Abstract

Multivariate drought indices including various hydrological processes into account can be more valuable under climatic and anthropogenic changes. Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized precipitation Actual Evapotranspiration Index (SPAEI) are the drought indices used to estimate drought index, considering precipitation, and evapotranspiration (ET) into account. Many studies used empirical, machine learning, and process-based model estimates of ET for the calculation of drought indices of SPEI and SPAEI. However, the sensitivity of ET estimates on drought characteristics at the catchment scale is highly complex. The present study aimed to include and analyze the sensitivity of various approaches of empirical (Budyko, Penman–Monteith, Hargreaves, and Turc), modeled (SWAT), and remote sensing (MODIS) in the drought characterization using SPEI and SPAEI. The present methodology was tested on a dry-sub-humid river catchment of India, the Tunga-Bhadra River catchment for the period of 2000–2012. The performance of statistical indicators (Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency and R2) for SPEI values by various empirical methods of Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) (i) Penman–Monteith (ii) Hargreaves against remote sensing PET were 0.93 and 0.95, respectively, which are high in comparison with SWAT simulated PET-based SPEI values, which shows NSE values of 0.85 against remote sensing PET-based SPEI.

Abstract

Event-based models focus on modelling of peak runoff from rainfall data. Conceptual models indicate simplified models that provide reasonably accurate answers despite their crude nature. Rainfall-runoff models are used to transform a rainfall event into a runoff event. This paper focuses on reviewing computational simulation of rainfall-runoff processes over a catchment. Lumped conceptual, event-based rainfall-runoff models have remained the dominant practice for design flood estimation in Australia for many years due to their simplicity, flexibility, and accuracy under certain conditions. Attempts to establish regionalization methods for prediction of design flood hydrographs in ungauged catchments have seen little success. Therefore, as well as reviewing key rainfall-runoff model components for design flood estimation with a special focus on event-based conceptual models, this paper covers the aspects of regionalization to promote their applications to ungauged catchments.

Abstract

This study proposed a nonparametric copula hazard framework in the joint risk of river water temperature (RWT) and low flow (LF) events for aquatic ecosystems, specifically ectotherm fish. This nonparametric copula density can adapt to any mutual dependence structure, providing greater flexibility. This can reduce the risk of misspecification if the underlying assumption is violated compared to conventional parametric or semiparametric copula settings. The analysis uses nonparametric copulas densities like Beta kernel copula estimator (BKCE), Bernstein copula estimator (BCE), and Transformation kernel estimator (TKE), conjoined with Gaussian Kernel density estimations (GKDEs) and parametric marginals for joint annual maximum RWT (AMRWT) and LF. The study compares different models for analyzing five Swiss river basins: parametric copulas with best-fitted GKDE and parametric margins, versus nonparametric copula. Six bandwidth selectors are estimated to fit GKDE. BKCE with GKDE margins outperformed most stations, while TKE and BCE density with GKDE margins work best for only one station. However, at one station, BKCE with best-fitted parametric margins is outperformed. All stations except Station 2473 are characterized by temperature and low flows that may be conducive to stress of a number of aquatic species, causing high AMRWT (exceeding 19 °C) and minimum LF or specific discharge, SD) quantiles at low AND-joint return periods (RP). AND (i.e. low flow AND high temperature) hazard events are less likely to occur together than OR hazard events, while univariate RPs happen more often than OR-joint RPs. In addition, the joint RP of AMRWT, given LF at different percentiles, significantly affected AMRWT for various LF conditions. Higher AMRWT with low flow conditions results in lower joint RP (except station 2473), and this stress level would be reduced when conditioned with high LF events at the same AMRWT. Station 2473 has high LF even at low percentiles, and with low AMRWT makes it very less stressful than other station under different LF conditions. Summer river flow maintenance can improve aquatic environments with high RWT. Analyzing joint statistics is crucial to understanding mutual risk in freshwater ecosystems.

Abstract

Microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems has emerged as a significant environmental concern, warranting comprehensive investigation, and understanding. This study employs bibliometric analysis to systematically review and synthesize the existing literature on microplastic pollution in freshwater environments from 2013 to 2023. The exponential growth in research output was uncovered by analyzing 885 documents sourced from the Web of Science database, with an average annual growth rate of 73.13% and an average document citation of 30.17. Our findings highlight the dominance of primary and secondary microplastics as pollutants, their ecological consequences, and the resultant socio-economic implications. Notably, the Science of the Total Environment and Environmental Pollution journals emerge as leading publication venues, while China, Germany, and the USA lead in research contributions, underlining the global nature of microplastic pollution research. The analysis further outlines the most commonly cited works, identifying pivotal studies that have shaped current understanding and future research directions. This bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the research landscape on microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems, helping researchers to identify knowledge gaps and emerging trends. These insights can guide future research directions and inform policymakers and stakeholders on where scientific efforts should be concentrated to better understand and address the impacts of microplastic pollution.

