Riverfront development is one of the important pervasive modifiers of river morphology and processes affecting river corridors, floodplains and associated riparian zones. The Irrigation and Water Resources Department of Government of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, undertook an ambitious project of riverfront development during April 2015 to March 2017 in the capital city of Lucknow on Gomti River, a meandering perennial tributary of Ganges which is fed by rainfall and groundwater. Under this project, straightening and shortening of the river channel was done by controlling its width, shape and riverbed through constructing a heavily reinforced diaphragm wall on both banks on an 8.1 km stretch. River floodplain width was restricted to 240 m out of 450 m and clear waterway to 100-125 m from existing 250 m to reclaim about 200 ha of land upstream and downstream of Gomti barrage in the city. This paper assesses the loss of river processes and ecosystems under changed hydraulic regimes post riverfront development project. We observed eight types of habitat in the undisturbed segments of the Gomti River, while only two major habitat types were present in the channelized segments. The paper argues that, due to heavy channel engineering led riverfront development and other related morphometric changes, there would be decline in freshwater species and water quality, lowering of groundwater tables in the city reach, resulting from diminishing base flow and flooding of the downstream areas. The river is fed by rainfall and groundwater, maintaining variable flow regimes with a very lean flow during the summer season. The reduction in flow, in the absence of water augmentation measures, will further impact the minimum environmental flows required to maintain the healthy ecosystems in the river broadening the area of ecological disturbances. This study can provide valuable insights for future projects on riverfront development and restoration measures in India and elsewhere.
Most of the tropical rivers of the world are being affected by multiple sources of pollution. The intensity of pollution is much bigger in the urban stretches due to discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage. A rapid and cost-effective tool is required for identification of water quality problems and their spatial variation for determining the main pollution sources and to detect relationships between various parameters. For this study, Gomti River, a major tributary of River Ganges, India, was considered which has gained substantial attention because of increasing anthropogenic pollution loads that has badly affected its water quality and ecosystem functions. The urban segment is polluted with organic substances, nutrients and heavy metals. The study provides an overview of the quality of water in the Gomti River through water quality index (WQI) and multivariate statistical techniques to check if WQI is enough for a nutrient-polluted river in the urban stretch. The study suggests that periodic monitoring and the water quality index development are not enough as it does not incorporate all the aspect of a rivers water quality. The separate assessment of nitrogenous biochemical oxygen demand, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, sediment oxygen demand and the nitrification inhibition aspects are required to be integrated when developing a WQI. Present study illustrates that water quality of Gomti River has gradually worsened from upstream and downstream to middle stretch. The middle stretch was found to be most polluted as the major drains are concentrated within this stretch. Principal component analysis/factor analysis (PCA/FA) helped in obtaining and recognizing the factors/ sources accountable for river water quality differences in the study area. The findings are useful for the decisions regarding water quality management and this can also be applied for speedy and low-cost assessment of water quality of the polluted urban stretch of other tropical rivers for better environmental management and planning perspective.
In the environment, heavy metal contamination is a well known problem due to its persistence and toxicity. Heavy metal pollution has significantly affected soil properties and functions, resulting in significantly increased land degradation as a result of anthropogenic interventions that include mining and various industrial and agriculture activities. While heavy metals pollution in soil have been studied very rarely in this District, this paper explores the current status of agricultural soil pollution by heavy metals in Raebareli. This study identifies heavy metals as well as their quantities in the soil and their spatial distribution; our study employed various pollutant indices and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. This research work evaluated the physiochemical properties, the pollution load index (PLI), contamination factor (CF) and the degree of contamination and geoaccumulation (I geo ) in sodic soils of the Raebareli District, Uttar Pradesh, India. Uchahaar site (US) has the most polluted soil, while the Bacharawa site (BS) has the least contaminated soil. The soil quality has degraded due to anthropogenic interventions at most sites. There is slight to moderate contamination by heavy metals at all sites. The I geo values in subSites US1, US2 and US3 included high levels of Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn and Sr. SubSites BS2 and BS3 have high Sr levels and US1 has a high As level all these Subsites have high anthropogenic influences. The PLI values indicate that most of the study subSites come under a slightly polluted class, except US1 where the PLl was > 3 indicating severe heavy metal pollution at this site. All the pollution indices have then been utilized for building maps using the IDW method of interpolation. The spatial projection of PLI and ecological risk index (Er) values suggest that the northern part of Raebareli has a high pollution load and ecological risk in terms of heavy metal pollution. This study provide valuable information that policymakers could use to develop an appropriate plan to control pollution within the agricultural sector.
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