012742   Suresh S;Mani K;Aneesh M R (Geography Dep, Univ College, Thiruvananthapuram, Email: geogaya@gmail.com) : Quantitative evaluation of Kallar watershed using geospatial technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 169-91.

The composition of the stream system of a drainage basin is expressed quantitatively with stream order, drainage density, bifurcation ratio and stream length ratio (Horton, 1945). Watersheds are hydrologic units that are considered to be efficient and appropriate for assessment of available resources and subsequent planning and implementation of various development programs (K.V Seshagiri Rao, 2003).Using watershed as basic unit in morphometric analysis is the most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic process occur within the watershed.The quantitative analysis of a drainage basin is an important aspect of studying the relief and relief characterization of watershed. The quantitative analyses of morphometric parameters is found to be of immense utility in river basin evaluation, watershed prioritization for soil and water conservation and natural resources management at watershed level. (M. Immam Malik et.al, 2011).Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) i.e. remote sensing coupled with Geographic Information System (GIS) is very useful in the delineation of drainage system characteristics. In the present study a detailed quantitative evaluation has been conducted in Kallar Watershed situated in the southernmost part of Kerala. In this basin, there are large numbers of drainage systems / channels originated from the Chemmunji Mottai (1717 M) the eastern side of Western Ghats mountain chain. The study performed manual and computerized delineation and drainage sampling which enables applying detailed morphological measures. Survey of India (1: 25,000) topographical maps in combination with remotely sensed data were utilized to delineate the existing drainage system, thus to identify precisely water divides. The study introduces an imperial approach of morphometric analysis that can be utilized in different hydrological assessment (e.g surface water harvesting, flood mitigation) as well as the applied analysis using remote sensing and GIS in the rest of the drainage systems of the Kerala.

12 illus, 5 table, 51 ref

012741   Sunil Kumar;Hooda R S;Sulekha P S (NO, , ) : Identifying trends in landuse/landcover changes in Hisar tehsil: a LCM based approach. J Remote Sensing GIS 2017, 8(1), 1-8.

Land is a source of all basic human needs, (e.g., agriculture, forest, water supply etc.) which is being continuously depleted by various agents. Urban growth and urbanization are considered as one of the major factors responsible for change in landcover dynamics and depletion of land resources. As compared with other landcover classes such as agricultural land, urban land has smaller area coverage but its impact to the surrounding environment is higher. An attempt, therefore, has been made to acquire reliable and timely spatio-temporal information of Hisar Tehsil of Haryana state to study and predict landcover dynamics. Decadal changes in the landuse pattern of the study area were monitored since 1990. The landcover maps generated after running an Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA) unsupervised classification were used to differentiate the landuse classes. Both the built-up areas and water bodies show a gradual increase while the agricultural area marked shrinkage in area. Based on the scenario of landuse change over the years a prediction in the landuse changes for the years 2021 and 2031 was modeled. The predicted land classes lies in close proximity to the actual landuse classes. The Markov model used in the study was able to truly predict the changes in the landuse patterns. The accuracy assessment was done to indicate the reliability of study. Past trends in the landuse changes may predict the future patterns of landuse. Many such models - 136 - to forecast the spatial and temporal changes in the landuse have been developed. Therefore, it was thought worthwhile to use such models for Indian conditions.

22 ref

012740   Srivastava A K;Singh G P;Singh O P (India Meterological Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi-221 005, Email: gpsinghbhu@hotmail.com) : Variability and trends in extreme rainfall over India. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 745-66.

This study has been attempted to investigate the seasonal and annual trends and variations in the occurrence of extreme rainfall over different Indian region and India as a whole. Trends and variations are examined on the basis of following parameters (i) frequency and magnitude of extreme rainfall intensity (ERI) and its contribution in total rainfall (ii) highest rainfall events (iii) frequency of extreme rainfall events and days (iv) frequency of rainfall events and days with daily rainfall above 100 mm and 200 mm in a grid box (1° x 1°) over different Indian regions and India as a whole. Daily gridded rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) available at 1° x 1° resolution has been used to examine trends and variations associated with extreme rainfall events. Based on the long term 95 and 99 percentile values of daily total /maximum rainfall as a threshold for extreme rainfall intensity/events of category 1 and category 2 respectively, the trends and variations in above mentioned parameters are analyzed for the periods 1951-2007, 1951-1980 and 1981-2007. The magnitude of highest intensity rainfall is increased over country as a whole and over peninsular India; it is found to be increased by 1% during - 135 - 1981-2007 as compared to period 1951-1980. The frequency of extreme rainfall intensity (ERI) days of category 1 is found to be significant increasing (0.4 days/decade) over north central region and significant decreasing trend is found over north east region (0.5 days/decade) during the pre-monsoon season. The magnitude of 24 hours highest rainfall in a grid box is found to be significant increasing over all regions under consideration except over north east and south peninsular regions. Over the last ten years period of the present study, most of the 24 hours highest rainfall events in a grid box are seen over west peninsular region. Generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution fitted with annual highest rainfall event over the country as a whole and over different Indian region indicates an increase in magnitude of most probable 24 hours highest rainfall in a grid box during second half of the study period over north central region of the country. Analysis also reveals an increase in frequency and severity of extreme rainfall over north west, north central and west peninsular regions during the period of 1981-2007 as compared to 1950-1980. Annual frequency of days and events with extreme rainfall of both categories is increased most significantly over country during the period of present study (1951-2007). Significant increasing trends in frequency of days with extreme rainfall of both categories is noticed only during the monsoon season while extreme rainfall events showed increasing trends during monsoon and winter season over country as a whole. Number of days and events with daily rainfall in any grid box above 100 mm and 200 mm is observed to be significantly increased over the country. Out of six regions, significant increasing trends in annual number of days with rainfall above 100 mm in a grid box is observed over north central and north east regions and for rainfall above 200 mm significant increase is observed over north west and north central regions.

19 illus, 16 ref

012739   Sinha P;Bisht A;Peshin S (India Meterological Dep, , Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110 003, Email: priyankasinha041@gmail.com) : Long term trend in surface ozone over Indian stations. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 887-96.

In this paper we have presented long term variation of surface ozone over more than two decades (1990-2013) simultaneously for three different cities, viz., Pune, New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram. Surface ozone concentration has been measured at these cities continuously with the help of a continuous recorder using electrochemical sensor. The detailed study of annual trend, diurnal as well as seasonal behaviour of ozone has been carried out. Diurnal changes seen over 3 time periods, i.e., 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2013 have also been analyzed in this study. Time series analysis during the observational period indicates that annual average concentration of ozone is increasing at all the three stations, i.e., Delhi, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. Average rate of increase is estimated to be 0.05, 0.04, 0.04 ppb per year for Delhi, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. The diurnal variation in ozone concentration in urban areas exhibits marked diurnal variability, with high concentrations during the day and low concentrations at night. Apart from the above diurnal change, day to day record shows a forenoon sharp increase, a characteristic feature of an urban site. An increase in surface ozone concentration is also observed from (1990-2000) to (2010-2013) at all the three locations. The amplitude of diurnal increase in surface ozone concentration from 1990 to 2013 as obtained is more for Delhi, i.e., 0.5 ppb per year, as compared to Pune and Thiruvananthapuram.

10 illus, 23 ref

012738   Singh S (Geography Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi, Email: sunbhu11@rediffmail.com) : Remote sensing applications in soil survey and mapping. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 192-203.

This article reviews the use of optical, microwave, Lidar and hyper spectral remote sensing data for soil mapping with emphasis on applications at local and regional level. Remote sensing is expected to offer possibilities for improving incomplete spatial and thematic coverage of current regional and global soil databases. Soil properties that have been measured using remote sensing approaches include mineralogy, texture, soil iron, soil moisture, soil organic carbon, soil salinity and carbonate content. In sparsely vegetated areas, successful use of space borne, airborne and in situ measurements using optical, passive and active microwave instruments has been reported. On the other hand, in densely vegetated areas, soil data acquisition typically relied on indirect retrievals using soil indicators, such as plant functional groups, productivity changes, and Ellenberg indicator values. Several forms of kriging, classification and regression tree analyses have been used jointly with remotely sensed data to predict soil properties at unvisited locations aiming at obtaining continuous area coverage. Yet, most studies so far have been performed on a local - 134 - scale and only few on regional or smaller map scale. Although progress has been made, current methods and techniques still bear potential to further explore the full range of spectral, spatial and temporal properties of existing data sources.

