Faculty Publications
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Item Climate Change Adaptation for Sustainable Management of Water in India: Issues and Challenges(wiley, 2020) Azhoni, A.The cascading effects of the increasing global temperatures have the potential to affect almost every area of life. Their impacts on the ecology, economy and the survival of human society are interconnected. However, water is the medium through which these impacts are experienced immediately and directly. Hence, one of the key priorities of adaptation is to prevent water-related disasters and maintain the sustainable management of water. This chapter, therefore, addresses some of the challenges of climate change for sustainable management of water in India and identifies key issues and challenges in addressing this concern. It discusses the various approaches to adaptation, such as bottom-up and top-down approaches, and then sets this in the context of adaptation in India by giving examples from two Himalayan states, namely, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh. The chapter thereby highlights some of the key issues and opportunities of climate change adaptation for sustainable management of water, which are relevant for policymakers and water management institutions as well as researchers. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Geo-Morphological Assessment in the Upper Reaches of Krishna River (India) Using Multi-temporal Satellite Data During 1991–2021(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024) Choudhary, P.; Azhoni, A.; Devatha, C.P.Rivers have historically served as the birthplace of human civilization. The study of channel planform and geo-morphological characteristics is of utmost importance in investigating the effects of climate change and alterations in land use on the overall well-being of rivers. This study examines the temporal variations in the geo-morphological characteristics of the upper reaches of Krishna River during three decades (1991–2021). Spatial data is obtained from several satellite missions and afterward processed using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assess alterations in the active river channel's extent, erosion, and accretion areas and the sinuosity index. The river channel has been segmented into seven sub-reaches, and it has been observed that some sections of the bank line require prompt attention from the relevant authorities to carry out bank protection measures. The findings indicate that the left bank exhibits a greater tendency towards erosion and shifting compared to the right bank. Additionally, the river has undergone geo-morphological alterations due to the construction of hydraulic structures and the occurrence of numerous flood events within the basin. The sinuosity index of the river provides evidence of its meandering nature. This study offers valuable insights into the dynamic behavior of the Upper Krishna River, hence providing useful information for authorities and decision-makers involved in river training initiatives and future development projects. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.Item Toxicity Analysis of Treated Paint Wastewater by Advanced Oxidation Process Using Bacterial Growth Inhibition and Seed Germination Test(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024) Nair K, K.S.; Manu, B.; Azhoni, A.Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are increasingly being adopted for treatment of industrial wastewaters for eliminating organic elements. Although the reduction in chemical oxidation generally reduces toxicity, high efficiency of organic component breakdown does not always result in a drop in toxicity to a tolerable level. Hence, toxicity reduction studies for industrial effluent are required. However, it is difficult to carry out toxicity studies with higher vertebrates due to ethical and logistical constraints. Therefore, proxy tests, such as the use of indicator bacteria, have the potential to provide insights for toxicological studies of (treated) wastewater. Having reviewed various methods and indicators adopted for toxicity analysis of AOP treated wastewater, the toxicity of treated paint wastewater was studied by bacterial growth inhibition test using Bacillus subtilis and seed germination test using mung bean (Vigna radiata) and Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum). The results showed that the treated wastewater is completely toxic free for the growth of indicator bacteria. This indicates that the heterogeneous Fenton’s oxidation using laterite as catalyst is an effective AOP in reducing the toxicity of paint wastewater. The finding reported in this research is significant because it proves laterite soil, which is abundantly available in tropical regions, to be an efficient catalyst for Fenton’s Oxidation treatment of paint wastewater which opens up further scope for treatment of other similar industrial effluents in tropical regions. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.Item Sustainable treatment of paint industry wastewater: Current techniques and challenges(Academic Press, 2021) Nair K, S.; Manu, B.; Azhoni, A.Paint manufacturing industries produce wastewater containing high chemical oxygen demand and turbidity, besides organic matter, suspended solids, and heavy metals that cause enormous environmental damages. Safely treating this wastewater before being disposed to the natural water sources is essential for attaining the UN SDGs, particularly Goal 14: Life under water. Besides being efficient, wastewater treatment techniques must be sustainable – environmentally, economically, and ethically. While a few papers have reviewed specific treatment methods for certain pollutants, such as heavy metals, oils, and azo dyes from industrial wastewater, a comprehensive review of various treatment methods for all the pollutants of a particular industrial wastewater – paint industry – is lacking. This paper reviews the current treatment methods used for treating paint industry wastewater including the physicochemical, biological, and chemical treatment techniques. The physicochemical techniques produce large amount of sludge making it difficult for disposal while biological treatment techniques are difficult to maintain because of the uncertainties in the chemical compositions of the paint wastewater. Advanced oxidation processes are emerging as preferred methods among the chemical methods for reducing the toxicity of the various components of the