Abstract

The simultaneous occurrence of climate extremes significantly impacts ecosystems, increasing the vulnerability to physical risks. Despite extensive research on hot extremes and droughts globally, there remains a significant gap in comprehending the occurrence, magnitude, spatial extent, and associated risks of compound extremes, encompassing scenarios like warm/dry, cold/dry, warm/wet, and cold/wet. This study investigates various compound extreme scenarios by examining combinations of maximum temperature (Tx) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) using monthly data from 1951 to 2014 acquired from India Meteorological Department (IMD) for Indian landmass. From the results, the spatial extent of warm/dry events have increased at 1.8% per decade, while cold/wet events decreased by -1.1% over India. The warm/wet events have shown an increased trend of about 0.3%, and cold/dry events at modest rise of 0.7% per decade. Furthermore, compound warm/dry and cold/wet extremes over India exhibit extreme frequency and shorter return periods, posing greater risk. Conversely, compound cold/dry and warm/wet extremes occur less often, indicating longer return periods and lower risk. Across much of the country, the frequency of warm/dry, cold/dry, warm/wet, and cold/wet extremes ranges from 30-45, 15-30, 20-30, and 25-45 months, respectively. Notably, warm/dry conditions exhibit increased frequency in the recent period (1983-2014) with 31 years compared to the base period (1951-1982) which had approximately 24 years for a spatial extent exceeding 5%. The findings of this study contribute to an enhanced understanding of the changes in compound climate extremes from a multivariate perspective.

Abstract

The understanding of spatio-temporal variation in land use and land cover (LULC) patterns is crucial for managing catchment land use planning, as it directly influences of tropical reservoir water quality and the subsequent Nutrient Contamination (NC) of unmonitored water bodies. The current research attempts to accurately measure the influence of LULC and its associated determinants on the quantities of NC loads by using Chl-a as a proxy, within tropical reservoirs, i.e. Bhadra and Tungabhadra, located in same river catchment. This Chl-a spread calculated by the Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI) derived from Sentinel 2 satellite data products covering the period from July 2016 to June 2021 were done using Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The validation analysis confirms the robustness of the methodology with a strong correlation between MCI-calculated values and EOMAP (Earth Observation and Environmental Services Mapping) Chl-a (μg/L) data points for both reservoirs, Bhadra (R2 = 0.64) and Tungabhadra (R2 = 0.68). The findings reveal that, Tungabhadra reservoir consistently exhibits an excessive spatial distribution of Chl-a spread area (17 km2 to 335 km2 ), reflecting nutrient-rich water inflows, particularly evident during the post-monsoon period. This notable rise could be linked to harvesting the Kharif crop, resulting in elevated nutrient concentrations. In contrast Bhadra reservoir, dominated by forested areas, maintains relatively lower Chl-a spread areas (<20 km2 ), highlighting its pivotal role in maintaining water cleanliness and serves as a riparian boundary. In addition, the changes in LULC classes show a strong relationship with variation in Chl-a during the studied period, for the Bhadra Reservoir R2 = 0.51 (F- statistics = 3.983, p = 0.021), and the Tungabhadra Reservoir R2 = 0.802 (F- statistics = 7.489, p = 0.0143). This highlights how changes in land use significantly shape contamination dynamics, deepening our understanding of nutrient inputs and contamination drivers in tropical reservoirs.

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, water quality monitoring is a growing challenge in inland water bodies. Therefore, monitoring the current state of the water bodies is highly important. The remote sensing data is important for effective monitoring that covers a large area. In recent decades, chlorophyll-a (as a proxy) has been a significant indicator of nutrient contamination and also indicates the qualitative status of the water bodies. Besides, the waterbody's temperature also plays an important role in the biological and chemical processes. Hence, the present study aims to detect the chlorophyll-a spread area and temperature of the Bhadra Reservoir, Tungabhadra River system, India. To explore the quality of the reservoir, Sentinel 2A and Landsat 8 satellite images were used for the years 2017 and 2018. The study results noticed that chlorophyll-a spread percent was higher in summer months compared with the water spread area of the reservoir, i.e., 74.5% in 2017 and 61.4% in 2018 from the total water spread area. The study also revealed that as the temperature rises, the chlorophyll-a spread also increases in the reservoir. It was also observed that the October month has a low chlorophyll-a spread, i.e., 32.04% in 2017 and 24.35% in 2018, because the one side reservoir is covered by forest area. Thus, there is a need to explore further to understand the impact of forest area on the reservoir and the temporal changes of the water quality parameters that decide the water bodies quality.

