Spatio-Temporal Changes in the Wetland Ecosystem of Cochin City using Remote Sensing and GIS

Urban developments have exerted immense pressure on wetlands. Urban areas are normally centers of commercial activity and continue to attract migrants in large numbers in search of employment from different areas. As a result, habitations keep coming up in the natural areas / flood plains. This is happening in various Indian cities and towns and large habitations are coming up in low-lying areas, often encroaching even over drainage channels. In some cases, houses are constructed even on top of nallahs and drains. In the case of Kochi the situation is even worse as the base of the urban development itself stands on a completely reclaimed island. Also the topography and geology demanded more reclamation of land when the city developed as an agglomerative cluster. Cochin is a coastal settlement interspersed with a large backwater system and fringed on the eastern side by laterite-capped low hills from which a number of streams drain into the backwater system. The ridge line of the eastern low hills provides a welldefined watershed delimiting Cochin basin which help to confine the environmental parameters within a physical limit. This leads to an obvious conclusion that if physiography alone is considered, the western flatland is ideal for urban development. However it will result in serious environmental deterioration, as it comprises mainly of wetland and for availability of land there has to be large scale filling up of these wetlands which includes shallow mangrove-fringed water sheets, paddy fields, Pokkali fields, estuary etc.Chapter 1 School 4 of Environmental Studies The urban boundaries of Cochin are expanding fast with a consequent over-stretching of the existing fabric of basic amenities and services. Urbanisation leads to the transformation of agricultural land into built-up areas with the concomitant problems regarding water supply, drainage, garbage and sewage disposal etc. Many of the environmental problems of Cochin are hydrologic in origin; like water-logging / floods, sedimentation and pollution in the water bodies as well as shoreline erosion

“Urban Water Supply Management: A Study Of Centralised And Community Based Systems In Calicut City

Studies in urban water supply system are few in the state of Kerala. It is a little researched area. In the case of water pricing a number of studies are available. In Kerala state, exception to Jacob John’s study on “Economics of Public Water Supply System”, which is a case study of Trivandrum Water Supply System in 1997, no exhaustive research work has so far come out in this field. loreover no indepth research study has come up, so far, relating to household ater demand analysis and the distribution system of urban piped water supply. he proposed study is first of its kind, which focuses on the distributional and Iailability problems of piped water supply in an urban centre in Kerala state. Hence there is a felt need for enquiring into the sufficiency of )table water supplied to people in urban areas and the efficiency maintained in roviding the scarce resource and preventing its misuse by the consumers. It is in llS backdrop that this study was undertaken and its empirical part was conducted |Calicut city in the state of Kerala. Study is confined to the water supply system ithe city of Calicut

A simple regulated power supply for characteristics studies of klystron oscillators

A simple and inexpensive power supply suitable for characteristics studies of a klystron is described. The circuit is a modified form of the high voltage adjustable power supply based on LM 317. This provides the necessary cavity and repeller voltages over a wide range, with good regulation. The system is protected aa- ainst short circuits and is ideallv suitable for laboratorv, ex.Deri ments with reflex klystrons.

Performance of Supply Chain when using selected Coordination Mechanisms

Coordination among supply chain members is essential for better supply chain performance. An effective method to improve supply chain coordination is to implement proper coordination mechanisms. The primary objective of this research is to study the performance of a multi-level supply chain while using selected coordination mechanisms separately, and in combination, under lost sale and back order cases. The coordination mechanisms used in this study are price discount, delay in payment and different types of information sharing. Mathematical modelling and simulation modelling are used in this study to analyse the performance of the supply chain using these mechanisms. Initially, a three level supply chain consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer and a retailer has been used to study the combined effect of price discount and delay in payment on the performance (profit) of supply chain using mathematical modelling. This study showed that implementation of individual mechanisms improves the performance of the supply chain compared to ‘no coordination’. When more than one mechanism is used in combination, performance in most cases further improved. The three level supply chain considered in mathematical modelling was then extended to a three level network supply chain consisting of a four retailers, two wholesalers, and a manufacturer with an infinite part supplier. The performance of this network supply chain was analysed under both lost sale and backorder cases using simulation modelling with the same mechanisms: ‘price discount and delay in payment’ used in mathematical modelling. This study also showed that the performance of the supply chain is significantly improved while using combination of mechanisms as obtained earlier. In this study, it is found that the effect (increase in profit) of ‘delay in payment’ and combination of ‘price discount’ & ‘delay in payment’ on SC profit is relatively high in the case of lost sale. Sensitivity analysis showed that order cost of the retailer plays a major role in the performance of the supply chain as it decides the order quantity of the other players in the supply chain in this study. Sensitivity analysis also showed that there is a proportional change in supply chain profit with change in rate of return of any player. In the case of price discount, elasticity of demand is an important factor to improve the performance of the supply chain. It is also found that the change in permissible delay in payment given by the seller to the buyer affects the SC profit more than the delay in payment availed by the buyer from the seller. In continuation of the above, a study on the performance of a four level supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, a wholesaler, a distributor and a retailer with ‘information sharing’ as coordination mechanism, under lost sale and backorder cases, using a simulation game with live players has been conducted. In this study, best performance is obtained in the case of sharing ‘demand and supply chain performance’ compared to other seven types of information sharing including traditional method. This study also revealed that effect of information sharing on supply chain performance is relatively high in the case of lost sale than backorder. The in depth analysis in this part of the study showed that lack of information sharing need not always be resulting in bullwhip effect. Instead of bullwhip effect, lack of information sharing produced a huge hike in lost sales cost or backorder cost in this study which is also not favorable for the supply chain. Overall analysis provided the extent of improvement in supply chain performance under different cases. Sensitivity analysis revealed useful insights about the decision variables of supply chain and it will be useful for the supply chain management practitioners to take appropriate decisions.

Land Use Controls with Special Reference to Wetlands

This is a study of land use law in India. Land use Controls has been a subject of controversy since the human settlement. Gamut of control increased with human development. Now the controls are for many purposes.Nuisance created through various land use was tried to be avoidedthrough the common law controls7. Whether the utility of the activity outweighs the environmental consideration was the consideration before the court. A standard definition8 of nuisance could meet most of the problems relating to land use. Later on, planning and zoning laws brought in major changes. Health, safety and facilities of others attracted land use controls9. After the Stockholm the sphere of government interference increased. Several legislations were enacted. Existing legislations were modified. These come in conflict with the interests of different sections of society. Coastal Regulations10 and high range protection11 are manifestations of such unrest. A systematic study on these issues is of current interest. Exploring of some areas in this respect is also relevant in this respect.