^iia54 ref

012737   Singh G;Singh A K (Physics Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi-221 005, Email: abhay_s@rediffmail.com) : Study on precursors leading to geomagnetic storms using artificial neural network. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 899-908.

Space weather prediction involves advance forecasting of the magnitude and onset time of major geomagnetic storms on Earth. In this paper, we discuss the development of an artificial neural network-based model to study the precursor leading to intense and moderate geomagnetic storms, following halo coronal mass ejection (CME) and related interplanetary (IP) events. IP inputs were considered within a 5-day time window after the commencement of storm. The artificial neural network (ANN) model training, testing and validation datasets were constructed based on 110 halo CMEs (both full and partial halo and their properties) observed during the ascending phase of the 24th solar cycle between 2009 and 2014. The geomagnetic storm occurrence rate from halo CMEs is estimated at a probability of 79%, by this model.

5 illus, 3 table, 27 ref

012736   Singh C;Yadav B P;Singh V;Naresh Kumar (India Meteorological Dep, , New Delhi-110 003, Email: csingh1964@gmail.com) : Unusual snowfall and thundersqualls over western Himalayan region during 2012. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 945-51.

8 illus, 1 table, 13 ref

012735   Singh C;Chauhan G (NO, , ) : Some aspects of the vagaries in the pattern of meteorological parameters in the state of Rajasthan in association with the LULC change. J Remote Sensing GIS 2017, 8(1), 53-65.

Present work examined the role of the change in land use and land cover (LULC) in altering the rainfall and temperature pattern over the western part of the Rajasthan, India. For this purpose, the high-resolution gridded rainfall and surface temperature data sets prepared by IMD (India Meteorological Department) and Climatological Research Unit Time Series (CRU TS 3.21) have been utilized. An increase in surface temperature and decrease in rainfall for the principal monsoon season (JJAS) during the period 1969-2012 is observed over the study region. Statistically robust significance test establish the fact that the pattern of rainfall and surface temperature has changed significantly during the past decades. Comparative analysis of the satellite observations from Landsat 5 TM (1992) and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS (2012) revealed a considerable LULC changes in terms of the increase in vegetated land and urban settlement areas, whereas sand and water bodies have witnessed a - 133 - decrease in area. Remotely sensed images from the OLS sensor (mounted on DMSP) indicate the escalation in the urbanization signature over the study region. Present analysis reveals that the correlation between the rainfall/surface temperature and the parameters which are more influenced by the local forcing (such as relative humidity/specific humidity/upward long-wave radiation) is not significant. Therefore, it is proposed that the changes observed in the rainfall and temperature pattern over the study area is much more influenced by the large scale forcing and moderately could be associated with the LULC changes and variations in the land-atmosphere fluxes.

012734   Sikarwar A;Chattopdhyay A (NO, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, Email: anks.sik@gmail.com) : Change in Land use-land cover and population dynamics: A town-level study of Ahmedabad city sub-District of Gujarat. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 225-34.

Change in Land Use-Land cover (LULC) is a worldwide phenomenon. However, in certain places, the rate of change is expeditious, particularly because of increasing population and urbanization within a limited space. This study encompasses analysis of LULC change during the last two decades and its association with population parameters in one of the leading metro cities in India, i.e. Ahmedabad City sub-district in Gujarat state in India. This study has used the Landsat images for LULC change detection and Census data of the same time period, to indicate the association of the total population, workforce, number of households, literacy, and caste stratification with LULC change. The peripheral change is observed maximum, with a high correlation of total and working population, indicating a shift of core to periphery expansion in Ahmedabad City sub-district. Planners need to target environmental policies for the western side of the Sabarmati River, experiencing speedy change.

3 illus, 3 table, 7 ref

012733   Sathianarayanan M;Mohamed A S;Athick A;Naqvi H R (NO, , ) : Geospatial approach to interlink seasonal reservoirs to mitigate drought at micro-level in Sivaganga - 132 - taluk, Tamilnadu. J Remote Sensing GIS 2017, 8(1), 66-75.

Drought is one of the most widespread hydro-meteorological syndrome of 'prolonged period of water Scarcity affecting human life. Government of India has declared 13 states under drought prone regions and Sivaganga district in the state of Tamilnadu is selected for this study as it falls under Drought Prone Area Programme. The aim of this study is to identify and manage drought on microlevel. LANDSAT ETM+ of 2015, SRTM DEM, ten years (i.e 2005-2015) of rainfall and borewell data were used for generating various thematic layers such as land use and land cover (LULC), NDSI and NDWI followed by hydrology modelling. Zones that are falling under the criteria of minimum rainfall, minimum water level and high NDSI value, identified of water stress. The interlinks are overlaid on identified water stress zones to propose the interlink path for diverting surplus water from seasonal ponds to mitigate drought at micro level with validation.

012732   Saha E;Hazra A;Banik P (Agricultural and Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata-700 108, Email: enu2.saha@gmail.com) : SARIMA modeling of the monthly average maximum and minimum temperatures in the eastern plateau region of India. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 841-8.

The SARIMA time series model is fitted to the monthly average maximum and minimum temperature data sets collected at Giridih, India for the years 1990-2011. From the time-series plots, we observe that the patterns of both the series are quite different; maximum temperature series contain sharp peaks in almost all the years while it is not true for the minimum temperature series and hence both the series are modeled separately (also for the sake of simplicity). SARIMA models are selected based on observing autocorrelation function (ACF) and partial autocorrelation function (PACF) of the monthly temperature series. The model parameters are obtained by using maximum likelihood method with the help of three tests [i.e., standard error, ACF and PACF of residuals and Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) and corrected Akaike Information Criteria (AICc)]. Adequacy of the selected models is determined using diagnostic checking with the standardized residuals, ACF of residuals, normal Q-Q plot of the standardized residuals and p-values of the Ljung-Box statistic. The models ARIMA (1; 0; 2) x (0; 1; 1)₁₂ and ARIMA (0; 1; 1) x (1; 1; 1)₁₂ are finally selected for forecasting of monthly average maximum and minimum temperature values respectively for the eastern plateau region of India.

6 illus, 17 ref

012731   Sadhuram Y (NO, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Visakhapatnam-530 017, Email: sadhuram@nio.org) : Can we predict the frequency of cyclones over Bay of Bengal during October-December?. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 952-4.

4 illus, 8 ref

012730   Ranjan A K;S Vallisree;Singh R K (NO, , ) : Role of geographic information system and remote sensing in monitoring and management of urban and watershed environment. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 60-73.

Geoinformatics technology is basically comprises of 3S component, Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Nowadays Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing are playing a crucial role in our environmental development, raw materials assessment, urbanization, study of watershed, survey and management of cultivable land, study of forestry, geological structure, disaster management and supervision, etc. GIS and RS have emerged as key instruments for retrieving data and information on the earth during the last 30 years. These days, spatial, temporal and spectral resolve satellite data are accessible and using GIS environment their applications have multiplied for the purpose of research work. The objective of the present paper is to present an overview of the state-of-the-art technology behind GIS and RS. This study also highlights the importance of GIS and RS in managing, monitoring and analysing of contemporary issues, such as, urbanization and watershed management, etc.$$$Geographic information systems;Watershed

53 ref

012729   Rajpoot P S;Ajay Kumar;Trivedi R K (NO, Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, Email: prajpoot179@gmail.com) : Spatial and temporal characteristics of flood in Kaithal district Haryana, India. J envir Sci Engng 2015, 57(3), 230-8.

Floods are reoccurring natural hazard. Major part of Kaithal district of Haryana, is drained by Ghaggar River and its tributaries and faces the problem of flood. All the tributaries of Ghaggar River meet in this region and brings huge amount of sediments and blocks the drains. Present study presents the outcome of flood frequency analysis using rainfall data and by integration of different parameters (slope, landform, soil, drainage and land use/land cover). Flood risk zone spatial analysis showing high, moderate and low flood risk zone is done using Remote Sensing & GIS techniques and discharged data is also considered. Frequency and recurrence interval shows that low to moderate flood risk is a regular phenomenon and extreme moderate to high flood occurs three or four times in two decades. High flood risk zone is found in northern part (Guhla block) and covers an area of about 19%, a large northern part of Kaithal district. Moderate flood risk zone is found in north along with the high flood risk zone and covers about 7% area. Remaining 74% of the study area is characterized by no/low flood risk zone.

