Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Sridhar Samal Vs State of Odisha & Others dated 06/03/2024. The matter related to pollution caused by Talcher Coalfield under Mahanadi Coalfields Limited in the course of its operation. It was said that on a daily …
This Handbook of Drought Indicators and is based on available literature and draws findings from relevant works wherever possible. The handbook addresses the needs of practitioners and policymakers and is considered as a resource guide/material for practitioners and not an academic paper. This publication is a ‘living document’ and will …
The Himalayan glaciers feed major Asian river systems sustaining the lives of more than 800 million people. Though the rates of retreat of individual glaciers are uncertain, on the whole the Himalayan glaciers have been losing mass at an increasing rate over the past few decades. With the changing climate, …
Global mean sea level rise estimated from satellite altimetry provides a strong constraint on climate variability and change and is expected to accelerate as the rates of both ocean warming and cryospheric mass loss increase over time. In stark contrast to this expectation however, current altimeter products show the rate …
Eliminating open defecation is an important policy priority in India. In this article, Arya, George and Singh from the Centre for Policy Research, illustrate how using readily available geospatial data to estimate exposure to open defecation can help focus public investment and efforts in areas where it is needed the …
Man-made forest fires in the traditionally populated zone (about 800–2000 m altitude) are common in much of the Central Himalaya, and are a major topic of environmental debate. This study based on an analysis of data of the State Forest Department at Uttarakhand on incidence of forest fires shows that …
Urban waste impacts human and environmental health, and waste management has become one of the major challenges of humanity. Concurrently with new directives due to manage this human by-product, illegal dumping has become one of the most lucrative activities of organized crime. Beyond economic fraud, illegal waste disposal strongly enhances …
This handbook covers some of the most commonly used drought indicators/indices that are being applied across drought-prone regions, with the goal of advancing monitoring, early warning and information delivery systems in support of risk-based drought management policies and preparedness plans. It is intended for use by general drought practitioners (for …
With concerns about climate 'extremes' growing1, water is often the focus — either too much or too little. That is no coincidence: climate and the hydrological cycle are tightly coupled, and water is essential to ecosystems and societies. But it is not just the quantity of water that matters. So …
Tropical cyclones play an important role in modifying the tropopause structure and dynamics as well as stratosphere–troposphere exchange (STE) processes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region. In the present study, the impact of cyclones that occurred over the north Indian Ocean during 2007–2013 on the STE processes …
Clouds substantially affect Earth’s energy budget by reflecting solar radiation back to space and by restricting emission of thermal radiation to space. They are perhaps the largest uncertainty in our understanding of climate change, owing to disagreement among climate models and observational datasets over what cloud changes have occurred during …
More than a quarter of the total geographic area (TGA)-96.4 million hectares (mha) or 29.32%-in India is undergoing degradation as per this Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas, released in June by ISRO Space Applications Centre (SAC). Desertification and land degradation are major threats to agricultural productivity in our country. Combating …
BEIJING -- China will put 14 more meteorological satellites into orbit over the next decade, according to a conference on Monday. By 2025, China plans to launch one Fengyun-II satellite, four Fengyun-IIIs, three Fengyun-IVs and another 6 for multiple meteorological purposes, Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the State Administration of …
The Amazon is ready to burn. After an unusually dry rainy season, the southern section of the rainforest is heading into winter with the largest moisture deficit since 1998. This has set the stage for an unusually intense fire season, according to a forecast issued on 29 June that is …
Significant land greening in the northern extratropical latitudes (NEL) has been documented through satellite observations during the past three decades. This enhanced vegetation growth has broad implications for surface energy, water and carbon budgets, and ecosystem services across multiple scales. Discernible human impacts on the Earth’s climate system have been …
This bottom-up modeling study, supported by new population census 2011 data, simulates ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure on local to regional scales. It quantifies, present-day premature mortalities associated with the exposure to near-surface PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in India using a regional chemistry model. We estimate that …
The roles of forest and wetland ecosystems in regulating flooding have drawn increasing attention in the contexts of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. However, data on floods are scarce in many of the countries where people are most exposed and vulnerable to their impacts. Here, our separate analyses …
BEIJING - China's first high orbit remote sensing satellite, Gaofen-4, went into use after six months of in-orbit testing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced Monday. Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit high-definition optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated. Unlike from …
Active forest fire monitoring using satellite data has been carried out from 2006 as part of the Disaster Management Support Programme of ISRO. The activity provides timely information on fires to State Forest Departments across India for forest fire control and management activities. Original Source
Beijing is one of the most water-stressed cities in the world. Due to over-exploitation of groundwater, the Beijing region has been suffering from land subsidence since 1935. In this study, the Small Baseline InSAR technique has been employed to process Envisat ASAR images acquired between 2003 and 2010 and TerraSAR-X …
