The burning of biomass is a common practice worldwide and represents one of the major environmental risks. In this respect, the Narowal District has been identified as a hotspot in Pakistan that is highly vulnerable to crop residue burning (CRB). With over 85
Despite the enforcement of the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016, open dumping of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) remains a common practice for final disposal in many parts of India. Poor planning and unsustainable waste management practices have led to the accumulation of MSW in several major urban centers. The rapid pace of urbanization, industrialization, and population growth has significantly increased the generation of solid waste across the country. Jaipur, with a population density of 6,285 persons per square kilometer, is also experiencing critical challenges related to MSW mismanagement. The recently implemented SWM Rules (2016) advocate for Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) based on sustainable principles, including the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Ultimately, inert waste must be disposed of at scientifically selected sanitary landfill sites to minimize environmental degradation and adverse health impacts, thereby enhancing the sustainability of the landfill’s life cycle. This study aims to evaluate the suitability of existing landfill sites and to identify more appropriate locations for future landfill development in Jaipur, India, using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Object-based classification was carried out, achieving an overall accuracy of 92.6
Groundwater development on the Ishan Plateau has been constrained by limited understanding of aquifer productivity and a long-standing perception of poor groundwater occurrence in the region. This study evaluated aquifer productivity using hydrogeological conditions, borehole yield, specific capacity, and transmissivity derived from pumping-test data. Four aquifer types—perched, unconfined, leaky, and confined—were identified from hydrogeological conditions and lithostratigraphic relationships. Pumping-test results from 25 boreholes show yields of 134.4–1881.6 m³/day, transmissivity of 1.33–54.66 m²/day, and specific capacity of 3.2–216.3 m³/day/m. Based on transmissivity, boreholes were classified as high (24
This study assesses the potential impacts of climate change on surface water availability in the Koulountou River Basin, a transboundary tributary of the Gambia River shared by Senegal and Guinea whose hydrological response to climate change has received little dedicated attention despite its socio-economic importance, using the daily GR4J hydrological model. The model was calibrated for the period 1973–1982 and validated over 1983–1992, with 1971–1972 as a warm-up period. Calibration relied on the SCE-UA optimization algorithm and a multi-criteria objective function combining NSE, log-NSE, KGE, and R², all exceeding 75
This study applies a knowledge-driven weighted index overlay (WIO) approach within a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework to delineate prospective zones for shear-hosted Cu–Pb–Zn mineralization across a 2993 km² sector of the Telkoi Valley–Mankarchua region, Singhbhum Craton, eastern India. Five evidential factor maps — geochemical, geological, structural, geophysical, and hydrothermal alteration, assigned relative weights of 9, 8, 8, 6, and 4 respectively — were integrated to generate a mineral prospectivity index, classified into five favorability zones (very low to very high) using the natural breaks (Jenks) method. High and very high prospectivity zones are spatially concentrated along NW–SE-trending shear corridors, structurally permeable domains, and hydrothermal alteration zones associated with favorable metavolcanic–schistose lithologies of the Iron Ore Group, together with elevated Cu–Pb–Zn geochemical anomalies. Semi-quantitative validation against independent anomalous bedrock Cu, Pb, and Zn samples (n = 48, 14, and 58, respectively) shows that the very high prospectivity zone, occupying only 5.5