4 illus, 6 tables, 10 ref

012728   Rajesh J;Phanindra Kumar T;Murthy DSR;Baskar G;Masilamani P (NO, National Institute of Rural Developement amd Panchayat Raj, Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Email: rajeshgeomtech@gmail.com) : Groundwater quality studies in Koraiyar watershed, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu-an geoinformatic approach. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 143-58.

The suitability of groundwater for drinking purpose with respect to BIS: The samples are collected the period from1981-2011.The suitability of ground water resources available in the country are also not uniformly distributed and the changing land use pattern and population growth and resulting water resources development has resulted in stress in the environment. The result shows the groundwater has partial suitability for drinking purposes and public health because of the concentration of TDS, EC, Mg and Na in groundwater. They have concentration than the recommended limits for drinking. They have partial suitability for domestic use for Human consumption. The parameter such as SAR, Na % is estimated were the one all locale to assess. This parameter concern with the suitability of water for irrigation purpose. The EC and sodium concentration are very important in classifying irrigation water. The salt present in the water, besides affecting the growth of the plants directly affect the soil structure, permeability and aeration, which indirectly affect the plant growth. Considering the seriousness of the groundwater contamination and groundwater quality along the study area (Koraiyar sub watershed) has been done.

11 illus, 3 table, 28 ref

012727   Rahman M M;Islam M N;Islam M N (Geography & Environment Dep, National Univ, Gazipur, Bangladesh, Email: muzib09@yahoo.com) : Integrated approach of remote sensing and field survey data in assessment of bank erosion intensity of the Padma river in Bangladesh. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 285-97.

This study has explored the erosion intensity of the Padma river at Harirampur upazila in Bangladesh integrating the remote sensing and field survey data. The superimposing maps for the period of 1860-2009 illustrate extreme bank line migration has occurred along the Harirampur section (A-A). The northeast migration of the left bank at Harirampur was limited 2-2.6 km during the period of 1860-1963. But in the following 46 (1963-2009) years the left bank migration towards the upazila was more than 12 km and maximum left bankline migration occurred at this location where the river developed a meandering bend that sustained for long (1992-2005) 13 years. The recent remote sensing images provided that the three unions namely Azimnagar, Lesraganj and Sutalary out of thirteen unions of the upazila have been disappeared completely in the Padma while the river eroded about 90, 85, and 80 percent landmass of Harukandi, Khanchanpur and Dhulsura unions respectively. As a whole, the Padma devoured about 35625.20 acres landmass which is accounted 59.70 percent area of the upazila. The stratified questionnaire survey revealed that all the households of Lesraganj, Sutalary and Harukandi unions have experienced 2-7 times erosion frequency in their lifetime. A total 3483 families compromising of about 25,000 people were the victims of erosion - 130 - during the period of 1993-1999 while 2320 families compromising of about 18560 people became landless and homeless by the ferocious erosion of the river during the period of 2000-2005. Monitoring and quantifying of bank erosion intensity is significant to have better understanding of the fluvial process and in disaster management.

6 illus, 4 table, 40 ref

012726   Pankaj Kumar;Devendra Kumar;Panwar R (NO, G.B. Pant Univ of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar-246 123, Email: pankaj591@gmail.com) : Evaporation estimation from climatic factors. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 897-902.

This study assessed the ability of two models, Local Linear Regression (LLR) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to estimate monthly potential evaporation from Pantagar, US Nagar (India) which falls under sub-humid and subtropical climatic zone. Observations of relative humidity, solar radiation, temperature, wind speed and evaporation have been used to train and test the developed models. A comparison was made between the estimates provided by the LLR model and ANN model. Results shown that the models were able to well learn the events they were trained to recognize. For ANN model the correlation coefficient for training period is 0.9311 and for testing period is 0.9236 and the value of root mean square error for training period is 1.070 and for testing period it is 0.9863. In case of LLR model the correlation coefficient for training period is 0.9746 and for testing period is 0.9273 and value of root mean square error for training period is 0.6121 and for testing period it is 1.5301.

3 illus, 2 tables, 11 ref

012725   Olorunfemi A S;Adegbie A T;Ibitola M P;Appia J Y;Oluwaseun A (NO, Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research[NIOMR] 3, Wilmot point road, Victoria island, P.M.B. 12729, Lagos, Nigeria, Email: fakinadesolomon@yahoo.com) : Impact of olushosun dumpsite on groundwater quality in Ojota area of Lagos state. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 116-27.

The - 129 - impact of buried refuse at Olushosun landfill in Ikeja local Government area of Lagos State on the groundwater quality has been carried out using geophysical methods. The geophysical method involved Vertical Electrical soundings using schlumberger array. Eight geoelectric sections were delineated from the interpretation of data acquired and were used to show the extent of pollution. It was concluded that the bulk of the pollution is concentrated within the central portion of the landfill and the groundwater in the area has been polluted to a depth of about 98 meters.

10 illus, 11 ref

012724   Mukul M;Srivastava V;Mukul M (NO, KIIT Univ, Bhubaneswar-751 024, Email: malaymukul@iitb.ac.in) : Accuracy analysis of the 2014-2015 global shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM) 1 arc-sec C-Band height model using international global navigation satellite system service (IGS) network. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 909-17.

Global Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data products have been widely used in Earth Sciences without an estimation of their accuracy and reliability even though large outliers exist in them. The global 1 arc-sec, 30 m resolution, SRTM C-Band (C-30) data collected in February 2000 has been recently released (2014-2015) outside North America. We present the first global assessment of the vertical accuracy of C-30 data using Ground Control Points (GCPs) from the International GNSS Service (IGS) Network of high-precision static fiducial stations that define the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). Large outliers (height error ranging from -1285 to 2306 m) were present in the C-30 dataset and 14% of the data were removed to reduce the root mean square error (RMSE) of the dataset from <126>187 to 10.3 m which is close to the SRTM goal of an absolute vertical accuracy of RMSE <126>10 m. Globally, for outlier-filtered data from 287 GCPs, the error or difference between IGS and SRTM heights exhibited a non-normal distribution with a mean and standard error of 6.5 ± 0.5 m. Continent-wise, only Australia, North and South America complied with the SRTM goal. At stations where all the X- and C-Band SRTM data were present, the RMSE of the outlier-filtered C-30 data was 11.7 m. However, the RMSE of outlier-included dataset where C- and X-Band data were present was <126>233 m. The results suggest that the SRTM data must only be used after regional accuracy analysis and removal of outliers. If used raw, they may produce results that are statistically insignificant with RMSE in 100s of meters.

6 illus, 5 table, 20 ref

012723   Mukhtar S (Geography Dep, Bayero Univ, Kano-Nigeria, Email: abubsadiq@gmail.com) : Applications and technologies associated with web-based geographical informations systems. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 204-10.

Web-Based GIS is a platform that deals with the representation, management and - 128 - storage of locational information for real-time online retrieval, viewing and manipulations. Web-based GIS incorporate all the functions of information systems: gathering, storing, retrieving, visualizing and dissemination of spatial information on the Internet. In modern-day GIS serve as vital means to not only geo-referenced locational information that are been retrieved but also the development in web-based technologies as well as there involvements in decision making processes. In recent time the increased used of GIS on the Internet have totally transformed and made three distinct changes across our GIS environment. These are: (i) how are GIS data being accessed (ii) what are modes of its transmission and (iii) what available GIS functionalities are within the environment for analysis. This paper examines the applications and technologies associated with web-based GIS architectures with an emphasis on the internet GIS based structure and case studies of GIS Web-based applications in MapInfo, Microsoft Silverlight Technology and the ArcGIS Server using ArcGIS JavaScript API.

5 illus, 9 ref

012722   Mukherjee T;Das A;Midya S K (Atmospheric Sciences Dep, Calcutta Univ, Kolkata, Email: drskm06@yahoo.co.in) : Splitting of ozone hole over Antarctica <126> its effect on total column ozone and its possible causes. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 939-54.

4 illus, 2 tables, 33 ref

012721   Liu Y;Zhang J;Tang X;Yang C;Tang S (School of Energy Resources, China Univ of Geosciences, Beijing-100 083, China, Email: ly7531@163.com) : Weathering characteristic of the lower paleozoic black shale in northwestern Guizhou province, South China. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 1061-78.

