There is a worldwide consensus that climate change is a real, rapidly advancing and widespread threat facing this century. This is a crucial issue in Himalayan and special in Nepal because of its possible impact on water resource, biodiversity, and consequence on economic growth of the region. The increase trend of glacial retreat and variability on temperature and participation has the direct impact on the water resource and hydropower development. Mountain regions are particularly vulnerable, both because warming trends are higher and the impacts are magnifed by the extreme changes in altitude over small distances. It indicates the great variability of hydro-climatic variability in major rivers and their tributaries. Decrease runoff will have direct impact on the hydropower development, but there is uncertainty about the role of spatial variability of changing climatic scenarios and their possible impact for hydropower development in large and middle rivers. This paper presents the scenarios of climate change in Nepal in terms of hydro-climatic variability. The frst part describes hydro-climatic variability and its uncertainty for hydropower development, and the second part deals with the mitigation of uncertainties. Key words: Climate change; Deglaciation; GLOF; Water resource; Hydrological cycle; Hydropower; Himalayas; NepalDOI: 10.3126/hn.v6i0.4190 Hydro Nepal Vol 6, January 2010 Page : 31-34 Uploaded Date: 24 January, 2011
Nepal is endowed with abundant water resources from the availability point of view. Hydropower is considered as a viable means of economic growth for the country's overall development. The river and physiographic characteristics of Nepal offer immense possibilities for the development of hydropower schemes of different scales, and various national and international agencies have expressed keen interest. On the other hand, Nepal's biodiversity resources, a fragile landscape, scattered settlement patterns and natural resource based rural livelihoods are directly affected by hydropower development. Use of recent information about place, people and scientific analysis is crucial for addressing the environmental and socio-economic impacts of development activities. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technology have the capabilities to create, update and manage recent information about the earth's surface and its integration with socio- economic information; but these technologies have not been used properly for the hydropower development sector in Nepal. This paper is about the application of GIS and Remote sensing technology to make the hydropower development environment friendly and to create less impact upon the rural livelihood. Key words: GIS, Remote Sensing, hydropower, watershed management, Nepal doi: 10.3126/hn.v3i0.1920 Hydro Nepal Journal of Water, Energy and Environment Issue No. 3, July 2008. Page: 42-45
Background
Cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassicae (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), is one of the most important pests of cabbage and other cruciferous crops and accounts for > 40% yield reduction in the crops. An investigation on the baseline susceptibility of P. brassicae to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry toxins in Meghalaya was evaluated for future exploitation in Bt resistance monitoring. Two different Cry toxins, Bt Cry1C and Cry2Ab, were screened against 11 different field populations of P. brassicae from the state of Meghalaya. LC50 was evaluated based on the response of larval mortality of P. brassicae using the leaf-dip bioassay method.
Results
The baseline-susceptibility tests conducted on P. brassicae in 11 different field populations from Meghalaya revealed that Smit population strains seemed to show less tolerance to both the Bt Cry toxins (Cry1C and Cry2Ab). Compared to the Cry1C toxin, Cry2Ab was found more potent against P. brassicae. The median lethal concentrations, LC50 72 h, varied from 0.535 to 1.725 µg/ml for Cry2Ab and 0.546–1.803 µg/ml for Cry1C toxin. The screening using leaf-dip bioassay resulted in a tolerance ratio of 3.3-fold and 3.2-fold for Cry1C and Cry2Ab, respectively. The most tolerant strains of P. brassicae from Umiam and Pepbah regions were observed to show discriminating concentrations of 19.30 µg/ml for Cry1C and 24.03 µg/ml for Cry2Ab (LC99, 72 h).
Conclusions
The Cry2Ab toxin was found to be more virulent than Cry1C toxin for P. brassicae. Certain candidate discriminating concentrations for Cry1C and Cry2Ab can be used as benchmarks for future resistance monitoring of P. brassicae to Bt Cry toxins.
An approach was made to evaluate the feasibility and economic viability of rice fish culture (RFC) by conducting trials in 8 different villages viz. Ngorlung, Niglok, Balek, Mirem, Sikatode, Ayeng, Rayang and Seren of East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh during Kharif seasons of 2011 to 2014. In the multilocational trials on rizi-pisciculture survival rate of advanced fry was recorded between 44.5 % and 48.7 % with an average weight of 83 g to 91 g at the harvest. During the study period average total cost of cultivation of RFC and sole cropping of rice was calculated to be ` 42,700 and ` 26,612 respectively. Average gross income and net income increased by ` 61,937 and ` 44,849 respectively by practicing RFC over the sole cropping of rice and it also raised the benefit-cost ratio of the system (2.61). Highlights • Main advantage of RFC is proper utilization of land resources and irrigation water as well as securing extra income from fish without additional labour. • Survival rate of advanced fry was recorded between 44.5 % and 48.7 % with an average size of 83 g to 91 g at harvest • Benefit-cost ratio was higher in RFC (2.61) than that of the sole culture of rice (1.98).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.