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State Highway-05A in Northern India, connects the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand. In Uttar Pradesh, it passes through steep and rugged Markundi Hill, composed of highly jointed sandstone. The current study examines road-cut slopes at six locations to quantify the instability mechanism and slope health. Detailed field and laboratory investigations were combined to ascertain the structural, petrographic, and strength attributes of the rock. Afterwards, data was collated to characterise the rockmass behaviour through widely accepted classification schemes, viz., geological strength index (GSI), Q-slope, rock mass rating (RMR), slope mass rating (SMR), and modified global slope performance index (modified GSPI). The value ranges provided by various empirical classifications are 40–62 (RMR), 39.61–58.46 (SMR) and modified 44.57–52.57 (GSPI). For structural stability, kinematic analysis was conducted. According to RMR, five locations fall in fair and one in poor rockmass classes. SMR suggest all locations are partially stable. Eventually, a novel approach for finding the ratings of GSPI is also introduced in the present work, allowing more comprehensive discontinuity characteristics incorporation. The new approach brings GSPI and SMR to the same scale, making it easy to compare the two. GSPI yields that all the locations have high chances of local bench failures. Compared to other approaches, GSPI predicts a wide range of instabilities and should be used alone or in conjunction with other systems for slope stability assessment.

A tunnel provides reliable, low-maintenance, and all-weather connectivity in hilly terrains. Rishikesh–Karnaprayag Broad Gauge project is a 125 km long rail link, that includes 35 bridges and 17 tunnels, to connect the tough route of Uttarakhand Chardham sites. This tunnel route passes through the Lower Himalayas of Uttarakhand, India. The present research emphasizes the structural discontinuities’ influence on tunnel stability at different chainages (18570 to 32000) with a 13.4 km long span, having variable overburden and rock mass conditions. The factor of safety is determined using kinematic analysis and numerical simulation based on the boundary element method. The boundary element method examines the excavation problems and captures the interaction of the tunnel structure and surrounding rock mass. Different rock mass classification schemes are also utilized to evaluate the rock mass conditions. Schemes mainly include rock mass rating (RMR), Q-system and Ö-NORM B2203 (NATM class), suggesting that the rock mass quality ranges from poor to fair. The factor of safety for critically unstable wedges without support varies between 0.49 and 0.98, and after applying shotcrete and rock bolting, FOS varies between 0.63 and 3.23. In the present study, the overburden varies between 33 and 590 m. The influence of applied computational support (shotcrete and rock bolting) has been studied with an average value of factor of safety at each 100 m interval. The study outcomes may be significant in supporting estimation during similar rock mass conditions.

Assessing variability of historical and projected future precipitation extremes is of high value in managing water resources effectively. The Himalayan environment of Nepal is comprised of both hills and mountains. The hills are the most susceptible to precipitation extremes and related natural hazards, which hinder the socio-economic development of the country. This study investigated the variability of extreme precipitation events over the 22 weather stations distributed across the mid hills of Nepal to identify its driving potential of extreme events. Firstly, trends and spatial distribution of different precipitation indices were computed on annual and seasonal scales for the baseline (historical) period of 1986–2015. We found that the annual maximum precipitation amount (1-day, consecutive 3-day, and 5-day) and heavy precipitation days with daily precipitation exceeding 10, 20, and 50 mm (i.e., R10, R20, and R50 respectively) show dominantly falling trends during the historical period. Noticeably, while analyzing at a seasonal scale, we found that the precipitation amount exhibited a statistically significant decreasing pattern during the monsoon season. This study then assessed possible changes of those indices under future climatic conditions using the latest set of scenarios from ten CMIP6 (Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 6) models dataset for the near future period (2021–2050) under two shared socio-economic pathways (SSP245 and SSP585). The projection showed a wider range of deviation with respect to the baseline, predominantly increasing heavy precipitation. Overall, the increasing pattern of the intensity, duration, and frequency of extreme events indicates the region would possess more risks of natural hazards such as floods, landslides, and soil erosion in the future. Furthermore, most of the climate models showed that consecutive dry days (CDDs) are projected to increase, which could significantly impact agriculture facilities, food security, and water scarcity and ultimately could increase the vulnerability of hill communities. Our findings are expected to help understand the extremities of precipitation variability and have strong policy implications indicating that adaptation measures that can reduce risks make society less vulnerable and more resilient to extremes.

People’s perceptions can reflect local issues and concerns to reveal actual impacts of climate change/variability (CCV) on their lives and livelihoods. As climate change (CC) adaptation strategies are to be implemented at the local level, involving local people right from the beginning of problem diagnosis ensures their successful implementation. This study has adopted a perception-based approach to assess CCV, its effects in terms of extreme events and prioritize adaptation strategies to enhance resilience of the communities, in the Budhi Gandaki River Basin (BGRB), Nepal. It is likely that valuing local knowledge and experiences makes people more responsive to the intervention and backing up the perception results by scientific data analysis establishes a sense of legitimacy to what people have perceived. Results showed that people have perceived CCV in various forms such as increase in temperature, decrease in pre-monsoon and monsoon rainfall, and more erratic rainfall timing in recent years. These perceived impacts are consistent with trends in observed rainfall and temperature data in the study area. The CCV has led to increase in frequency of extreme events - both floods and droughts, and associated impacts. As an adaptation strategy, people prioritized ‘technological measures’ as the most effective for both flood and drought. The analysis provided herein confirms that combining scientific facts with people’s perception helps establish more reliant knowledgebase of CC to better plan and develop climate-resilient communities.