The northwestern Guizhou in the Yangtze Craton of south China has a tremendous potential of shale gas resource. In this paper, we present results from major and trace elements, total organic carbon, mineralogical composition analysis and petrophysical parameters to characterise shale weathering features. Further, the differences of black shale between underground and outcrops have also been presented to examine the changes of black shale after weathering. Our results show that the trace elements of shale have varying degrees of loss in the weathering leaching process, both in Niutitang shale and Longmaxi shale, the loss of B, V, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ba is obvious, but the element migration quantity in the former is greater than in the latter. Decomposition of minerals such as pyrite, feldspar and calcite result in the leaching of Na, Ca, Mg and Fe. The loss rate of total organic carbon (TOC) in black shales ranges from 18% to 70% with an average of 43%; moreover, the loss of organic carbon in samples with high TOC content is larger than in those samples with low TOC content. Results following the testing of porosity and permeability show that porosity increases significantly after weathering but permeability changes little. Furthermore, the increment of porosity is greater in the Niutitang shale (with more sulphide minerals) than in the Longmaxi shale, suggesting that the oxidation of sulphide minerals may have led to the formation of an acidic environment, causing the other minerals in the black shale to weather more quickly, thus resulting in increased porosity. The content of clay minerals in the core samples is slightly lesser than the outcrop samples, but the TOC content in the core samples is greater and has a larger specific surface area. This suggest that the TOC content played a decisive role on the specific surface area of shale. In addition, changes in the black shale caused by the weathering process mainly depend on the mineral composition and the TOC content in shale. In this study, we try to establish relations between outcrop samples and core samples, in order to better understand the underground characteristics of shale reservoir.

13 illus, 6 table, 54 ref

012720   Lei J R;Liu Z H;Bai L;Chen Z S;Xu J H;Wang L L (NO, Land and Resources College, China West Normal Univ, Nanchong Sichuan-637 009, Email: cundasha@126.com) : Regional features of precipitation variation trends over Sichuan in China by the ESMD method. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 849-60.

Based on a precipitation time series from 49 meteorological stations in Sichuan Province during the period from 1961 to 2011, the multi-scale characteristics of precipitation variability are analyzed using the extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition method (ESMD). Regional differences in variation trends and change-points were also preliminarily discussed. The results indicated that in the last 50+ years, the overall precipitation in Sichuan Province has exhibited a significant non-linear downward trend, and its changes have clearly exhibited an inter-annual scale (quasi-3 and quasi-8-year) and interdecadal scale (quasi-13-year). The variance contribution rates of each component demonstrated that the inter-annual change had a strong influence on the overall precipitation change in Sichuan Province, and the reconstructed inter-annual variation trend could describe the fluctuation state of the original precipitation during the study period. The reconstructed interdecadal variability revealed that the climate mode in Sichuan Province had divided into three distinct variation periods with 1973 and 1998 as the boundaries. Furthermore, there were regional differences in the non-linear changes and change-points of precipitation. In addition, in order to study the relations between the changing more or less of rising or decrease and meteorological station's geographical position (latitude, longitude and elevation) i.e., the Cokriging interpolation technique is applied directly to - 127 - precipitation variation trend components through ESMD decomposition. At the same time, the results also suggested that the ESMD method can effectively reveal variations in long-term precipitation sequences at different time scales and can be used for the complex diagnosis of non-linear and non-stationary signal changes.

6 illus, 2 tables, 65 ref

012719   Laari P B;Ziggah Y Y;Annan R F (Environmental and Resource Studies Dep, Univ for Developement Studies, Wa-Ghana, Email: einsteinpd2002@yahoo.com) : Determination of 3D transformation parameters for the Ghana Geodetic refernce network using ordinary least squares and total least squares techniques. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 245-61.

Ghana has been utilizing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) technology for geodetic purposes. In order to apply the GNSS acquired data locally, there is the need to transform coordinates from the geocentric datum to the Ghana local geodetic datum (non-geocentric). This is usually carried out by applying least squares adjustment technique to a coordinate transformation model. The present study compared both the ordinary least squares and total least squares adjustment techniques in 3D coordinate transformation between the Ghana local geodetic datum and the global geocentric datum. These least squares techniques were applied to the Bursa-Wolf and Molodensky-Badekas model. The statistical analytical results revealed that the ordinary least squares and total least squares gave closely related transformation results. The main motivation of this work is to ascertain the extent of applicability and performance of ordinary least squares and total least squares for the first time in Ghana geodetic reference network. The reason is that, although the aforementioned least squares methods have been compared and reported in several studies, such kind of work is yet to be done in the Ghana geodetic reference network. Therefore, this study will help Land surveyors and other built environment practitioners in Ghana to know the efficiency of the two least squares methods and apply them accordingly.

8 illus, 4 table, 30 ref

012718   Kuriqi A (Illyrian Consulting Engineers, Hydrology and Hydraulic Dep, Rr. Andon Zako Cajupi, Nd 14, H. 14, Ap. 2 Postal Code 1019, Tirana, Albania, Email: albankuriqi@gmail.com) : Assessment and quantification of meterological data for implementation of weather radar in mountationous regions. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 789-802.

The scope of this paper is to improve observation and detection of hydro-meteorological hazard over the Grenoble region which is characterised by significant changes of terrain in altitude and geomorphology. The city of Grenoble is located at a height between 200 up to 500 m, installing the weather radar in this range of elevation leads to better quality measurements, but visibility and as well coverage capability will be reduced at the other sites of the affected region. Two locations are shortlisted for the implementation of the future weather radar in Grenoble; (i) Moucherotte (1920 m a.s.l.) and (ii) Saint Eynard (1365 m a.s.l.). Several simulation and data analysis are performed to get the clear picture about precipitation variability by considering meteorological data from individual ground stations and radio sounding data as well. Compared to previous work, in this study is considered climatology of the vertical structure of the rainfall. In this context, several statistical computations are done regarding 0°C isotherm altitude. Concerning rainfall error estimation, ground clutter and screening effect, statistical calculations by using VISHYDRO code, are performed by for different quintiles for several elevation angles in both shortlisted sites. The results obtained from calculations carried out on two locations are almost similar. Also, significant under and over-estimation of rainfall error due to screening and ground clutter effect are detected. To achieve more accurate results, other sites need to be tested for further simulation. On the other hand since ground clutter, and screening effect at the Moucherotte is not too high compare with Saint Eynard, this site may be considered for implementing the future weather radar for observation of the meteorological processes over the Grenoble region.

13 illus, 38 ref

012717   Kovac-Andric E;Sheta A;Faris H;Gajdosik M S (Chemistry Dep, Univ of J.J.Strossmayer, Cara Hadrijana 8/A, Osijek 31000, Croatia, Email: eakovac@kemija.unios.hr) : Forecasting ozone concentrations in the east of Croatia using nonparametric Neural network models. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 997-1006.

Ozone is one of the most significant secondary pollutants with numerous negative effects on human health and environment including plants and vegetation. Therefore, more effort is made recently by governments and associations to predict ozone concentrations which could help in establishing better plans and regulation for environment protection. In this study, we use two Artificial Neural Network based approaches (MPL and RBF) to develop, for the first time, accurate ozone prediction models, one for urban and another one for rural area in the eastern part of Croatia. The evaluation of actual against the predicted ozone concentrations revealed that MLP and RBF models are very competitive for the training and testing data in the case of Kopacki Rit area whereas in the case of Osijek city, MLP shows better evaluation results with 9% improvement in the correlation coefficient. Furthermore, subsequent feature selection process has improved the prediction power of RBF network.

9 illus, 5 table, 29 ref

012716   Khan M I;Liu D;Fu Q;Azmat M;Luo M;Hu Y;Zhang Y;Abrar F M (School of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering Dep, Northeast Agricultural Univ, Harbin Heilongjiang-150 030, China, Email: liudong5511@sina.com) : Precipitation variablity assessment of northeast China: Songhua river basin. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 957-68.

Variability in precipitation is critical for the management of water resources. In this study, the research entropy base concept was applied to investigate spatial and temporal variability of the precipitation during 1964-2013 in the Songhua River basin of Heilongjiang Province in China. Sample entropy was applied on precipitation data on a monthly, seasonally, annually, decade scale and the number of rainy days for each selected station. Intensity entropy and apportionment entropy were used to calculate the variability over individual year and decade, respectively. Subsequently, Spearman's Rho and Mann-Kendall tests were applied to observe for trends in the precipitation time series. The statistics of sample disorder index showed that the precipitation during February (mean 1.09, max. 1.26 and min. 0.80), April (mean 1.12, max. 1.29 and min. 0.99) and July (mean 1.10, max. 1.20 and min. 0.98) contributed significantly higher than those of other months. Overall, the contribution of the winter season was considerably high with a standard deviation of 0.10. The precipitation variability on decade basis was observed to increase from decade 1964-1973 and 1994-2003 with a mean value of decadal apportionment disorder index 0.023 and 0.053, respectively. In addition, the Mann-Kendall test value (1.90) showed a significant positive trend only at the Shangzhi station.

