'Ensuring improved drinking water and sanitation for all' (SDG 06) and 'reducing intra-city spatial inequality' (SDG 10) are presently a huge challenge for India to reduce urban poverty (SDG 01) and make sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11). Besides, more than half of the COVID-19 incidents were found to occur in metropolitan cities in India. WHO has already emphasized the proper management of water, sanitation, waste, and hygiene, to prevent the global pandemic outbreak. Against this backdrop, the present research focuses on developing a WASH performance index at the sub-city level using the TOPSIS-MCDM method. The study has outlined the neighbourhood-level geospatial heterogeneity of WASH performance in two Indian old colonial cities, Kolkata and Chennai, through the Global Moran's I statistics, LISA, and Local Gi* cluster mapping. In comparison to Chennai, Kolkata showed a considerably greater degree of geospatial inequality and autocorrelation. Southwestern and southeastern parts of Kolkata represented lower WASH performance, whereas a cluster of neighbourhoods situated in the central part of northern Chennai showed the same. The evidence may help policymakers initiate a proper WASH management system.

Contemporarily, among the crucial techniques for generating precise land suitability map site suitability analysis (SSA) is the most acceptable one. This chapter intended to determine the fittest areas for producing potato crops in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India. Twenty-four criteria were selected for the study, and their weights were determined using the GIS-based fuzzy analytical hierarchy processFuzzy analytical hierarchy process (F-AHP) approach and expert judgment. Based on the results, soil texture (0.1349), soil organic carbon (0.0614), geomorphology (0.1523), slope (0.1043), soil moisture index (0.0845), temperatureTemperature (0.0769), nitrogen (0.0529), and soil pH (0.0432) and rainfallRainfall (0.0635) are among the most crucial criteria for producing SSA for potato production. It has been observed that regions for potato production are extremely favorable (15.30%), highly suitable (25.11%), moderately suitable (28.55%), marginally suitable (22.52%), and not suitable (8.52%), and their geographical extend covers 508.83 km2, 835.05 km2, 949.35 km2, 749.04 km2, and 283.43 km2 area, respectively. The area confirms the F-AHP approach's reliability in SSA under curve (AUC), and the value of AUC is 0.83. The results also have been verified with the help of GPS and an interview survey from the potato cultivators. The studies indicate expected scenarios for agricultural activity. Thus, an appropriate sustainable plan should be prepared to increase the regional agrarian output, and the local farmersFarmers should use targeted adaptable farming practice(s). Farmers, regional planners, and government representatives may utilize the proposed map, containing information about the agricultureAgriculture suitability, to make essential choices for the area, including identifying viable agricultural areas, promoting agricultural development, and supporting local independent companies for potato farming.

Drought is one of the most serious natural disasters that threaten human societies and environments in nearly every region of the world; therefore, evaluating drought is becoming increasingly important and helpful in eradicating the effects of climate change. This study investigates the spatiotemporal drought pattern over the Luni basin from 1959 to 2019. This research analyzed spatio-temporal drought status using the standardized precipitation index (SPI). The drought trends were analyzed using the Mann-Kendall (MK) test or modified MK test and graphical innovative trend analysis (ITA). The SPI result shows that 39 studied stations are subject to mild to severe drought. The MK/mMK trend test results detected only a monotonic trend of drought across different time ranges and locations within the study area, where the ITA trend test revealed that 43% of the recorded rain gauge stations experienced a non-monotonic negative trend, more than 23% of stations were experienced a monotonic positive trend and 10% non-monotonic positive trend. In addition, with the exception of some small patches of western and eastern parts, the Z statistic result did not reveal any significant trend. The results showed that the ITA approach is more consistent than the MK test and can detect monotonic and non-monotonic trends that the MK method cannot detect. This research provided evidence that drought trends can be studied using the ITA approach, and the results of this analysis would be very useful for identifying droughts to develop effective management plans.

The power of the river does not always work to the benefit of living things; rather, it has the ability to destroy human society and has negative effects on the environment. River Teesta has a prodigious significance on the riverine dweller and its changing precarious behaviour has repercussions on the lives of millions. Utilizing satellite images and 41 years of temporal analysis, the mapping of channel extraction and channel shifting has been demonstrated. Delineating the exact channel boundary is a laborious operation, but MNDWI technique is really valuable in this situation to produce valuable results. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze the Teesta River's active flow line migration trend and channel migration behaviour. A particular river's oscillating character over time has both beneficial and detrimental power, destroying important resources for environmental sustainability and human society while also providing fertile mother earth as a source of wealth. As a result, another goal of the current study was to determine how vulnerable riverine residents were. A livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) based on the riverine inhabitants' exposure, sensitivity, and capacity for adaptation was created. According to the findings, the river's erratic behaviour is putting the people who live beside it in danger. Therefore, it is vitally necessary to implement a capable management strategy to stop bank failure at the Teesta-Dharala confluence in order to save the riverine residents.

Climate change has posed a serious threat to agriculture over the last few decades. It has become a source of concern for a country like Bangladesh, which is heavily reliant on agriculture. Therefore, it is necessary to understand possible changes in climatic variables and their impact on agriculture on a microscale. The present study was designed to assess the farmer's perception of climate change in Rajshahi and Bogra Districts of Bangladesh. This study also investigated whether farmers' perceptions of climate change were consistent with climatic records. Furthermore, the study investigated the selection of various adaptation strategies taken by farmers to cope with climate change and mitigate its effects. The annual rainfall trend from the MK/mMK test portrayed that most stations experienced decreased rainfall. Similar results were also achieved on a seasonal scale. In contrast, the annual and seasonal temperature trends had shown an increase in most of the stations. The results were perfectively in line with the farmers' perception. Results also showed that farmers had adopted four broad strategies to deal with the climate change scenario viz. technological development, government programs, farm production, and financial management. However, the dominant strategies adopted by farmers were changes in planting dates, crop rotation, supplementary irrigation, and fertiliser changes. Overall, the study's findings highlight the need for immediate actions to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and help develop sustainable adaptation strategies to maintain agricultural productivity.

Ground water is a precious natural resource in every aspect of human life from natural to artificial environment. Ground water is an indicator of regional development by improving the economic domain through intensive agricultural practices, and aesthetic value through sufficient ground water supply as drinking water, fertile soil, and healthy vegetation. However, ground water availability and associated human perceptions were the main themes of the present study. In this study, both primary and secondary data were incorporated to understand the human adaptation behaviour in drought-prone areas of the fringe of Chhotanagpur plateau region (Bankura-I and II blocks) to ground water storage. GWPZ mapping is a very important exposure to knowing the ground reality. So, the MCDM-AHP method has been developed based on the eight dominant conditioning factors viz. geomorphology, lithology, lineament density, soil, drainage density, LULC, average slope, and slope aspect using GIS analytics with field expertise. The output result was validated with comparing 105 inventory stations where 0.850 AUC value was good for accepting the GWPZ model. As a result, a major portion of the study area is dominated by poor to moderate possibilities of ground water level (ground water level drops 1–2 m during the pre-monsoon) due to Proterozoic granite gneiss formation over the study area. With comparing demographic status, it was not favourable for a healthy lifestyle. Agriculture dominated rural environment of Bankura-I and II blocks is far away from the modern digital environment that is why ground water has played a very crucial role in the field of development. Moreover, to build up a good level of ground water recharge zone through rainfall harvesting, and sustainable land use planning will be the best management practices. So, availability of ground water should be a positive sign of development in the field of the economic sector and sustainable human society.