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Abstract:This study highlights the assessment of snow and glacier cover for possible inferences of global climate change impacts in high mountains like the Himalaya. The test catchment of the River Tista lies in the Sikkim state of the Indian Himalayan region, with steep mountains crossing nearly all ecozones, from subtropical to glacial. River flows are highly fluctuating, especially during the peak rainy season and snowmelt periods. Annual rainfall patterns are nonuniform and can cause large floods. Runoff and discharge downstream are highly dependent upon snow and glacier extent. The temporary storage of frozen water brings about a delay in seasonal runoff. Snow cover built up in the higher regions during the winter months melts in the spring-summer-autumn cycles and contributes to groundwater recharge. A spatial baseline inventory of snow cover/glacier, the permanent snowline and its short-term temporal changes in the remote high-mountain areas have been analysed using multidate Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data of 1992 to 1997. A geographic information system-based overlay has led to inferences on snow cover characteristics and the alignment, dimension, slope disposition, heights of the snout and associated features of each of the glaciers. Snow and glacier recession are to be monitored in future on a long-term basis to derive correlations with climate-change parameters.

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Solid waste management (SWM) is one of the poorly rendered services in developing countrieslimited resources, increasing population, rapid urbanization and application of outdated systems leads to inefficiency. Lack of proper planning and inadequate data regarding solid waste generation and collection compound the SWM problem. Decision makers need to formulate solutions that consider multiple goals and strategies. Given the large number of available options for SWM and the inter-relationships among these options, identifying SWM strategies that satisfy economic or environmental objectives is a complex task. The paper develops a mathematical model for a municipal Integrated SWM system, taking into account waste generation rates, composition, transportation modes, processing techniques, revenues from waste processing, simulating waste management as closely as possible. The constraints include those linking waste flows and mass balance, processing plants capacity, landfill capacity, transport vehicle capacity and number of trips. The linear programming model integrating different functional elements was solved by LINGO optimization software and various possible waste management options were considered during analysis. The model thus serves as decision support tool to evaluate various waste management alternatives and obtain the least-cost combination of technologies for handling, treatment and disposal of solid waste.

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