7 illus, 2 table, 30 ref

012715   Khan M A;Bera S (Botany Dep, Univ of Calcutta, 35,B.C Road, Kolata-700 019, Email: berasubir@yahoo.co.in) : First fossil evidence of Connaraceae R.Br. from Indian Cenozoic and its phytogeographical significance. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 1079-87.

Fossil leaflet impression described here as a new species Rourea miocaudata sp. nov., showing close resemblance with the modern leaflets of Rourea caudata Planch. (Connaraceae R. Br.), has been recorded from the lower part of the Siwalik sediments (Dafla Formation, middle-upper Miocene) exposed at the road-cutting section of Pinjoli area in West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh. The important morphological characters of the fossil are its narrow elliptic leaflet, cuneate base, long caudate apex, entire margin, eucamptodromous to brochidodromous secondary veins, presence of intersecondary veins, percurrent and reticulate tertiary veins and orthogonally reticulate quaternary veins. This is the first authentic record of the occurrence of leaflet comparable to R. caudata of Connaraceae from the Cenozoic sediments of India and abroad. At present R. caudata does not grow in India and is restricted only in southeast Asia especially in China and Myanmar. This taxon probably migrated to these southeast Asian regions after lower Siwalik sedimentation (middle-upper Miocene) due to climatic change caused by post-Miocene orogenic movement of the Himalaya. The recovery of this species and other earlier-described evergreen taxa from the same formation, suggests the existence of a tropical, warm and humid climatic conditions during the depositional period.

4 illus, 2 table, 29 ref

012714   Kanga S;Tripathi G;Singh S K (NO, , ) : Forest fire hazardsvulnerability and risk assessment in Bhaji forest range of Himachal Pradesh (India): a geospatial approach. J Remote Sensing GIS 2017, 8(1), 25-40.

The vulnerability of the Indian forests to fire varies from place to place depending upon the type of vegetation and climate. The coniferous forest in the region is very prone to fire. Objective of the current work is to prepare a model which articulate the forest fire risk and assess the fire vulnerability so that the concerned authorities can minimize the fire danger. Fire hazard mapping was performed using knowledge based and AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) models. For each fire hazard map six classes, i.e., very high to very low and were overlaid to generate cumulative fire hazard map. Census data were used to examine the socio-economic characteristics of the region through computation of total population, cultivators, total male population, total female population, children in age group 0-6 years and literates. A composite socio-economic vulnerability index map was generated. For each fire vulnerability map, five classes, i.e., very high to very low were assigned. Fire risk map was generated using fire vulnerability and hazard map in which, results indicate that 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.34% (high), 25.90% (moderate), 36.23% (low) and 30.56% (very low) fire risk zones using knowledge based technique whereas 1.97% of the area had (very high), 5.46% (high), 24.53% (moderate) 27.22% (low) and 40.80% (very low) fire risk zones using analytical hierarchy process technique. Thereafter validation was performed with previous forest fire records. The overall result shows that there was very minor change in the forest fire risk zones using both the techniques.

012713   Ige-Olumide O O;Garuba S (NO, , ) : Health disaster risk assessment using GIS and remote sensing techniques: a case study of malaria. J Remote Sensing GIS 2016, 7(2), 50-9.

Malaria, curable and preventable, is a life threatening disease and also can be regarded as a concurrent health disaster. This disease is greatly influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, humidity and altitude which affect the survival and longevity of the vector mosquito, and the presence of water bodies which are breeding sites. Advancement in GIS and remote sensing has brought about an improved spatial analysis through the integrated use of GIS capabilities particularly in the health areas. It has also brought the development of a new approach of dealing with diseases including malaria. This paper reviewed published works on the various ways in which GIS and remote sensing have been applied in the identification of malaria risk areas. From the review, it was discovered that GIS and remote sensing have been applied in the identification of malaria risk areas including GIS and remote sensing as sources of spatial data in the form of satellite imageries from remotely sensed data; extraction of information on environmental factors that affect malaria risk, several spatial analysis including buffer zone generation, overlay analysis, DEM generation; mapping and predictive modelling of malaria risk areas using techniques like Bayesian modelling and krigging.

36 ref

012712   Hu T V;Rao P J (NO, , ) : Feature selection method for object-based classification of tropical forest using spot 5 imagery. J Remote Sensing GIS 2016, 7(2), 41-9.

The faster development of spatial technology, the more options in material for image analysis and this characteristic also leads to a huge diversity of image features. Aiming at investigating the optimal feature space for classification with emphasis on efficiency in less time-consuming, image objects separability, certain numbers of approaches ranging from graphical to statistical methods involving class separation distances have been used for classification related to Object-based Image Analysis (OBIA). Hence, a robust comparison of the utility and efficiency among methods is necessary. This paper presents the comparison between two approaches of optimal feature selection in the context of forest classification with Spot 5 imagery in the Nongha commune, the North eastern Vietnam. The first one is JeffreysMatusita distance, which uses the tool named Separability and Threshold (SEaTH) running in an IDL virtual machine environment and the other is Euclidean distance using the feature space optimization tool in eCognition software (FSO). This study mainly focuses on assessment of processing time, simplicity in using, feature space reduction and classification accuracy. After testing, SEaTH method shows advantages in term of classification accuracy, while FSO is a quite simple method which is user-friendly and does not require much in complicated manipulations. Finally, each approach results in different advantages and disadvantages. In the context of this study, which emphasize on forest classification using Spot 5 image, it is possible to conclude that SEaTH is the best choice.

13 ref

012711   Hameg S;Lazri M;Ameur S (Laboratoire Lampa, Univ Mouloud Mammeri, Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, Email: m_lazri@yahoo.fr) : Using Naive Bayes classifier for classification of convective rainfall intensities based on spectral characteristics retrieved from SEVIRI. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 945-55.

This paper presents a new algorithm to classify convective clouds and determine their intensity, based on cloud physical properties retrieved from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). The convective rainfall events at 15 min, 4 x 5 km spatial resolution from 2006 to 2012 are analysed over northern Algeria. The convective rain classification methodology makes use of the relationship between cloud spectral characteristics and cloud physical properties such as cloud water path (CWP), cloud phase (CP) and cloud top height (CTH). For this classification, a statistical method based on 'naive Bayes classifier' is applied. This is a simple probabilistic classifier based on applying 'Bayes' theorem with strong (naive) independent assumptions. For a 9-month period, the ability of SEVIRI to classify the rainfall intensity in the convective clouds is evaluated using weather radar over the northern Algeria. The results indicate an encouraging performance of the new algorithm for intensity differentiation of convective clouds using SEVIRI data.

3 illus, 7 table, 28 ref

012710   Haghiabi A H (Water Engineering Dep, Lorestan Univ, Khorramabad 0098-663-4200289, Iran, Email: ahaghiabi@gmail.com) : Prediction of longitudinal dispersion coefficient using multivariate adaptive regression splines. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 985-95.

In this paper, multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) was developed as a novel soft-computing technique for predicting longitudinal dispersion coefficient (DL) in rivers. As mentioned in the literature, experimental dataset related to DL was collected and used for preparing MARS model. Results of MARS model were compared with multi-layer neural network model and empirical formulas. To define the most effective parameters on DL, the Gamma test was used. Performance of MARS model was assessed by calculation of standard error indices. Error indices showed that MARS model has suitable performance and is more accurate compared to multi-layer neural - 122 - network model and empirical formulas. Results of the Gamma test and MARS model showed that flow depth (H) and ratio of the mean velocity to shear velocity (u/u*) were the most effective parameters on the D_L.

9 illus, 6 table, 40 ref

012709   Govinda V;Ankiti G (NO, , ) : Land suitability analysis for urban land use development. J Remote Sensing GIS 2016, 7(2), 27-40.

