Faculty Publications

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Slow release studies on commercial urea briquettes in loam and Silty clay soils of Karnataka, India
(2011) Bhat, M.; Murthy, D.V.R.; Saidutta, M.B.
In order to curtail losses of urea in wet agricultural soils, one of the cost effective method adopted is application of urea in large sized form such as briquettes. Commercially available pillow shaped uncoated urea briquettes and the briquettes modified by encapsulating them with kokum wax and paraffin wax coatings were subjected to release in two different soils of Karnataka viz. loam soil and silty clay soil. Results indicate that clay rich soil retarded dissolution of uncoated briquettes. Both kokum wax and paraffin wax coatings acted as good barriers for release of urea. These coatings were susceptible to rupture and release from the exposed areas. Kokum wax outperformed paraffin wax in all the soils. However, kokum wax coating was less stable in silty clay soil and the coating displayed higher shelf life in loam soil. Temperature accelerated the dissolution of both the uncoated as well as kokum coated briquettes in wet soil. © 2011 CAFET-INNOVA technical society. All right reserved.
A comprehensive assessment of increased iron ore production on the environment - A case study
(2011) Thimmaiah, S.A.; Rao, Y.; Murthy, C.H.S.N.
There has been a significant increase in iron ore production in the Bellary- Hospet-Sandur sector of Karnataka, India due to sudden increase in the demand of iron ore from other countries as well as by local steel plants set up in the region. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the effect of increase in the iron ore production on various environmental parameters like air, water, soil and noise. For this purpose a study area of 10 Km radius was taken and the various environmental parameters were monitored before and after increase in iron ore production in the region. Study shows that there is no significant change in the air quality in terms of SPM, RPM, SO2 and NOx in the region. In many locations, there is decrease in the concentrations of these parameters. This is mainly due to improvement of roads by asphalting, effective covering of iron ore trucks by tarpaulin, awareness among mine owners about the protection of environment by following various pollution control measures, dust suppression measures on the public road using water sprinklers and stringent monitoring of the environmental protective measures by various regulatory authorities. The concentration of SO2 and NOx was found to increase due to increase in traffic by movement of tippers in the public/village road. The deployment of heavy earth moving machinery at mine site also contributed for increase of SO2 and NOx. The surface water quality parameters were found to be within the acceptable limits in the study area. There is no possibility of disturbing/altering ground water table due to mining operations as the mining is being carried out on hill top which is above the general ground level. In agricultural soil, except that of potassium and electrical conductivity, variations in other parameters are insignificant as the agricultural lands are located 2 to 3 Kms away from the active mining area. Increase in noise level is found at most of the locations of the study area. Therefore, serious attempts should be made by mine owners as well as statutory bodies to reduce the sound level at various locations for increasing the quality of life in these locations in terms of sound level. © 2011 CAFET-INNOVA technical society. All right reserved.
Assessment of surface soil moisture from ALOS PALSAR-2 in small-scale maize fields using polarimetric decomposition technique
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2021) Gururaj, P.; Umesh, P.; Shetty, A.
Surface soil moisture knowledge is important, especially in agriculture and irrigation management. Properties of microwave remote sensing like penetration power and longer wavelength facilitate retrieval of surface soil moisture. ALOS PALSAR-2, quad polarized data are used to retrieve surface soil moisture using polarization decomposition techniques in a marginal farmer small-scale maize field. The focus of the study is to explore the utility of ALOS PALSAR-2 in retrieving surface soil moisture using the polarization decomposition technique. The demonstration of the study is carried out in Malavalli village, southern India, an agricultural predominant area. The study involves field soil moisture sampling in synchronous with satellite pass, measuring soil properties, preprocessing of SAR data, polarization decomposition, proportional analysis, regression analysis, model calibration and validation. Van Zyl decomposition gave the highest surface scattering component (43%) and reduced volumetric scattering component compared to Yamaguchi and Freeman–Durden decomposition. Surface scattering component of Yamaguchi decomposition gave a good coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.8029) with field-measured surface soil moisture. The semi-empirical model (SEM) was developed using surface scattering component and depolarization ratio with adjusted R2 = 0.75 at 95% confidence interval. On its comparison with existing soil moisture models, it is observed that the developed model is performing well with RMSE and AEmax of 1.81 and 2.88, respectively. Implying the applicability of ALOS PALSAR-2 in soil moisture retrieval in marginal farmer small-scale maize fields gave satisfactory results of accuracy. © 2021, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences.
Evaluation of surface soil moisture models over heterogeneous agricultural plots using L-band SAR observations
(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2022) Gururaj, P.; Umesh, P.; Shetty, A.
The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of surface soil moisture models based on L-band SAR data at two different crop stages in typical Indian agricultural plots. Agricultural fields examined include paddy, tomato, sugarcane, at two distinct crop stages, and a reference fallow field. Among the evaluated models, X-Bragg model underestimates soil moisture in all agricultural fields, whereas the Oh 2004 model fits into three agricultural plots for two crop stages without any necessity of auxiliary field information. All models underperformed in the case of sugarcane at the grand growth stage. Although WCM gave best result, it came at the cost of field data utilized to calibrate model parameters. Overall, the Oh 2004 model outperforms other models across crop types and growth stages. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study that deals with soil moisture estimations at the plot scale across different crops. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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