Quality of groundwater is as important as quantity. For effective planning and management of groundwater resources, groundwater vulnerability assessment is most significant. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the groundwater vulnerable zones of Nagpur city, using Modified DRASTIC methods within a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. DRASTIC method has been modified using land use/land cover parameter; weight of the parameters was modified using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytical Network Process (ANP). Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to consider the most sensitive parameters. A new approach ANP was applied on DRASTIC for the first time to modify the weight of the parameters. Groundwater vulnerable zones obtained from the DRASTIC, Modified DRASTIC, Modified DRASTIC AHP and Modified DRASTIC ANP were compared and validated using field data of nitrate concentration. Results obtained from the Modified DRASTIC ANP are found to be well correlated with the nitrate concentration of the city and it is appropriate for assessment of groundwater vulnerable zones of Nagpur city. From this study it was found that the necessary remedial measures should be taken in the highly vulnerable zones of Nagpur city for further prevention of groundwater pollution.
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) have become a serious problem worldwide as they incur losses of around 2% of a country's gross domestic product (GDP). RTAs are one of the major causes of death and injury in developing countries like India. To enable governments to take policy decisions on road safety, it is necessary that good research is undertaken to estimate the cost of accidents. This kind of study will help governments make important decisions on investment in traffic safety, improvement of roads and other facilities. On the other hand, evaluation and estimation of the costs of RTAs will help governments ascertain economic feasibility of policy decisions given limited economic resources. Apart from humanitarian losses, the contribution to economic losses from RTAs is alarmingly high, as most people involved in accidents are from the most economically active and productive agegroups of a society. The main objective of this study is to establish the cost components of road accidents in Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India. The methodologies for such studies generally vary according to traffic pattern, modal share, accident pattern, etc. This study makes use of a system dynamics approach, which provides a comprehensive understanding of the problem for Indian cities. Data were collected and collated with major inputs from the Traffic Department of the city for all road accidents from 2010 to 2015. The study found that the costs recorded for RTAs amounted to INR 935.5 million in 2015, which was 0.09% of the city's GDP. In addition, major cost components were evaluated by varying the severity level.
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