Urban Floods and Suitability Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting Potential Areas in Lahore City, Pakistan

There is a growing threat of urban flooding, particularly in Pakistan that needs attention and requires effective management strategies. The chief trigger for urban flooding is the rapid and unplanned urbanization in areas where impermeable surface inhibits rainwater diffusion and changes the natural water flow. In many developed countries, a technique of rainwater harvesting is implemented as a sustainable strategy to manage urban stormwater. Most studies and projects chiefly focused on the potential use of the Rainwater harvesting technique for water conservation in arid and semi-arid climates. In the present work, GIS and remote sensing methodologies are utilized for the suitability of rainwater harvesting structures. This study was conducted in Lahore, the second most populated city of Pakistan and the capital of Punjab. Generally, the water harvesting technique depends on topographical areas with water accumulation, where there is an availability of open spaces in the form of green areas and barren lands, rainfall, drainage network density, and rainfall distribution, particularly in the urban environment. The SRTM DEM data were used for finding high water accumulated areas, and the Landsat OLI image is used to retrieve land use information i.e. vacant land and open green spaces, existing drainage network density, and rainfall distribution. All these layers were integrated through AHP to detect the potentially suitable sites for the construction of rainwater harvesting structures. Results concluded 94 suitable sites with categorization from highly to critically suitable for the construction of rainwater harvesting structures in which 6 were highly suitable areas in Data Gunj Bakhsh Town and Ravi Town. Besides, residential areas are having a maximum site suitability percentage, followed by roads, agricultural and open spaces in the area under consideration. Considering the suitable sites, further rainwater harvesting methods can be identified in the study area to alleviate urban flooding and improve the urban environment

Synthesizing an Agent-Based Heterogeneous Population Model for Epidemic Surveillance

In this paper we propose a probabilistic approach to synthesize an agent-based heterogeneous population interaction model to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of an air-born epidemic, such as influenza, in a metropolitan area. The methodology is generic in nature and can generate a baseline population for cities for which detailed population summary tables are not available. The joint probabilities of population demographics are estimated using the International Public Use Microsimulation Data (IPUMS) sample data set. Agents, are assigned various activities based on several characteristics. The agent-based model for the city of Lahore, Pakistan is synthesized and a rule based disease spread model of influenza is simulated. The simulation results are visualized to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of the epidemic. The results show that the proposed model can be used by officials and medical experts to simulate an outbreak

Therapeutic Effect of Barley on Cardiovascular Diseases

Barley is a fantastic food option for those with various illnesses as well as for those who want to lead a healthy lifestyle. This cereal is a great source of soluble dietary fiber, particularly beta-glucans, and it also includes vital vitamins and minerals. For its excellent antioxidant activity and as a source of vitamins and minerals, green barley is advised. Depending on phytonutrients such as glucan, phenolics, flavonoid, lignans, tocols, sitosterol, and folic, regular consumption of whole wheat grain and its hydroethanolic extracts decreases the risk of chronic ailments (hyperglycemia, malignancy, overweight, cardiac disease, and so on). Barley and its products in recent years have gained an importance due to its counteractive components, which play potent role against cardiovascular diseases by lowering down the oxidative stress and improving high-density lipoprotein, further lowering down low-density lipoprotein, VLDL ratios further regulating insulin levels, and lowering down the spike in blood glucose levels showing potent antioxidative and cardiovascular functions. Due to their abundance in these nutrients, barley is effective in promoting healthy bodily function. To enjoy all of the advantages of barley, barley grain is a wonderful option

An Agent-based Rule Driven Knowledge Model for Epidemic Simulation: A Case Study of Lahore City.

In order to mitigate the effects of disease spread, it is necessary to understand the Spatio-temporal dynamics of epidemic spread and response evaluation. For that purpose, an agent-based heterogeneous knowledge model is synthesized using a probabilistic approach that depicts population interactions. The approach can generate a baseline population synthesis for cities such as Lahore, Pakistan where the population is quite dense and agent-based modeling becomes quite complex. An agent-based Spatio-temporal model of airborne disease is analyzed (i.e., influenza) in a metropolitan area. Such diseases result in mass casualties’ events in the populous regions, every year. Using GIS shapefiles, prior knowledge of people activities and IPUMS data, the agent base model is synthesized and an epidemic spread scenario is simulated. The proposed model can be used by healthcare officials for disease spread simulation. The model is helpful when heterogeneity semantics in population bring complexity in computations. It brings different attributes like age, sex and social status under consideration while calculating the probability of being infected as the way of interaction between people is highly depend upon them. This proposed model takes spatial factor into account as the way an infection spreads depending upon spatial distribution of infected and susceptible ones

Public values regarding an urban mangrove wetland in the United Arab Emirates

Mangrove wetlands are facing an existential threat from rapid socio-economic development. In this study, public environmental values regarding mangrove wetlands in the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) city in the United Arab Emirates were assessed, considering gender, age, education, income, length of residency in RAK, knowledge of RAK mangrove and awareness of sustainability. A population sample of 427 respondents were face-to-face interviewed. Results suggest that mangrove value orientations are highly associated with length of residency in RAK and awareness of sustainability at significance levels of 0.003 and 0.005, respectively. Value orientations are less associated with age, knowledge of RAK mangrove and education at significance levels of 0.023, 0.039 and 0.095, respectively, being largely independent of gender and income. The majority of the respondents support the preservation of the mangroves even at the expense of economic development. This indicates the need to draft policies and regulations to safeguard the mangroves

Regulation of Osmotic Balance and Increased Antioxidant Activities under Heat Stress in Abelmoschus esculentus L. Triggered by Exogenous Proline Application

Keeping in view the yield losses instigated by heat stress in several crops, we carried out an experiment to explore the curative effect of exogenous applications of proline on the morpho-physiological, biochemical, and water-related attributes of okra genotypes under high-temperature stress (controlled conditions). Four contrasting genotypes C1, C2, C3, and C4 heat tolerant and heat sensitive genotypes were selected from a diverse panel of okra genotypes (n = 100) to examine plant responses to high-temperature stress and exogenous application of proline. Four-week-old seedlings were subjected to heat stress by gradually increasing the temperature of a growth chamber from 28/22 °C to 45/35 °C (day/night) and sprayed with an optimized proline concentration 2.5 mM. The experiment consisted of a factorial arrangement of treatments in a completely randomized design. The results showed that there were maximum increases in shoot length (32.7%), root length (58.9%), and shoot fresh (85.7%). The quantities of leaves per plant were increased by 52.9%, 123.6%, 82.5%, and 62.2% in C1, C2, C3, and C4 after proline application. On the other hand, only root fresh weight decreased in all genotypes after proline application by 23.1%, 20%, 266.7%, and 280.8% (C1, C2, C3, C4). A lower leaf temperature of 27.72 °C, minimum transpiration of 3.29 mmol m−2 s−1, maximum photosynthesis of 3.91 μmol m−2 s−1, and a maximum water use efficiency of 1.20 μmol CO2 mmol H2O were recorded in the genotypes C2, C1, C3, and C4, respectively. The highest enzymatic activity of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase were 14.88, 0.31, and 0.15 U mg-protein in C2, C1, and C3, respectively. Maximum leaf proline, glycinebetaine, total free amino acids, and chlorophyll content 3.46 mg g−1, 4.02 mg g−1, 3.46 mg g−1, and 46.89 (in C2), respectively, due to foliar applications of proline. Another important finding was that heat tolerance in okra was highly linked highly linked to genotypes’ genetic potential, having more water use efficiency, enzymatic activities, and physio-biochemical attributes under the foliar applications of proline