Quiha is rapidly growing sub-city in terms of population and spatial growth in the last two decades. The city is characterized by mixed and conflicting land uses due to lack of adopting proper spatial decision support techniques. The aim of the study is to assess the existing land use and propose a method to facilitate land suitability analysis. Accordingly, the current urban land use of the sub-city was assessed; maps were generated for the possible suitable areas for urban land use development by using GIS and multi-criteria decision analysis. Mainly, seven criteria, i.e. land use/land cover, flood hazards, slope, road proximity, aspect, elevation and distance from the airport were used for the urban land use development. As per the suitability map, the total study area was divided into four different suitability categories such as highly suitable 20%, moderately suitable 19%, low suitable 19% and unsuitable 42%. The suitability map validation was assessed using the techniques of ground truth verification and sensitivity analysis. Finally, the suitability map was compared with the existing land use. Accordingly, 22% of the land from the highly suitable category is already being used for the settlements and military camps, 20% of the land from the low suitable category is being used for settlements, while 58% are classified as forest and reserved from the category of unsuitable. In this suitability analysis study, optimal suitable area for the urban land use development approximately matches with the preferences of the local land use experts.

012708   Gogoi A;Das K K (NO, , ) : Investigation of a possibly EF2 tornado that HAD occurred in the city of Shillong (India) on the 5th of april 2016. J Aerospace Engng Technol 2016, 6(2), 60-4.

From the wide range of available literature it can be seen that HIW (High Intensity Winds) have a very significant effect on not only earth fixed structures but also on aviation structures aero planes or helicopters to be specific. Of the available HIW two important events have received wide attention namely Tornadoes and Downbursts. According the Glossary of Meteorology, a tornado is "A violently rotating column of air, pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud." The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, as well as the strongest and most violent tornadoes. Other areas of the world that have frequent tornadoes include significant portions of Europe, South Africa, - 121 - Bangladesh, parts of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil, New Zealand, and far eastern Asia. Bangladesh and the eastern parts of India are very exposed to destructive tornadoes causing higher deaths and injuries. Tornadoes happen mostly in eastern India, near Bangladesh during the pre Monsoon seasons (also called Kalbaishikhi or Bordoisila). Tornadoes are even recorded in northern Indian areas, including Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. In 2015, two tornadoes were recorded in India one in Rajasthan & other in Punjab. Both were weak ones, but they did significant damage. In this regard, a tornado had occurred in the city of Shillong on 5th of April 2016 in between 13.00-14.00 h. This paper attempts to highlight the field survey that was undertaken for studying the tornado and the possible rating of the tornado (EF2 has been arrived at).

012707   Ghanekar S P;Narkhedkar S G;Sikka D R (IITM, , Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune-411 008, Maharashtra, Email: ghanekar@trompet.res.in) : Progress of Indian summer monsoon onset and convective episodes over Indo-pacific region observed during 2009-2014. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 803-28.

Summer monsoon onset progress from the oceanic region of Southeast Bay of Bengal/Andaman Sea (Oceanr) up to extreme southwestern part of India (Kerala) for the years 2009 to 2014 is investigated. Synoptic weather information, INSAT/KALPANA-1 as well as cloud imageries archived from Dundee Satellite Receiving Station for May and early June for these years are used in the analysis. Upper-air reanalyzed winds from NCEP/NCAR and OLR data archived through NOAA satellites are also used. During the study period, the dates of monsoon onset as well as the time required for the advancement of onset from Oceanr to Kerala have shown a large variation. An attempt is made to investigate the causes for such variations. The results indicate that intense disturbances which formed over north Indian Ocean in 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and over west-north Pacific Oceanic region in 2011 and 2012 have contributed for the same. Analysis is carried out, limiting its focus to bring out the role of these convective events in the observed variation of onset timing and its progress by taking case to case review of these events and bringing out their influence through synoptic analysis. Utility of this information in prediction of the progress of Indian summer monsoon onset is also brought out.

16 illus, 1 table, 19 ref

012706   Gahlod N S;RangaRao V;Arya V S;Laghate P; Meena R L (Agriculture and Cooperation Dep, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, ) : Development of micro-watershed atlas of Haryana state- a citizen centric perspective. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 211-24.

The watershed of a river system is an ideal unit for agriculture development. The sub-watersheds and micro-watersheds are manageable units for development and - 120 - administration. The aim of this paper is the development of Micro-Watershed code of Haryana State, India, to provide a unique national code in an easy and understandable format.It helps in ensuring uniformity in the use of micro watershed code across the Nation in the soil and water management programmes.The spatial micro-watershed atlas of Haryana State developed with 799 sub-watersheds and 5264 Micro watersheds. Each one is having distinct spatial extent with unique national code helps to avoid duplication of activities with similar objectives under different ministries in one micro watershed. Procedures adopted in making available the Geospatial information on platform-free basis is also discussed along with an example. The development of Micro-watershed Atlas of Haryana State is useful for watershed management programmers at village level for the government and non-government organizations.

2 illus, 2 table, 11 ref

012705   Das S;Shukla D;Mitra S K (NO, Specialised Thematic Mapping, SU: T and AP, Geological Survey of India, Bandalaguda-500 068, Email: sankhad56@gmail.com) : Evidences of inclined transpression at the contact between Vinjamuru group and Udayagiri group of Nellore Schist Belt, Andhra Pradesh, India. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 1007-20.

The Nellore Schist Belt (NSB) is a curvilinear Archaean schist belt, approximately 350 km long and 8-50 km wide. The Nellore Schist Belt is considered to be Neoarchean in age and stratigraphically NSB is classified as the western Udayagiri group (dominated by metasediments) and underlying eastern Vinjamuru group (dominated by metabasalts). There is a long controversy regarding the contact relationship between Udayagiri and Vinjamuru groups. Earlier researchers regarded the contact between two groups as tectonic on the basis of metamorphism. A shear zone and a possible thrust contact between the two groups have also been reported. On the basis of present study, an NNW-SSE trending, westerly dipping inclined transpressional zone is found at the contact between Udayagiri and Vinjamuru groups in the central western part of the NSB. Kinematic analysis of both the hanging wall and foot wall of the westerly dipping thrust zone shows presence of strong S1 schistosity, shear bands and S-C fabric in both strike and dip section along with east-verging overturned fold, westerly dipping inverted beds, suggesting partitioning of non-coaxial deformation in strike-slip and dip-slip component along with a pure shear component. Strike-slip is more prominent in the northern part of the contact than the southern part. The presence of steep to moderate northerly plunging non-orthogonal stretching/mineral elongation lineation all along the contact and clockwise shift of plot of the same in stereo net from its orthogonal position and presence of other kinematic indicators in plan suggests a right lateral strike-slip component. As a whole, it is suggested that Udayagiri group is thrusted over Vinjamuru group along a westerly dipping thrust plane with a right lateral strike-slip motion and simultaneous E-W contraction.

9 illus, 25 ref

012704   Choudhary M R;Das S;Chatterjee S M;Sengupta S (Geological Sciences Dep, Jadavpur Univ, Kolkata-700 032, Email: smcjugeo@gmail.com) : Deformation of footwall rock of Phulad shear zone, Rajastha: Evidence of transpressional shear zone. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 1033-40.

Phulad Shear Zone (PSZ) of Delhi Fold Belt in Rajasthan is a northeasterly striking ductile shear zone with a well developed mylonitic foliation (035/70E) and a downdip stretching lineation. The deformation in the PSZ has developed in a transpressional regime with thrusting sense of movement. The northeastern unit, i.e., the hanging wall contains a variety of rocks namely calc-silicates, pelites and amphibolites and the southwestern unit, i.e., the footwall unit contains only granitic rocks. Systematic investigation of the granites of the southwestern unit indicate a gradual change in the intensity of deformation from a distance of about 1 km west of the shear zone to the shear zone proper. The granite changes from weakly deformed granite to a mylonite/ultramylonite as we proceed towards the PSZ. The weakly deformed granite shows a crude foliation with the same attitude of mylonitic foliation of the PSZ. Microscopic study reveals the incipient development of C and S fabric with angle between C and S varying from 15° to 24°. The small angle between the C and S fabric in the least deformed granite variety indicates that the deformation has strong pure shear component. At a distance of about 1 m away from the PSZ, there is abrupt change in the intensity of deformation. The granite becomes intensely foliated with a strong downdip lineation and the rock - 119 - becomes a true mylonite. In mesoscopic scale, the granite shows stretched porphyroclasts in both XZ and YZ sections indicating a flattening type of deformation. The angle between the C and S fabric is further reduced and finally becomes nearly parallel. In most places, S fabric is gradually replaced by C fabric. Calculation of sectional kinematic vorticity number ( W_n) from the protomylonitic and mylonite/ultramylonite granites varies from 0.3 ± 0.03 to 0.55 ± 0.04 indicating a strong component of pure shear. The similarity of the geometry of structures in the PSZ and the granites demonstrates that the deformation of the two units is broadly synchronous and the deformation in both the units is transpressional.