paint wastewater with reduced sludge quantity. The review of various emerging techniques of paint industry wastewater treatments in this paper points to the need for paying greater attention to combining the oxidation and biological processes as they are emerging as sustainable methods for effective reduction of toxicity in paint wastewater while also reducing the sludge management challenges. © 2021 Elsevier LtdItem The land–river interface: a conceptual framework of environmental process interactions to support sustainable development(Springer, 2022) Grabowski, R.C.; Vercruysse, K.; Holman, I.; Azhoni, A.; Bala, B.; Shankar, V.; Beale, J.; Mukate, S.; Poddar, A.; Peng, J.; Meersmans, J.Rivers and their surrounding lands are focal points of human development in the landscape. However, activities associated with development can greatly affect river processes, causing significant and often unintended environmental and human impacts. Despite the profound and varied environmental impacts that development-related alterations cause through hydrological, geomorphic, and ecological processes, they are not widely acknowledged outside of river management and affect resource availability and hazard exposure to people. In this paper, we propose a novel, interdisciplinary conceptual framework of river–land process interactions to support sustainable management and development. We introduce the term ‘land–river interface’ (LRI) to describe areas of the landscape in which river processes affect land, vegetation, and/or fauna, including humans, directly or indirectly. The multiple links between LRI processes and factors at the river basin, valley, and river channel (i.e. reach) scale are synthesized and a conceptual zonation of the LRI based on the process is proposed to serve as a framework to understand the impacts of human activity. Three examples of development-related activities (urbanization, dams and aggregate mining) illustrate how alteration to the form and functioning of river basins, valleys, and channels cause a range of impacts to be propagated throughout the landscape, often spatially or temporally distant from the activity. The diversity and severity of these impacts on the environment and people underscore the need to incorporate river processes, as represented in the LRI concept, into broader environmental management to better anticipate and mitigate negative impacts and maximize positive outcomes to deliver the benefits of sustainable development across society. © 2022, The Author(s).Item Placed-based interpretation of the sustainable development goals for the land-river interface(Springer, 2022) Vercruysse, K.; Grabowski, R.C.; Holman, I.; Azhoni, A.; Bala, B.; Meersmans, J.; Peng, J.; Shankar, V.; Mukate, S.; Poddar, A.; Wang, X.; Zhang, Z.The land–river interface (LRI) is important for sustainable development. The environmental processes that define the LRI support the natural capital and ecosystem services that are linked directly to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, existing approaches to scale up or down SDG targets and link them to natural capital are insufficient for the two-way human–environment interactions that exist in the LRI. Therefore, this study proposes a place-based approach to interpret the SDG framework to support sustainable land/water management, by (i) identifying key priorities for sustainable development through a normative content analysis of the SDG targets, and (ii) illustrating these priorities and associated challenges within the LRI, based on a literature review and case-studies on human–environment interactions. The content analysis identifies three overarching sustainable development priorities: (i) ensuring improved access to resources and services provided by the LRI, (ii) strengthening the resilience of the LRI to deal with social and natural shocks, and (iii) increasing resource efficiency. The review of the current state of LRIs across the world confirms that these are indeed priority areas for sustainable development. Yet, the challenges of attaining the sustainable development priorities in the LRI are also illustrated with three examples of development-related processes. Urbanisation, dam construction, and aggregate mining occur within specific zones of the LRI (land, land–river, river, respectively), but their impacts can compromise sustainable development across the entire LRI and beyond. The existence of these unintended impacts highlights the need to consider the geomorphic, hydrological, and ecological processes within the LRI and how they interact with human activity. Identifying the place-based priorities and challenges for sustainable development will help achieve the SDGs without compromising the functions and services of the LRI. © 2022, The Author(s).Item GIS based coastal vulnerability assessment and adaptation barriers to coastal regulations in Dakshina Kannada district, India(Elsevier B.V., 2022) Rehman, S.; Jahangir, S.; Azhoni, A.Coastal areas represent fragile and complex ecosystems. Changes in climate, increasing urbanization and industrialization are creating immense pressure on the coastal environment. Coastal erosion, sea level rise, changing morphology of the coastal areas and extreme weather events are some of the threats that coastal regions are experiencing globally. While various studies have assessed the vulnerability of coastal regions quantitatively and spatially, there is a need to supplement these findings with qualitative insights based on human experiences. Thus, the present study carried out a coastal vulnerability assessment along the coastline of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, India using Shannon's Entropy by including eight parameters i.e., slope, elevation, geomorphology, bathymetry, sea level rise, mean tidal range, mean significant wave height and shoreline change. The study also explored the experiences and perceptions of stakeholders regarding adaptation barriers to climate change vulnerabilities for understanding the ground complexities. Coastal vulnerability index (CVI) revealed that nearly 39.7 km of the coastline is vulnerable including areas along Sasihtlu beach, Munda, New Mangalore Port Batapady beach, Uchilla, Kotekar, Ullal beach, Netravati River Area and Mukka beach. Rainfall induced coastal erosion, lack of coordination among the various stakeholders, policy makers and practitioners regarding a common framework for climate change adaptation strategies were identified adaptation barriers. The findings of CVI and adaptation barriers may be used by practitioners and policy makers for framing the adaptation measures for mitigating the implications of the coastal region. