information from gauged basin to ungauged basin; and suggested improvements. The three main frontiers of our work are: Monthly runoff regime regionalization, Flow duration curves (FDCs) regionalization and preparing rainfall hazardous maps. The proposed methods of regionalization for runoff regime and FDCs are tested for the basins located in northern Italy; whereas for rainfall extremes, the procedure is applied to the data points located in northern part of Pakistan

Pitfalls in transboundary Indus Water Treaty: a perspective to prevent unattended threats to the global security

Abstract Water treaties have played an important role in peaceful resolution of water-related conflicts. Although the mode of negotiation to resolve water-related conflicts may vary from treaty to treaty, a number of structural falls make them unprepared for the future needs. The Indus water treaty is perhaps quoted as the most successful water-sharing mechanism in the recent times. Against all odds, the treaty has fulfilled its job descriptions of being a mechanism providing a moderately reliable framework for the peaceful resolution of water-related conflicts. However, the climate change is quickly eroding that trust. The water-sharing mechanism lacks guidelines to cater the issues related to climate change and basin sustainability which require integrated approach for their addressal. But the structural inflexibility does not encourage the riparian to collaborate and build mutual trust for common good. The riparian countries, within the framework of treaty, attempt to elevate their national interests by deliberately refusing to comply with the treaty clauses in letter and spirit, and even manipulate data to deprive the competing riparian of water. We propose and argue on the need of adopting structurally sound forum for solving water conflicts which will assist in comprehensive policy-making to ensure the sustainability of transboundary water resources. The forum will also provide an opportunity for the riparian to work together towards confidence-building through sharing of real-time hydrological data and further scientific analysis based on that. Conclusively, the shortcomings of the present conflict-resolution method are addressed by encouraging riparian to collaborate at various levels

Dryopteris juxtapostia Root and Shoot: Determination of Phytochemicals; Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, and Hepatoprotective Effects; and Toxicity Assessment

An estimated 450 species of Dryopteris in the Dryoperidaceae family grow in Japan, North and South Korea, China, Pakistan, and Kashmir. This genus has been reported to have biological capabilities; however, research has been conducted on Dryopteris juxtapostia. Therefore, with the present study, we aimed to exploring the biological potential of D. juxtapostia root and shoot extracts. We extracted dichloromethane and methanol separately from the roots and shoots of D. juxtapostia. Antioxidant activity was determined using DPPH, FRAP, and H2O2 assays, and anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated using both in vitro (antiurease activity) and in vivo (carrageenan- and formaldehyde-induced paw edema) studies. Toxicity was evaluated by adopting a brine shrimp lethality assay followed by determination of cytotoxic activity using an MTT assay. Hepatoprotective effects of active crude extracts were examined in rats. Activity-bearing compounds were tentatively identified using LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis. Results suggested that D. juxtapostia root dichloromethane extract exhibited better antioxidant (DPPH, IC50 of 42.0 µg/mL; FRAP, 46.2 mmol/g; H2O2, 71% inhibition), anti-inflammatory (urease inhibition, 56.7% at 50 µg/mL; carrageenan-induced edema inhibition, 61.7% at 200 µg/mL; formaldehyde-induced edema inhibition, 67.3% at 200 µg/mL), brine shrimp % mortality (100% at 1000 µg/mL), and cytotoxic (HeLa cancer, IC50 of 17.1 µg/mL; prostate cancer (PC3), IC50 of 45.2 µg/mL) effects than D. juxtapostia root methanol extract. D. juxtapostia shoot dichloromethane and methanol extracts exhibited non-influential activity in all biological assays and were not selected for hepatoprotective study. D. juxtapostia root methanol extract showed improvement in hepatic cell structure and low cellular infiltration but, in contrast the dichloromethane extract, did not show any significant improvement in hepatocyte morphology, cellular infiltration, or necrosis of hepatocytes in comparison to the positive control, i.e., paracetamol. LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis showed the presence of albaspidin PP, 3-methylbutyryl-phloroglucinol, flavaspidic acid AB and BB, filixic acid ABA and ABB, tris-desaspidin BBB, tris-paraaspidin BBB, tetra-flavaspidic BBBB, tetra-albaspidin BBBB, and kaempferol-3-O-glucoside in the dichloromethane extract, whereas kaempferol, catechin, epicatechin, quinic acid, liquitrigenin, and quercetin 7-O-galactoside in were detected in the methanol extract, along with all the compounds detected in the dichloromethane extract. Hence, D. juxtapostia is safe, alongside other species of this genus, although detailed safety assessment of each isolated compound is obligatory during drug discovery