This article details an application of Water Poverty Index (WPI) to evaluate state of water resources in the context of Nepalese river basins with a case study of Kali Gandaki River Basin (KGRB) located in western Nepal. Considering that water poverty issues and indicators to represent them are location-specific, selecting suitable indicators with due care of local context and data availability is essential to apply the WPI, a holistic tool for water resources planning and management. In this study, it suggests and describes a set of ten WPI indicators and twelve variables suitable in the Nepalese context. The selected set of indicators and variables is used to discuss water poverty situation in the study basin as a whole, spatial variation within the basin and variation at different spatial scales in the basin, that is, basin, sub-unit of the basin (district) and sub-unit of the district (Village Development Committee (VDC)). The study result shows that WPI varies widely (from 37.1 to 56.5) within the study basin suggesting the need of location-specific policy interventions. At different spatial scales, there is no clear trend; however, analysis of the WPI components shows higher resources and access at basin level; higher use, environment and capacity at sub-sub-unit of the basin level. Such variations suggest the need of scale-specific policy interventions and management plans to improve overall water poverty situation in the study basin. Overall, the WPI helped to examine the water poverty situation and recommend priority areas of policy interventions for the improvement of water-poverty situation in the basin.

WATER, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND SUSTAINABILITY An in-depth review of sustainable concepts in water resources management under climate change Climate change continues to intensify existing pressures in water resources management, such as rapid population growth, land use changes, pollution, damming of rivers, and many others.

Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) has planned to harness water from outside the valley from Melamchi as an inter-basin project to supply water inside the ring road (core valley area) of the Kathmandu Valley (KV). The project, called the “Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP)”, is expected to have its first phase completed by the end of September 2018 and its second phase completed by the end of 2023 to supply 170 MLD (million liters a day) through the first phase and an additional 340 MLD through the second phase. The area has recently faced a severe water deficit and KUKL’s existing infrastructure has had a limited capability, supplying only 19% of the water that is demanded in its service areas during the dry season and 31% during the wet season. In this context, this study aims to assess the temporal trends and spatial distribution of household water security index (WSI), defined as a ratio of supply to demand for domestic water use for basic human water requirements (50 L per capita per day (lpcd)) and economic growth (135 lpcd) as demand in pre- and post-MWSP scenarios. For this purpose, data on water demand and supply with infrastructure were used to map the spatial distribution of WSI and per capita water supply using ArcMap. Results show a severe water insecurity condition in the year 2017 in all KUKL service areas (SAs), which is likely to improve after completion of the MWSP. It is likely that recent distribution network and strategies may lead to inequality in water distribution within the SAs. This can possibly be addressed by expanding existing distribution networks and redistributing potable water, which can serve an additional 1.21 million people in the area. Service providers may have to develop strategies to strengthen a set of measures including improving water supply infrastructures, optimizing water loss, harnessing additional water from hills, and managing water within and outside the KUKL SAs in the long run to cover the entire KV.

Abstract An accurate estimation of precipitation amount is crucial for various studies and planning related to water resource management, effective flood prediction and warning systems, agriculture, climatic research, and disaster risk management. However, due to the sparse and uneven distribution of ground-based precipitation gauges over rugged terrain, accurate and consistent measurement is inadequate in many developing and mountainous countries like Nepal. Therefore, satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs) and interpolation-based gridded data are considered as a vital source of precipitation estimation, which may serve as crucial inputs for a wide range of hydrological applications. However, in the absence of quality assessment, applications of these products pose uncertainty. This study evaluated the performance of three SPPs, i.e., CHIRPS V2.0, PERSIANN CDR, and MSWEP V2.8, and a ground-based gridded precipitation product APHRODITE on daily, monthly, and annual scales at ten rain gauges over the Arun River Basin. The performance of the precipitation products was evaluated from 1983 to 2014 using several statistical categorical and continuous indices. Our results show APHRODITE and MSWEP V2.8 are comparatively better than CHIRPS V2.0 and PERSIANN CDR in the study area. We finally applied the bias correction of the selected products using a linear scaling method, where daily precipitation data were corrected using a monthly correction factor. We find all SPPs have improved after the bias correction. The method is scalable and applicable in other river basins across the country and beyond Nepal.

This study aims to estimate the green, blue and grey water footprints (WFs) of nine primary crops production in 75 districts, 5 developmental regions and 3 physiographic divisions of Nepal using local meteorological, agronomical and irrigation data at high spatial resolution. The estimates are based on the framework prescribed by the guideline of the Water Footprint Network. The green and blue WFs are calculated using a water balance model whereas the grey WF is estimated as the volume of freshwater needed to dilute nitrate pollution to an acceptable level. WF varies across different crops considered, different districts, development regions and physiographic divisions. WF of potato and wheat in Nepal is comparable to the world average; but paddy, barley and pulses have higher while sugarcane and maize have lower values compared to the world average. WFs of paddy, maize, potato and wheat are lower in Terai than the Hills and Mountains due to the accessibility of irrigation system and higher crop yield. Millet, pulses, oilseeds and barley have lower WFs and are suitable for Mountains. Similarly, sugarcane is suitable for both Terai and Mountain divisions because of its lower WF. Crops in Far Western Development Region generally have higher WFs due to the low crop productivity, and higher fertilizer use.

Water security is a key in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs); however, it is gradually becoming a scarce resource due to pressure from both climatic and non-climatic factors. Understanding sources and extend of vulnerability of the water resources is the very first step to design appropriate strategies aimed at securing water for various uses. This study therefore assessed vulnerability of water resources and its spatial distribution across the Palikas (new local governments) with Gulmi district in Province-5 as the case study. Vulnerability was assessed using an indicator-based framework comprising of two components and six sub-indices. Results showed that Musikot is the highly vulnerable Palika among the 12 Palikas, and Resunga is the least vulnerable. The results are useful for prioritizing the Palikas for allocating resources aimed at targeting new programs for reducing poverty and conserving natural resources.