Volume 1 Issue 2

A major share of water supply to meet the ever increasing demands for domestic, industrial and irrigation usages isderived from groundwater resources which are distributed over the entire globe. These resources are invisible fromground surface. The need for their delineation with high precision has led to the continuous advancement in thegeophysical survey techniques and interpretation theory. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an outcome of suchadvancement in the conventional electrical resistivity methods used for exploration of this sub-surface natural resourceon the basis of distinctive reduction in the electrical resistivity value of groundwater bearing geologicalformations/structure in comparison to their host environs devoid of water. Objective of this paper is to present anoverview of the application of ERTin delineation of groundwater resources in complex geological setup of problematicareas, sources of geothermal water, and delineation of groundwater pockets in mining areas in order to prevent naturaldisasters such as landslide in open cast mines with the help of related case studies. This kind of knowledge about theoccurrence of groundwater/geothermal resources is essential to achieve the preset objectives of their management.

Cachar district is one of the most populated districts of Assam, India. The region has been exposed to frequentcatastrophic flood during monsoon which is responsible for sufferings of the community. The uncertain or shiftingpattern of rain in recent times apart from usual monsoon has further escalated the woes of this area. The LOOK EASTPOLICY and quest for the development of this part is causing rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, which demandsan additional source of freshwater opposed to traditional demand in irrigation and other domestic needs in this region.This demand for freshwater is vertical in the graph and continuously rising. Consequently, the source of freshwater inthe area is depleting and further mismanagement will be devastative for resources of water in the entire district. Tosatisfy the demand and to ensure sustainable development in the region, there is an urgent need for its conservation andmanagement aimed to ameliorate water resources. With this idea behind the present investigation is to pinpoint floodrisk zones as well as to demonstrate the variability in groundwater prospects in Cachar District, using geospatialtechnology. The study is based on thematic maps of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC), elevation, soil type, rainfall,lineament density, drainage density, slope, and aspect in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. Thegroundwater potential zone (hereinafter, GWPZ) areas have been classified into five zones, viz; Very low, Poor,Moderate, Good, and Very Good. About 74.37% of the total area comes under Moderate GWPZ. To identify Flood Riskareas, the whole district has been categorised into Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, and Very High, risk flood zones.About 50.47% of the total area of Cachar District has been found under Moderate flood risk zone. The study at handmay help decision-makers in identifying the GWPZ and earmarking High-Risk Flood Zones for the planning ofintegrated water resources management.

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.

In the present paper, geochemical characteristics of groundwater have been studied using Water Quality Index (WQI) and Piper trilinear diagram. The water quality index offers a quantitative representation of overall quality of water for any intended use and helps in pollution abatement programmes and management. Whereas, the Piper diagram shows graphical representation of the hydrochemical facies of a set of water samples. In the present work, twenty-five groundwater samples were collected from various locations in the Bijnor district. The samples were investigated for pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, total hardness, fluoride and trace metals. The Piper trilinear diagram showed ++ – that groundwater of the district is Ca-Mg-HCO type. Ca and HCO were found dominant ions among cations and 3 3 anions, respectively. The WQI was found in the range of 71 to 86, which indicated that the samples fall under the fair to good category. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) checks were also applied to examine the water quality for the drinking purpose. The results revealed that most of the water quality parameters are within the permissible limits except iron and manganese. Based on the results, groundwater of the Bijnor district needs treatment for drinking purpose for the locations where the WQI is found below 75

Hydrologic processes and their principles are universal. However, the magnitude and impact of hydrological parameters influencing these processes vary along with space and time. Researchers since several decades are in the process of understanding and simulating them. One of such simulation is through the Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavedlning (HBV) model developed at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) Stuttgart, Germany. This work explains how this model will perform in semi-arid conditions to understand the most sensitive parameter influencing soil moisture, among all and calibrate their optimum values. The watershed chosen is small agricultural watershed in a semi-arid region with fertile soil and limiting water. The study revealed that the “LP” a soil moisture value above which the evapotranspiration reaches its peak is the most sensitive. Thereafter parameters “fc”, “athron”, “ ” “cflux”, “pcalt”, “perc”, and “khq” follow suit. These parameters are sensitive within -10% and β +10% of their optimum values. Other parameters as prec”, “cevpl”, “alfa”, “hq”, “recstep”, “soilstep”, “stf, “uzlo” have new values that are not similar to the original values as recommended. All values have been tested for their one at a 2 time sensitivity using the objective functions values of the root mean square error , BIAS, Relative error, R and Nash Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient. This indicates that the model does perform well in semi-arid conditions to simulate the Soil Moisture Routine of an agricultural watershed. It is recommended that the HVB can be used in semi-arid conditions for successfully simulating the Soil Moisture processes.