7 illus, 27 ref

012703   Chattopadhyay N;Bhowmik S K R;Singh K K;Ghosh K;Malathi K (India Meterological Dep, , Pune-411 005, Email: nabansu.nc@gmail.com) : Vertication of district level weather forecast. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 829-40.

IMD started issuing quantitative district level weather forecast upto 5 days on operational basis from 1st June, 2008. The products comprise of quantitative forecasts for seven weather parameters, viz., rainfall, maximum and minimum temperatures, wind speed and direction, relative humidity and cloudiness. The rainfall forecast is generated based on multi model-ensemble techniques (MME). For other parameters, ECMWF forecasts (presently IMDGFS) are used. These forecast products are further value added, by the respective MCs/RMCs and forwarded to 130 Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs) for preparation of weather based District Agromet Advisory Service bulletin. This Meteorological Monograph describes the performance skill of the operational district level weather forecasts over different parts of India rainfall during monsoon and temperature during winter and summer from 2012-14. The Monograph also highlights limitations and future scope for further improvement of the MME models. The verification results show weather forecasts are reasonably accurate and value addition has improved the accuracy of model forecast. Though the MME model could predict the weather in hill regions in the North but in other regions having some hilly areas, the same could not come true in respect of temperature. North East region of the country shows very less accuracy due to its predominantly humid sub-tropical climate with hot, humid summers, severe monsoons and mild winter.

3 illus, 4 tables, 6 ref

012702   Brijesh Kumar;Patra K C;Lakshmi V (Civil Engineering Dep, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha-769 008, Email: brijeshag1684@gmail.com) : Daily rainfall statistics of TRMM and CMORPH: A case for trans-boundary Gandak river basin. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(5), 919-34.

Satellite precipitation products offer an opportunity to evaluate extreme events (flood and drought) for areas where rainfall data are not available or rain gauge stations are sparse. In this study, daily precipitation amount and frequency of TRMM 3B42V.7 and CMORPH products have been validated against daily rain gauge precipitation for the monsoon months (June-September or JJAS) from 2005-2010 in the trans-boundary Gandak River basin. The analysis shows that the both TRMM and CMORPH can detect rain and no-rain events, but they fail to capture the intensity of rainfall. The detection of precipitation amount is strongly dependent on the topography. In the plains areas, TRMM product is capable of capturing high-intensity rain events but in the hilly regions, it underestimates the amount of high-intensity rain events. On the other hand, CMORPH entirely fails to capture the high-intensity rain events but does well with low-intensity rain events in both hilly regions as well as the plain region. The continuous variable verification method shows better agreement of TRMM rainfall products with rain gauge data. TRMM fares better in the prediction of probability of occurrence of high-intensity rainfall events, but it underestimates intensity at high altitudes. This implies that TRMM precipitation - 118 - estimates can be used for flood-related studies only after bias adjustment for the topography.

9 illus, 6 table, 38 ref

012701   Bhatla R;Tripathi A;Singh R S (Geophysics Dep, Banaras Hindu Univ, Varanasi-221 005, Email: rbhatla@bhu.ac.in) : Analysis of rainfall pattern extreme events during southwest monsoon season over Varanasi during 1971 2010. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 903-12.

An attempt has been made to detect the pattern of rainfall and examine the trends and variations of extreme events of rainfall over Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh, India) through seasonal, monthly and decadal analysis during southwest monsoon season (June-September) using the daily rainfall data of 40 years period from 1971-2010. The results show that cumulative rainfall during 1971-2010 is overall decreasing in monsoon season as well as in all the months June, July, August and September. In general, the observed rainfall events in all categories (Non rainy day, 0-2.4 mm; Category I, 2.5-64.4; Category II, 64.5 to 124.4; Category III, 124.5 mm or more) have a decreasing trend in all the months and monsoon season over the entire period of study. However, decadal analysis reveals that in general frequency of rainfall events in almost every category is decreasing in recent decade. Different results are seen in August, as cumulative rainfall is decreasing in this month, whereas very heavy and exceptionally heavy rainfall events and their contribution have increased in recent decade as well as over total period.

3 illus, 7 tables, 27 ref

012700   Atul Kumar;Negi M S (Geography Dep, H.N.B. Garhwal Univ, Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttarakhand, Email: atulram1990@gmail.com ) : Physiographic study of Mandakini valley (Rudraprayag district) Garhwal Himalaya by morphometric analysis and geospatial techniques. Int J Geomatics Geosci 2016, 7(2), 128-42.

Physiographic unit Mandakini basin with Rudraprayag district administrative are is covering area about 1982.93sq. Km (Latitude 30°19'00'' and 30°49' North and longitude 78°49' and 790 21' 13'' East) lies in Garhwal Himalayan Range, India has been selected for physiographic study through morphometric analysis. The basic aim of present study is to elucidate the characteristics of the areal, linear and relief features of the area using SOI toposheets and ASTR DEM which contribute as dominant factor to assess the landscape features of basin. It revealed that the Mandakini basin has seventh order river network with dendritic pattern suggests the different homogeneous geological attributes, moderate to steep slope and strong structural control. Bifurcation ratio between different successive orders varies very few but mean ratio indicates that the strong structural control and less permeability of rocks. Moderate to moderate course drainage density, moderate to moderate high drainage frequency and very high - 117 - texture ratio suggests that terrain has steep slopes, complex deformed lithology. Geometric parameters indicates that the basin is less elongated in shape with moderate to very high relief, less infiltration capacity and longer duration of water flow in the basin. The minimum absolute relief 794.94 m. is in the southern part and the maximum 6993.71 m. in the northern upper part and moderate to very high sloping of the basin. The all morphometric indicators and existing landforms indicate youth stage of topography of the basin.

11 illus, 11 table, 18 ref

012699   Anantnarama V;Gujalakshmi K (NO, , ) : Prioritization of micro/mini watersheds and identification of locations to constructy rainwater harvesting structures using morphometric parameters and geoinformatics. J Remote Sensing GIS 2016, 7(2), 1-15.

Nalluru Amani Kere Watershed (NAKW) is constituent of Caveri river basin, Karnataka state, covering 415.68 km2 area, representing arid climate. The NAKW has been divided into thirty one micro/mini watersheds (MWS) of 3rd order, designated as MWS-1 to MWS-31, for the purpose of prioritization. For this purpose, morphometric parameters were calculated under linear and shape aspects. Linear aspects such as; drainage density (Dd), bifurcation ratio (Rb), stream frequency (Fu), length of overland flow (Lg), texture ratio (T), and the shape parameter such as; shape factor (Bs), form factor (Rf), compactness constant (Cc), elongation ratio (Re), and circularity ratio (Rc) are utilised for prioritisation of MWS. Above morphometric parameter was determined for each MWS and assigned rank on the basis of value and relationship with erodibility so as to arrive at a compound value for final ranking based on which sub-watersheds were prioritised. Soil map, slope map and land use maps with stream numbers are used in spatial analysis tool of ArcGIS 9.2 platform to identify the best feasible locations to construct different types of engineering structures (water harvesting/soil conservation) in the sub-watersheds.

012698   Amudha B;Raj Y E A;Asokan R;Thampi S B (Indian Meterological Dep, , Chennai-600 006, Email: amudha2308@gmail.com) : Spatial rainfall patterns associated with Indian northeast monsoon derived from high resolution rainfall estimates of Chennai DWR. Mausam 2016, 67(4), 767-88.

