Fostering Community Preparedness to Cope with Drought: new initiatives and results from a study involving ODL and ICT from South Central India

Drought has emerged as a key concern in the context of climate variability induced by Climate Change processes and over a billion people are vulnerable, according to UN estimates. Drought preparedness is recognized as the preferred way to cope over relief, and information is the key. Improved access to contemporary ICT in the form of mobile phones and the Internet can help address the challenge of information deficiency in this matter. We have tried to develop an integrated approach for improving the capacity of rural communities by bringing together agricultural information with methods of ODL and effective exchange or delivery using video- conferencing. This has also enabled skill building among vulnerable rural communities in the use of color-coded maps derived from satellite imagery and GIS platforms. ICRISAT in partnership with a community based all- women micro-credit organization, the Adarsha Mahila Samaikhya (AMS), in South Central India has developed this blend of techniques to help the AMS and rural communities to anticipate how vulnerable their villages would be to drought in a season. This is an ongoing partnership, and we report here on joint studies carried out during March 2008- September 2009

A knowledge-driven GIS modeling technique for groundwater potential mapping at the Upper Langat Basin, Malaysia.

The aim of this paper is to use a knowledge-driven expert-based geographical information system (GIS) model coupling with remote-sensing-derived parameters for groundwater potential mapping in an area of the Upper Langat Basin, Malaysia. In this study, nine groundwater storage controlling parameters that affect groundwater occurrences are derived from remotely sensed imagery, available maps, and associated databases. Those parameters are: lithology, slope, lineament, land use, soil, rainfall, drainage density, elevation, and geomorphology. Then the parameter layers were integrated and modeled using a knowledge-driven GIS of weighted linear combination. The weightage and score for each parameter and their classes are based on the Malaysian groundwater expert opinion survey. The predicted groundwater potential map was classified into four distinct zones based on the classification scheme designed by Department of Minerals and Geoscience Malaysia (JMG). The results showed that about 17% of the study area falls under low-potential zone, with 66% on moderate-potential zone, 15% with high-potential zone, and only 0.45% falls under very-high-potential zone. The results obtained in this study were validated with the groundwater borehole wells data compiled by the JMG and showed 76% of prediction accuracy. In addition statistical analysis indicated that hard rock dominant of the study area is controlled by secondary porosity such as distance from lineament and density of lineament. There are high correlations between area percentage of predicted groundwater potential zones and groundwater well yield. Results obtained from this study can be useful for future planning of groundwater exploration, planning and development by related agencies in Malaysia which provide a rapid method and reduce cost as well as less time consuming. The results may be also transferable to other areas of similar hydrological characteristics

Identification of groundwater drought prone zones in Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds, tributaries of the Krishna River, India

The Pedda vagu and Ookachetti vagu watersheds located in the semi-arid regions of Mahabubnagar district are highly dependent on groundwater for irrigation owing to unreliable rainfall and over extraction of groundwater. The present study has been conducted to identify spatio-temporal groundwater droughts and drought-prone zones. Temporal groundwater droughts have been determined using a standardized water-level index along with spatial groundwater droughts using spline interpolation in Geographic Information Systems. The study shows that the groundwater droughts varied among the stations during the observation period, i.e. 1998-2011. However, the spatial assessment shows that the region as such experienced more mild groundwater droughts except during severe meteorological drought years (1998, 2002, 2004 and 2008); this indicates that the region has good scope for groundwater exploitation during dry spells and initial stages of droughts. Therefore, it is critical to have plans for the development of groundwater to cope with drought

Spatio-temporal analysis of droughts in the semi-arid Pedda Vagu and Ookacheti Vagu watersheds, Mahabubnagar District, India

This paper presents spatio-temporal meteorological drought analysis of Pedda Vagu and Ookacheti Vagu watersheds of Mahabubnagar and Ranga Reddy Districts of Telangana state, South Central India. Rainfall anomaly index (RAI) and run analysis have been leveraged to assess drought characteristics at different stations in the basin. The study also presents the interpolation of RAI values using spline technique in a geographic information system (GIS) environment to map the spatial extent and variation of drought severity in different time steps. The study reveals that the occurrence, magnitude, and recurrence of drought varied among the stations in the basin during an observed time frame, i.e., 1986 to 2013. Significant variations in the occurrences of number of drought events are observed among the stations in the basin. The spline interpolated rainfall anomaly index maps illustrated that some regions experienced more severe drought while other regions were well-off. This uncertainty in rainfall essentially indicates that a finer scale of drought vulnerability assessment is highly necessary for better drought management practices. Furthermore, empirical relationships were developed between drought duration and magnitude to support decision-making during various agricultural practices and water management

Iodine-catalyzed three-component reaction: A rapid synthesis of α-alkoxy azides and homoallyl ethers

Iodine is found to be an efficient catalyst for the three-component coupling of aldehydes, alcohols, and TMSN3 under mild and neutral conditions to provide α-alkoxy azides in good yields and with high selectivity. Allyltrimethylsilane also reacts rapidly with aldehydes in the presence of alcohols to produce homoallyl ethers under similar conditions. The use of iodine makes this procedure simple, convenient and cost-effective