Agroforerstry (AF) in the farmlands of Punjab (Pakistan) is a tradition, but it was practiced without any proper methodology. From last few years, AF practices have become popular in Punjab. Especially in the rural areas woody biomass is being used as a major source of energy. The study was designed to examine the contributions of AF on the socio-economic conditions of the farmers in the central Punjab of Pakistan. District Chiniot was selected as the universe of study and a detailed survey was conducted in the three tehsiles by interviewing 150 randomly selected farmers with the use of a wellstructured questionnaire. In addition, secondary data was also collected from district agriculture offices. Chi-Square test was used for quantitative data analysis. Results showed that farmer’s annual income and household status was improved after practicing AF. Reasonably less poor farmers have more income increase than the poor farmers due to an extra investment, but income generation helped poor farmers to maintain the minimal living standards. Farmers perceived the advantage of trees immensely and the large scale farmers taking this as a genuine source of income. In adoption of AF, attitude of the farmers was independent of family size and settlement period, but was dependent on the occupation and number of livestock holding. The study suggested that, in the present financial scenario of the poor farmers, planting of suitable tree species with multiple benefits is an escape way to come out of the vicious circle of poverty. Along with that agroforestry can play a vital role in increasing the vegetation cover in forest deficient countries. Extension services and awareness programs should be arranged in the areas where people have negative attitude about AF practices, because the cultivated fields are the best places to grow the tree with crops. Moreover, subsidies and income generating project should be launched to motivate people towards AF.

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Because of the intensive use of machinery, soil compaction is a serious concern for soil management authorities worldwide. The use of heavy machinery to perform forestry activities such as logging has increased during the last few decades, which influences the soil ecosystem by inducing soil compaction. The main objective of this study was to observe the morphological growth response of Dalbergia sissoo at different compaction levels. Different morphological parameters were recorded including girth/diameter, shoot length, root length, shoot weight, root weight, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, root-shoot ratio, moisture content availability, and biomass production to analyze the effect of soil compaction. As the compaction level increased, the shoot length, root length, root weight to shoot weight ratio, and biomass production decreased. Simultaneously, the bulk density of soil increased as the compaction level increased. Soil compaction produced an overall negative effect on the growth of D. sissoo. Different levels of soil compaction significantly affected the physical growth parameters of the plant and reduced growth as soil compaction increased. Based on the results, the plantation of D. sissoo without compaction can be a viable option to obtain good quality timber.

Routing is the modeling process to determine the outflow at an outlet from given inflow at upstream of the channel. A hydrological simulation model use mathematical equations that establish relationships between inputs and outputs of water system and simulates the catchment response to the rainfall input. Several hydrological models have been developed to assist in understanding of hydrologic system and water resources management. A model, once calibrated and verified on catchments, provides a multi-purpose tool for further analysis. Semi-Distributed models in hydrology are usually physically based in that they are defined in terms of theoretically acceptable continuum equations. They do, however, involve some degree of lumping since analytical solutions to the equations cannot be found, and so approximate numerical solutions, based on a finite difference or finite element discretization of the space and time dimensions, are implemented. Many rivers in Nepal are either ungauged or poorly gauged due to extreme complex terrains, monsoon climate and lack of technical and financial supports. In this context the role of hydrological models are extremely useful. In practical applications, hydrological routing methods are relatively simple to implement reasonably accurate. In this study, Gandaki river basin was taken for the study area. Kinematic wave method was used for overland routing and Muskingum cunge method was applied for channel routing to describe the discharge on Narayani river and peak flow attenuation and dispersion observed in the direct runoff hydrograph. Channel cross section parameters are extracted using HEC- GeoRAS extension tool of GIS. From this study result, Annual runoff, Peak flow and time of peak at the outlet are similar to the observed flow in calibration and verification period using trapezoidal channel. Hence Hydrological modeling is a powerful technique in the planning and development of integrated approach for management of water resources. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v10i1.10877Journal of the Institute of Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2014 pp. 45-58

Nepal has felt the adverse impact of climate change even though its contribution to global greenhouse gases (GHGs) is negligible. Many scientists have expressed concern that the general rise in temperatures at high altitudes poses a serious environmental and humanitarian threat in Nepal as many glaciers and glacial lakes are located in the high Himalayas. For this study, I have observed rising temperatures in the Langtang catchment and compared the proportional rise of high altitude and low altitude temperatures as these will have serious implications for glaciers and glacial lakes in the region. As well, conducted a time series observation of water flow and noted that the river flow in the Langtang catchment are decreasing. Given these findings, Nepal may be facing increasing water scarcity while also keeping more serious watch on glacial melt.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v15i0.11289HYDRO Nepal JournalJournal of Water, Energy and EnvironmentVolume: 15, 2014, JulyPage: 30-36

This paper is based on the case study which was carried out to investigate post institutional and external support to hazard events in Barpak village of Gorkha district. Primary data were collected from household survey where one hundred households were interviewed using structured schedule. An economic stratum of the household was used as variables for the study. Sampled households were categorized into three sub strata i.e. rich, medium and poor. More or less equal number of each stratum participated in household survey. Simple descriptive statistics was used for data analysis where percentage, weighted mean were used to interpret the results. Perceptions of the sampled households were tested with independent chi-square. Result shows that media plays an important role to disseminate about the knowledge on climate change and associated impacts in the villagers. Climate change information, loan as well as donation for coping to climate variability and technical know-how are the major support that people obtained in the village for coping climatic hazards. Poor villagers are almost dissatisfied with almost all supports experiencing while coping against climatic hazards than that of rich and medium strata family of the village.

Climate change has been emerging as one of the challenges in the global environment. Information of predicted climatic changes in basin scale is highly useful to know the future climatic condition in the basin that ultimately becomes helpful to carry out planning and management of the water resources available in the basin. Climatic scenario is a plausible and often simplified representation of the future climate, based on an internally consistent set of climatological relationships that has been constructed for explicit use in investigating the potential consequences of anthropogenic climate change. This study based on statistical downscaling, provide good example focusing on predicting the rainfall and runoff patterns, using the coarse general circulation model (GCM) outputs. The outputs of the GCMs are utilized to study the impact of climate change on water resources. The present study has been taken up to identify the climate change scenarios for Satluj river basin, India.Journal of Hydrology and Meteorology, Vol. 8(1) p.10-21

This paper assesses the interrelationship between poverty, climatic and non-climatic shocks, and shock coping strategies adopted by farm-based rural households in Nepal. An analysis is based on a comprehensive data set collected from 300 randomly selected households from three purposively chosen villages of Gandaki province. The study utilizes binary and ordered probit regression models to analyze the determinants of poverty, shocks, and coping strategies. Findings reveal that the Dalit (ethnic group), large-sized, and agricultural households are more likely to be characterized as poor. The study further shows that majority of the households are exposed to the severe shock of climatic types. Patterns of shock exposure vary with the household’s characteristics. In particular, poor households in the hills primarily dependent on forest for livelihood are more likely to experience severe shocks. Further analyses indicate that the households ex-post choose dissaving, borrowing, shifting occupation, and migration to cope with severe climatic shocks. The analyses also reveal that the nature of shocks, socio-economic, demographic, geographic contexts, and factor endowments effect adopting a particular coping strategy. Findings suggest household level-specific support should be provided to mitigate the effects of shock, and appropriate measures are taken to protect their means of living.