Temporal Variability Study in Rainfall and Temperature over Varanasi and adjoining areas

Omar Padam Jee, Dwivedi Shyam Bihari and Dikshit Prabhat Kumar

Page No. 1-7

India has diverse climatic conditions, it is full of uncertainty and extremities for example, its temperature varies from below 5°C in Jammu and Kashmir to near about 48°C in most of South India and rainfall from extreme arid less than 100 mm in the Thar Desert to per-humid with world's maximum rainfall of 11,200 mm at Mawsynram in the state of Meghalaya. Along with these, human activity also influences the climatic parameters. Small change in the climatic parameters affects the environment, their surroundings and associated natural resources. One consequence of this unbalancing is the change in the water cycle, with precipitation (rainfall) being a major component in this. To identify the trend in the rainfall and temperature regime of the Varanasi and adjoining areas, a study was carried out. In this study, monthly data of weather parameters have been collected for 30 years (1988-2017) and non-parametric test is used for analysis as it is less affected by the presence of outliers and other forms of non-normalities.

The study revealed a significant decreasing trend in maximum temperature with some exception and for minimum temperature, decreasing trend observed at 1% and 0.1% in the month of July and August. April, June and July show an increasing trend of relative humidity at 1%, 5% and 10% significance level. Estimation of magnitude of trends for all weather parameters was also calculated by Theil-Sen’s estimator. Analysis of trends in rainfall and temperature could provide useful information for sustainable planning of water resources in the Varanasi and adjoining areas.

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Study of Volunteering Geographic Information enabled response to Livestock Disaster

Jee Hee Koo, Ji Yeon Ahn, Dong Min Lee and Sang Rak Lee

Page No. 8-14

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease made a huge damage to Korea in 2010 and it was serious enough to be declared as a national disaster. Highly infectious diseases like foot and mouth disease tend to cause nationwide damage. For this reason, it is important to detect it early at the farm, but it is more important to quickly respond to the disease by regularly monitoring the activity of livestock animals to detect if they show any abnormal symptoms and share such data through community mapping since the disease often spread via veterinarians or feed carrying vehicles.

Therefore, this study aimed to develop a cattle activity monitoring system by utilizing ubiquitous ICT and suggest community mapping items necessary for each stakeholder such as farmers, veterinarians and the government to facilitate their response to the outbreak of infectious diseases. The cattle activity monitoring system and community mapping are expected to contribute to supporting rapid initial response and preventing the outbreak of infectious disease from becoming a nationwide disaster.

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Landslide hazard during 2000-2016 in Zhejiang Province, the typical subtropical region of Southeast China

Rong Jia, Jiamei Guo and Shanzhong Qi

Page No. 15-17

Landslide is one of serious typical geological hazards in mountainous regions and occurs frequently in China, especially in the typical subtropical region of Southeast China. Zhejiang Province is one of the China’s key forest provinces and it witnesses serious geological hazards (i.e. landslide, collapse, debris flow and land subsidence) in recent years, of which landslide hazards are serious in the study area. The data of geological hazards and landslide hazard during the period of 2000-2016 in Zhejiang Province were collected and analyzed respectively. The occurrences of geological hazards are 4952 times, the economic losses are 75,991.56 × 104 RMB and the casualties are 366 persons in Zhejiang Province during the study period from 2000 to 2016.

The results show that geological hazards result in especially high damage and are serious in Zhejiang Province in recent years and landslide is the main type of the geological hazards in the study area. Further, a call to action against geological hazards on subtropical forested regions of China should be a top priority in future decades.

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Understanding Sustainability of Post Tsunami Reconstruction and Rehabilitation initiatives of tsunami affected areas in Kerala, India

Sarun S. and Anil Kumar R.

Page No. 18-25

In the aftermath of Tsunami 2004 disaster there was unprecedented response through various rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. In this context, this study examines implications and sustainability of rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes that followed the 2004 tsunami in Kerala, a south western coastal state in India. An understanding of the perception of the victims on various Rehabilitation and Reconstruction activities is essential for assessing the long-term sustainability as well as planning strategies for future disaster risk. To grasp these dimensions an intensive field, survey and questionnaire survey were conducted with the victims.

The study revealed that there was high level of dissatisfaction among the tsunami victims with the reconstruction and rehabilitation related to housing, livelihood and disaster resilience related variables while the victims recorded positive feedback on the fillip the area received in infrastructure sector especially with respect to construction of new roads and bridges ensuing Tsunami. Also, the study attempts to highlight the issues and challenges with regard to rehabilitation and reconstruction and suggests steps needed to design a sustainable development strategy for the region. The study bids to recommend adoption /implementation of a bottom up planning model incorporating perceptions of victims.

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Analytical hierarchy process for landslide hazard zonation of South-Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India

Patil Abhijit S. and Panhalkar S.S.

Page No. 26-39

Western Ghats of Maharashtra frequently suffer from landslide disaster caused by steep slope areas and mountainous terrain. To mitigate this problem, landslide hazard zonation has significance as fast and safe mitigation measure. This study has been carried out in the South-western Ghats of Maharashtra with the prime objective of delineating landslide hazard zones for the study area by using Analytical Hierarchy Process and Geographical Information System.

The main focus of this study is to rank different segment of land surface on the basis of degree of potential landslide hazard of South-western Ghats of Maharashtra. AHP model is derived with thirteen thematic layers viz, slope, drainage density, land use/land cover, lineament density, geology, NDVI, earthquake, geomorphology, relief, rainfall and road density. The output of this research presents Low, Medium, High and Very High landslide hazard zones of South-western Ghats of Maharashtra.

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Natural Disaster Analysis and Mapping using Remote Sensing and QGIS Tools for F-North ward, Mumbai City, India

Sansare Darshan and Mhaske Sumedh

Page No. 40-50

Flooding, landslides and water logging cause severe hazards to human population, infrastructure, economy and overall growth of the country. Mumbai is one of the Metropolitan cities in India which has been frequently affected by flooding and landslides. Since losses and damages due to these disasters are huge, decision makers require accurate information of the affected area for developing appropriate flood protection, warning and evacuation system for reducing the severity. The objective of this study is to carry out hazard analysis and its thematic mapping for F-North ward, Mumbai using QGIS tools and techniques. The areas and the number of buildings, roads, railways and population dwellings affected by Flooding, Landslides and water logging were analyzed by taking different buffers from the above hazard prone zones. Significant damages to life and property were found out from the analysis which is an alarming situation to control and mitigate the damages caused by these Natural hazards.

GIS and remote sensing provide an efficient way to identify and locate natural hazard-prone areas, unsafe structures and resources. Hazard maps and database generated from this study by QGIS software is of immense importance for Government bodies, institutions and policy makers who can prepare disaster management plans more effectively.

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