Abstract

Warm and dry climate extremes have large impact on water resources, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health. The present study used high-resolution rainfall and temperature data at 0.25-degree resolution from 1951 to 2014 to investigate the occurrence of compound warm and dry extreme events across India. The simultaneous occurrence of temperature exceeding the 75th percentile and a Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) of less than –1 is considered to represent the compound extreme event of warm and dry. The study reveals a strong negative correlation between temperature and SPEI across most of the country except south-west of India. Analysis reveals that about 3.1% of increase in the spatial areal extent of Warm/Dry compound extreme events allover India. The insights derived from this research could significantly contribute to shaping climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies related to compound extreme events.

Abstract

Water quality monitoring of reservoirs is currently a signifcant challenge in the tropical regions of the world due to limited monitoring stations and hydrological data. Remote sensing techniques have proven to be a powerful tool for continuous real-time monitoring and assessment of tropical reservoirs water quality. Although many studies have detected chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations as a proxy to represent nutrient contamination, using Sentinel 2 for eutrophic or hypereutrophic inland water bodies, mainly reservoirs, minimal eforts have been made for oligotrophic and mesotrophic reservoirs. The present study aimed to develop a modeling framework to map and estimate spatio-temporal variability of Chl-a levels and associated water spread using the Modifed Normalized Diference Water Index (MNDWI) and Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI). Moreover, the impact of land use/land cover type of the contributing watershed in the oligo-mesotrophic reservoir, Bhadra (tropical reservoir), for 2018 and 2019 using Sentinel 2 satellite data was analyzed. The results show that the water spread area was higher in the post-monsoon months and lower in the summer months. This was further validated by the correlation with reservoir storage, which showed a strong relationship (R2 = 0.97, 2018; R2 = 0.93, 2019). The estimated Chl-a spread was higher in the winter season, because the reservoir catchment was dominated by deciduous forest, producing a large amount of leaf litter in tropical regions, which leads to an increase in the level of Chl-a. It was found that Chl-a spread in the reservoir, specifcally at the inlet sources and near agricultural land practices (western parts of the Bhadra reservoir). Based on the fndings of this study, the MCI spectral index derived from Sentinel 2 data can be used to accurately map the spread of Chl-a in diverse water bodies, thereby ofering a robust scientifc basis for efective reservoir management.

Abstract

This research was carried out along the Bhadra River, which is one of the tributaries of the Tungabhadra and originates near Gangamula in Karnataka’s the Western Ghats. The study stretch is around 27 km divided into three reaches with elements of 1 km as 3, 4, and 20 for each reach, respectively. The objectives of the study are to assess the effects of wastewater discharges on the water quality of the Bhadra River stretch and to simulate the dissolved oxygen (DO) by varying the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) loads coming from different pollutant sources within the study stretch using the QUAL2K river water quality model. The study period considered is about 24 months (April 2014–March 2016) for the simulation of temperature, pH, DO, and nitrate parameters with the help of observed data at three monitoring stations. The investigation period was separated into two parts: the model was calibrated using monthly average data from April 2014 to March 2015 (12 months), and the model was validated using monthly average data from April 2015 to March 2016 (12 months). The R-square (R2) value for temperature and pH ranges from 0.87–0.56 to 0.64–0.62, respectively. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for nitrate and DO ranges from 0.06–0.02 to 0.47–0.34, respectively. The results revealed that the Bhadra river stretch was highly polluted due to effluents coming from the industries present in the study stretch. It was also discovered that river flow rate, point source discharge, fast Carbonaceous Biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD) oxidation rate, and nitrification rate as the highly sensitive quality parameters defining the Bhadra river water quality. There must be a reduction of 25% of BOD effluent to reach the minimum standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It is noted that a 75% reduction of BOD effluent from point sources will lead to an increase of 15% average DO throughout the study stretch.