Blockchain adoption for sustainable supply chain management : economic, environmental, and social perspectives

Due to the rapid increase in environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, the focus of researchers is shifted from economic to socio-environmental problems. Blockchain is a disruptive technology that has the potential to restructure the entire supply chain for sustainable practices. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that provides a digital database for recording all the transactions of the supply chain. The main purpose of this research is to explore the literature relevant to blockchain for sustainable supply chain management. The focus of this review is on the sustainability of the blockchain-based supply chain concerning environmental conservation, social equality, and governance effectiveness. Using a systematic literature review, a total of 136 articles were evaluated and categorized according to the triple bottom-line aspects of sustainability. Challenges and barriers during blockchain adoption in different industrial sectors such as aviation, shipping, agriculture and food, manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceutical, and textile industries were critically examined. This study has not only explored the economic, environmental, and social impacts of blockchain but also highlighted the emerging trends in a circular supply chain with current developments of advanced technologies along with their critical success factors. Furthermore, research areas and gaps in the existing research are discussed, and future research directions are suggested. The findings of this study show that blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the entire supply chain from a sustainability perspective. Blockchain will not only improve the economic sustainability of the supply chain through effective traceability, enhanced visibility through information sharing, transparency in processes, and decentralization of the entire structure but also will help in achieving environmental and social sustainability through resource efficiency, accountability, smart contracts, trust development, and fraud prevention. The study will be helpful for managers and practitioners to understand the procedure of blockchain adoption and to increase the probability of its successful implementation to develop a sustainable supply chain network

Water Pricing and Implementation Strategies for the Sustainability of an Irrigation System: A Case Study within the Command Area of the Rakh Branch Canal

The command area of the Rakh branch canal grows wheat, sugarcane, and rice crops in abundance. The canal water, which is trivial for irrigating these crops, is conveyed to the farms through the network of canals and distributaries. For the maintenance of this vast infrastructure; the end users are charged on a seasonal basis. The present water charges are severely criticized for not being adequate to properly manage the entire infrastructure. We use the residual value to determine the value of the irrigation water and then based on the quantity of irrigation water supplied to farm land coupled with the infrastructure maintenance cost, full cost recovery figures are executed for the study area, and policy recommendations are made for the implementation of the full cost recovery system. The approach is unique in the sense that the pricings are based on the actual quantity of water conveyed to the field for irrigating crops. The results of our analysis showed that the canal water is severely under charged in the culturable command area of selected distributaries, thus negating the plan of having a self-sustainable irrigation system

Derivative Method Based Orientation Detection of Substation Grounding Grid

The grounding grid is a key part of substation protection, which provides safety to personnel and equipment under normal as well as fault conditions. Currently, the topology of a grounding grid is determined by assuming that its orientation is parallel to the plane of earth. However, in practical scenarios, the assumed orientation may not coincide with the actual orientation of the grounding grid. Hence, currently employed methods for topology detection fails to produce the desired results. Therefore, accurate detection of grounding grid orientation is mandatory for measuring its topology accurately. In this paper, we propose a derivative method for orientation detection of grounding grid in high voltage substations. The proposed method is applicable to both equally and unequally spaced grounding grids. Furthermore, our method can also determine the orientation of grounding grid in the challenging case when a diagonal branch is present in the mesh. The proposed method is based on the fact that the distribution of magnetic flux density is perpendicular to the surface of the earth when a current is injected into the grid through a vertical conductor. Taking the third order derivative of the magnetic flux density, the main peak coinciding with the position of underground conductor is accurately obtained. Thus, the main peak describes the orientation of buried conductor of grounding grid. Simulations are performed using Comsol Multiphysics 5.0 to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method. Our results demonstrate that the proposed method calculate the orientation of grounding grid with high accuracy. We also investigate the effect of varying critical parameters of our method

Future climate and cryosphere impacts on the hydrology of a scarcely gauged catchment on the Jhelum river basin, Northern Pakistan