The Indian northeast monsoon (NEM) season benefits the southeastern parts of peninsular India during the period October-November-December (OND). In this study, which is a first of this type for the Indian region, certain new and salient features of the NEM rainfall (RF) have been derived utilising the very high resolution (333 m x 333 m) radar estimated rainfall (RERF) data generated by the Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) at Chennai for the 12 year period (2002-13), over a circular area of 100 km radius spreading over both land and ocean. More than 2.8 lakhs of grid point data per day have been processed. Rain gauge measured rainfall (RGRF) data of 34 inland stations has also been used. Monthwise spatial distributions of RERF for October, November and December and for the entire season OND have been generated. It is shown through rigorous analysis that RERF is heavier closer to the coast and for a given longitude over land, southern latitudes receive 10-15% more RF than the northern latitudes. Decrease of RF eastwards into Bay of Bengal (BoB) is gradual whereas westwards over inland it is sharp and almost linear. By and large, the climatological features of NEM derived from historical analysis of RGRF data are well-captured by the analysis based on RERF data. A few new features of monthly and seasonal RF have also been identified. For the 34 stations, 12 year data set for OND, the mean RERF and RGRF values are 629.8 mm and 627.4 mm respectively yielding a difference of just 2.4 mm but with a substantial mean absolute deviation of 69.2 mm. RERF during pre-NEM days of Oct contributed to 10% of the seasonal OND total. RERF in the area of study, during days of cyclonic disturbances (CD days) is nearly twice over outer oceanic areas of BoB than over land. It has been shown that during the onset to withdrawal period of NEM, RERF is heavier over areas close to the coast (75 cm) than oceanic areas (68 cm) within the 100 km radius of the DWR. High RF zones approximately extending 25-30 km westwards into land and around 30-40 km eastwards over the ocean have been delineated. Spatial distributions of RERF during the various phases - 116 - of NEM, viz., dry, weak, normal, active and vigorous as identified from the RGRF data have been generated, critically analysed and results drawn. In the case of vigorous, active and vigorous (AV) NEM days excluding CD days, a relatively high daily RERF patch of 5-6 cm located approximately 5-10 km west of the coast inland and in the SW sector of Chennai DWR has been identified. During post-NEM withdrawal days of December, oceanic areas of eastern sector are shown to receive highest RF compared to land areas, a feature consistent with the withdrawal pattern of NEM. The instrumental limitations and artifacts of radars contributing to errors in RERF have been discussed.

16 illus, 6 tables, 31 ref

012697   Amin A;Fazal S (NO, , ) : Land transformation and redevelopment plan in CBD (a GIS based study of Lal chowk, J&K, India). J Remote Sensing GIS 2016, 7(2), 16-26.

Rapid urbanization promoted the economic and social development, which is a prominent feature of the industrial era and is also a major driving force altering local and regional - 115 - environments in the form of land use/land cover change and land transformation. The concept of CBD came into existence with the onset of urbanization that brought transformation of traditional rural economies where primary economic activities are dominated by the modern industrial society of secondary and tertiary economic activities. Cities are manmade physical structures, placed in natural settings. Cities with rapid growth (especially in developing countries) expand without planning. During the past 50 years, urban population in India has increased by more than six times. The present study focuses to understand the respondent's activities, which influence the transformations in land use/land cover of the CBD. In this case, study, the focus is on human response to the different social, economic and cultural aspects. The study used spatial tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) data, which enabled to quantify land use change and transformation, and linked the socioeconomic transformation with land transformation process and associated issues. In the end, the study proposed certain diagnostic suggestions for redevelopment.

6 ref

011537   Zhu B Q (Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chine, Beijing 100101, China, Email: zhubingqi@igsnrr.ac.cn) : Hydrological indications of aeolian salts in mid-latitude deserts of northwestern China. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(4), 809-20.

Large sandy deserts in middle latitude of northwestern China were studied on salt variations in modern and ancient aeolian sediments, aiming to explore their hydrological indications at the present and past. Globally, sulphate is rich in arid to semi-arid deserts, including the aeolian loess sediments in China and soils in low-latitude deserts, but is less common in the aeolian sediments from the mid-latitude deserts in this study. The compositional differences between aeolian salts and local natural waters is evident, indicating the chemistry of aeolian salts and the associated parent brines may be significantly different than that predicted for hydrologically closed systems. The formation of aeolian salts in the studied deserts is strongly controlled by earth surface processes in a large scale but not in a local scale. Vertical changes in facies and salinities are abrupt in the studied palaeo-aeolian sediment samples, which were interbedded by lacustrine/fluvial sediments with OSL and ¹⁴C ages ranging between 40 and 2 ka BP, reflecting rapid high-amplitude changes in hydrological settings during late Pleistocene to later Holocene in these ancient playa systems. A great difference in salt composition between aeolian and lacustrine sediments suggests that the inorganic salt is a latent geoproxy in revealing local hydrological variations and climate change in the desert areas. But the environmental indications could be amphibolous for the sedimentary sequences with dual/multiple depositional end-members; under this situation an increase in sequence salinity does not always represent an enhanced environmental aridity. Ancient playas are arid or humid at the same time based on several sporadic records is not a valid approach to correlation of salt deposits in adjacent saline playa basin in the studied areas. Effects of earth surface processes including erosion, deposition and other processes on sediment properties will bias the hydrological implications of sediment salinity.

7 illus, 46 ref

011536   ZareZadeh R;Rezaee P;Lak R;Masoodi M;Ghorbani M (Geology Dep, Faculty of Science, Hormozgan Univ, Bandar Abbas, Iran, Email: peiman_rezaie@yahoo.com) : Study of textural and accumulation heavy metals of sediments in mangroove ecosystem of Persian Gulf, south Iran. Indian J Geomar Sci 2017, 46(1), 78-85 .

Sediment samples this area were collected during December 2013 to April 2015. Seven heavy metal concentrations, grain size, organic carbon and carbonate contents were studied in order to assess the extent of distribution pollution and to discuss the origin of these contaminants in sediments. These sediments contain varieties of sediment types including sandy silt, silty sand and sandy. The mangrove area was characterized as poorly to extremely poorly sorted sediment environments. Sediments were identified as strongly fine skewed with very leptokurtic character. Contamination of sediments was assessed on basis of geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), Modified degree of contamination (mCd) and Pollution load index (PLI). Result of Contamination indices indicated that the sediments were uncontaminated with Pb, Zn, Cu and Fe, uncontaminated to moderately contamination with Cr and Ni, moderately to heavily contaminate with Cd in mangrove ecosystem in Hara Biosphere Reserve, Persian Gulf.

3 illus, 4 table, 28 ref

011535   Wang C (NO, Collaborative Innovation Center for Geospatial Information Technology, No. 129 Luoya Road, Wuhan 430079, China, Email: ac@geodesy.cn) : Comparison of ionospheric characteristic parameters obtained by GPS and ionosonde with IRI model over China. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(4), 745-59.

This paper presents a comparison of ionospheric characteristic parameters obtained by a GPS network and three ionosondes at Mohe (122.4°E, 53.5°N, dip angle 70.983°N), Zuolingzhen (114.6°E, 30.5°N, dip angle 46.350°N), and Fuke (109.1°E, 19.5°N, dip angle 27.083°N) located in China with an IRI model in the year 2011. Observed NmF2 and hmF2 values at the three stations are compared with IRI2007 and IRI2012 predictions, respectively. The results show that there are clear linear correlations between the observed values and the IRI model predicted values. The IRI model gives overestimations at the three stations mostly in 2011. For the NmF2 and hmF2 values, most of the results show that the IRI2012 predicted values are closer to the observed values compared with those of IRI2007. Additionally, the GPS TEC values derived from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) are compared with the IRI2012 predictions. From the results, it is evident that the IRI2012 model predictions follow the normal trend of diurnal variation of GPS measured TEC monthly means but do not reproduce the measured data well. The IRI2012 model overestimates electron density in the latter part of spring as well as the first half of autumn and winter and underestimates electron density in early spring and the latter part of autumn. Referring to GPS TEC, the precision of the IRI2012 model predicted TEC values is <126>5 TECU over China. It may also be noted that there are two discontinuities of IRI-TEC monthly means appearing in November and December of the year 2011. This brings a bias of <126>3 TECU of TEC values between two adjacent months.

20 illus, 2 tables, 42 ref

011534   Unnikrishnan C K;Rajeevan M;Rao S V B ( National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, ESSO MoES, Noida 62, Email: unnikrishnack@gmail.com) : Impact of high resolution land surface initialization in Indian summer monsoon simulation using a regional climate model. J Earth Syst Sci 2016, 125(4), 677-89.

The direct impact of high resolution land surface initialization on the forecast bias in a regional climate model in recent years over Indian summer monsoon region is investigated. Two sets of regional climate model simulations are performed, one with a coarse resolution land surface initial conditions and second one used a high resolution land surface data for initial condition. The results show that all monsoon years respond differently to the high resolution land surface initialization. The drought monsoon year 2009 and extended break periods were more sensitive to the high resolution land surface initialization. These results suggest that the drought monsoon year predictions can be improved with high resolution land surface initialization. Result also shows that there are differences in the response to the land surface initialization within the monsoon season. Case studies of heat wave and a monsoon depression simulation show that, the model biases were also improved with high resolution land surface initialization. These results show the need for a better land surface initialization strategy in high resolution regional models for monsoon forecasting.

7 illus, 2 tables, 29 ref