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.Item Identifying evolving priorities in national river governance from Parliamentary Questions(IWA Publishing, 2022) Azhoni, A.; Holman, I.; Grabowski, R.C.Rivers and their surrounding land provide resources and services that result in trade-offs requiring legislative and institutional interventions, for which the perspectives of law-policymakers and their societal values and political expediencies play a major role in decision-making. This study critically evaluates the evolving land–river governance in large democratically elected governments with complex developmental priorities and how law-policymakers’ recognition of emerging issues of river management influences common pool environmental resources governance. We selected an emerging economy – India – and analysed Parliamentary Questions (PQs) between 1999 and 2020 using a mixed method approach. Conflicting priorities over economic development, pollution management, socio-cultural values and inter-state–centre issues shape the evolving priorities of land–river governance. A declining focus on large-scale dams coupled with increasing attention on inter-basin water transfers, river conservation and pollution abatement, demonstrates an evolution away from the earlier narrow view of rivers for irrigation and hydropower. Our analysis demonstrates how the priorities of law-policymakers and political expedience play a critical role in river governance and thereby provide important insights into common pool environmental resources governance for sustainable development while also identifying important knowledge gaps and suggesting scopes for interdisciplinary studies. © 2022 The Authors.Item Analyzing landslide susceptibility, health vulnerability and risk using multi-criteria decision-making analysis in Arunachal Pradesh, India(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023) Rehman, S.; Azhoni, A.Landslides being a widespread disaster are associated with susceptibility, vulnerability and risk. The physical factors inducing landslides are relatively well-known. However, how landslide susceptibility will be exacerbated by climate change, impede the attainment of the sustainable development goals and increase health vulnerability is relatively less explored. We present an integrated assessment of landslide susceptibility, health vulnerability and overall risk to understand these interconnected dimensions using Arunachal Pradesh, India, as a case study, which is susceptible to landslides due to its topography and climate conditions. Landslide susceptibility was examined using twenty landslide conditioning parameters through the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). The susceptibility map was validated using the area under the ROC curve (AUC). National Family Health Survey (NFHS 4) data were used to analyze the health vulnerability, while the overall risk was computed through the integration of susceptibility and vulnerability. Landslide susceptibility analysis indicated that nearly 22% area of the state is characterized by moderate susceptibility followed by high (17%) and very high susceptibility (13%). High elevation, slope, rainfall, SPI, drainage density and complex geology were identified as the causative factors of landslides. In the case of health vulnerability, East Kameng and Lohit districts were found to be very highly vulnerable, while Papum Pare, Changlang and Tirap districts experience high health vulnerability due to high degree of exposure and sensitivity. Overall risk analysis revealed over 16.8% area of the state is under moderate risk followed by high (9.8%) and very high (4.2%) risk. Linking this analysis with the climate change projections and SDG goals attainment revealed that Papum Pare, Upper Subansiri, Tirap and West Kameng require priority for lessening susceptibility, vulnerability and risk for achieving sustainable development. A strong correlation (99%) between HVI and risk further demonstrates the need for lessening health vulnerability and risk in the study area. Furthermore, our study contributes additional insights into landslide susceptibility by considering heal vulnerability and risk which may help in planning sustainable development strategies in a changing climate. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences.Item Livelihood vulnerability assessment and climate change perception analysis in Arunachal Pradesh, India(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023) Rehman, S.; Azhoni, A.; Chabbi, P.H.Climate change induced frequent disasters pose severe threats to agro-based rural livelihoods. Perceptions of risks play a critical role in planning and averting disasters. Lack of analytical documentation concerning how vulnerable communities perceive climate risks is a barrier to addressing and averting disasters and maladaptation. Applying a mixed approach, this study examines the perception of households concerning climate change and analyses the impacts of climate change on livelihood in Arunachal Pradesh, the largest northeastern state of India, with severe climate related challenges. Conceptual livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) framework of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is adopted to analyse the climate change induced vulnerability on livelihood. A total 450 households from 18 villages located in the districts of Arunachal Pradesh were surveyed during October, 2021 for retrieving the ground complexities in the region. Decrease in yields, frequent landslides and floods, livestock losses and unpredictable weather condition were perceived by the sampled households. The LVI analysis indicated that households are vulnerable in Arzoo, Perum, Pekong and Amliang villages requiring priority for lessening livelihood vulnerability and increasing coping capacity of the communities. Correlation analysis indicated that climate variability, natural disaster, health, food and social components attributed to livelihood vulnerability in the study area. Alternate livelihood, enhancing preparedness to disasters, inclusion of women in workforce, sustainable livelihood practices and government assistance are some of the suggestions made to enhance the adaptation of local communities in a sustainable way. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.