Streamflow projections are fundamental sources for future water resources strategic planning and management, particularly in high-altitude scarcely-gauged basins located in high mountain Asia. Therefore, quantification of the climate change impacts on major hydrological components (evapotranspiration, soil water storage, snowmelt-runoff, rainfall-runoff and streamflow) is of high importance and remains a challenge. For this purpose, we analysed general circulation models (GCMs) using a multiple bias correction approach and two different hydrological models i.e. the Hydrological Modelling System (HEC-HMS) and the Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM), to examine the impact of climate change on the hydrological behaviour of the Jhelum River basin. Based on scrutiny, climate projections using four best fit CMIP5 GCMs (i.e. BCC-CSM1.1, INMCM4, IPSL-CM5A-LR and CMCC-CMS) were chosen by evaluating linear scaling, local intensity scaling (LOCI) and distribution mapping (DM) approaches at twenty climate stations. Subsequently, after calibration and validation of HEC-HMS and SRM at five streamflow gauging stations, the bias corrected projected climate data was integrated with HEC-HMS and SRM to simulate projected streamflow. Results demonstrate that the DM approach fitted the projections best. The climate projections exhibited maximum intra-annual rises in precipitation by 183.2 mm (12.74%) during the monsoon for RCP4.5 and a rise in Tmin (Tmax) by 4.77 °C (4.42 °C) during pre-monsoon, for RCP8.5 during 2090s. The precipitation and temperature rise is expected to expedite and increase snowmelt-runoff up to 48% and evapotranspiration and soil water storage up to 45%. The projections exhibited significant increases in streamflows by 330 m3/s (22.6%) for HEC-HMS and 449 m3/s (30.7%) for SRM during the pre-monfaf0000soon season by the 2090s under RCP8.5. Overall, our results reveal that the pre-monsoon season is potentially utmost affected under scenario-periods, and consequently, which has the potential to alter the precipitation and flow regime of the Jhelum River basin due to significant early snow- and glacier-melt

Predicting Peak Flows in Real Time through Event Based Hydrologic Modeling for a Trans-Boundary River Catchment

Investigating the hydrological response of an area to adverse climate changes and extreme rainfall events is crucial for managing land and water resources and mitigating the natural hazards like floods. Limited availability of the in situ data, especially in case of Transboundary Rivers, further highlights the need to develop and evaluate decision support systems which may predict the flows in real time using open source rainfall data. This paper presents the study conducted in Chenab River catchment, Pakistan, to develop and evaluate a hydrologic model using HEC-HMS for predicting flows based on TRMM rainfall data. The catchment was analyzed for hydro-morphological properties using SRTM DEM in HEC-GeoHMS. To rely on open source data as much as possible, digital soil map of the world developed by FAO and global land cover map developed by European Space Agency were utilized to compute Curve Number grid data for the catchment. These preliminary data analyses were employed to set initial values of different parameters to be used for model calibration. The model was calibrated for five rainfall events occurred in the rainy seasons of 2006, 2010 and 2013. The calibrated model was then validated for four other rainfall events of similar type in the same years. Consistency in simulated and observed flows was found with percent difference in volume ranging from −6.17 % to 5.47 % and percent difference in peak flows to be in the range of 6.96 % to 7.28 %. Values of Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency were ranging from 0.299 to 0.909 with an average value of 0.586 for all flow events. The model was found well capable of capturing the hydrologic response of the catchment due to rainfall events and can be helpful in providing alerts of peak flows in real time based on real time/forecasted rainfall data

Water Pricing and Implementation Strategies for the Sustainability of an Irrigation System: A Case Study within the Command Area of the Rakh Branch Canal

The command area of the Rakh branch canal grows wheat, sugarcane, and rice crops in abundance. The canal water, which is trivial for irrigating these crops, is conveyed to the farms through the network of canals and distributaries. For the maintenance of this vast infrastructure; the end users are charged on a seasonal basis. The present water charges are severely criticized for not being adequate to properly manage the entire infrastructure. We use the residual value to determine the value of the irrigation water and then based on the quantity of irrigation water supplied to farm land coupled with the infrastructure maintenance cost, full cost recovery figures are executed for the study area, and policy recommendations are made for the implementation of the full cost recovery system. The approach is unique in the sense that the pricings are based on the actual quantity of water conveyed to the field for irrigating crops. The results of our analysis showed that the canal water is severely under charged in the culturable command area of selected distributaries, thus negating the plan of having a self-sustainable irrigation system