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Thesis

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2010 - 201922
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Subject: Soil and Water Engineering × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2010 × Type: Thesis ×
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Now showing 1 - 9 of 22
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    ThesisItemRestricted
    Impact of climate change on groundwater behaviour in Sirhind Canal Tract of Punjab
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Navdeep Kaur; Samanpreet Kaur
    A warmer future due to global climate change is the proven phenomenon which may lead to changes in the hydrological cycle, surface water as well as underground water resource. Since Punjab is a part of the arid and semi-arid regions of the India, underground water plays an indelible role in supplying its water needs that should specifically address the issue of groundwater resources and the effects of climate change. Therefore, a study was done to quantify the impacts of climate change on groundwater behaviour in Sirhind Canal Tract of Punjab under CSRIO-Mk 3 RCP 4.5 and RCP 6.0 future climate scenarios using MODFLOW. The study spanned 20 years of baseline (1998-2018) as well as two future periods‘ mid-century (MC) (2020-2050) and end century EC (2065-2095). The spatial distribution of recharge and draft was mapped to GIS and was provided as input to groundwater model. The results showed that that the temperature and rainfall would increase by 1.9 °C and 91 mm in MC and 3.6 °C and 72 mm in EC under RCP 4.5. While under RCP 6.0, the corresponding increase would be of 1.6 °C and 70 mm in MC and 3.5 °C and 73 mm in EC. The climate scenarios estimated an increase in evapotranspiration and runoff loss of 38% and 15%, respectively by EC. Two pumping scenarios were developed up to the year 2095, i.e. maintaining the current pumping rate for the study period and an increase in pumping rate according to the historical trend. In condition I, the above normal rainfall during MC under both the scenarios predicts a marginal rise of 0.8 m in 2050, with a gradual fall of 5.6 m in EC. While in condition II, the water table would fall by 34.3 m in MC and 51.2 m in EC. The results presented here should be interpreted as trends and not as accurate quantitative predictions of the hydrological changes as there are numerous sources of uncertainties associated with climate change prediction.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Study of Different Filter Media for Quality Improvement of Village Pond Water for Irrigation
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2019) Mishra, Shrankhala; Satpute, Sanjay
    The village ponds in Punjab state had great importance and these were considered as the gift to the mankind. Quality of village pond water is degraded and not used for irrigation therefore; it is desirable to develop a technology to reuse the village pond water and to make village pond water suitable for irrigation. Thus, the study was planned with the objective of improving the village pond water quality using filter media and make that water fit for irrigation. Five materials viz. biochar, activated charcoal, zeolite, fine and course sand were individually tested for the quality improvement of the village pond wastewater. The water quality parameters such as BOD, COD, TDS, TSS, TS pH, and EC were analyzed before and after passing through the filter media. Uncontrolled flow of water at media depth 30 and 40 cm and water head of 10, 20 and 30 cm was passed through each filter media and discharge was collected for the analysis. BOD was decreased by 12% for activated charcoal, COD decreased by 9.7%, for zeolite, TSS decreased upto 28% by fine sand and TDS decreased upto 13% by fine sand. To further enhance the performance of the filter materials, the study was conducted with the controlled discharge of 5 and 8 l/h through the same thickness of filter media. Result concluded that the discharge rate of 5 l/h, material depth 40 cm and water head 10cm decreases the values of BOD, COD, TSS and TDS more efficiently than uncontrolled flow of water and for discharge rate of 8l/h. The 40cm depth of material was found more efficient than the 30cm depth of material whereas there was insignificant difference in the efficiency at 10, 20 and 30 cm head so 10 cm head along with 40cm material depth was selected. Efficient materials based on the removal efficiency was selected (zeolite, activated charcoal, biochar and fine sand) and each selected materials were put in the column one over the other as a depth of 40 cm each by keeping course material at the bottom and finer at the top and water head 10 cm. Two cycles of 24, 48, 96 and 168 h duration was performed and effluents were collected at the outlet and again parameters were determined. For combination of materials during first wet cycle at 24, 48, 96 and 168 h samples were collected and analysed for all parameters and efficiency of 49%, 57%, 75% and 10% was achieved in terms of BOD, COD, TSS and TDS. Whereas for second cycle the values were 44%, 56%, 63% and 6% which showed that there is decrease in the values of efficiencies than first cycle.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Mathematical Formulation of Groundwater Recharge through Abandoned Well
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Gupta, Alok; Aggarwal, Rajan
    The stress on groundwater resources is continuously increasing due to rampant use in agriculture, increasing urbanization, industrialization and population. As a result, the groundwater levels in various parts of the country are declining. Groundwater recharge is one of the water augmentation techniques by which run-off water or excess water can be put into aquifer itself to replenish the groundwater reservoir. For recharging groundwater, one may use variety of methods such as abandoned well, ponds and pits. A field study was done to evaluate the recharge through abandoned well in an unconfined aquifer. The canal water was diverted into the abandoned well, maintaining constant head conditions. The study showed that rate of recharge decreased from 9.18 l/s to 3.4 l/s with time. Major factor responsible for this reduction was the total suspended solids (TSS) of canal water. An analytical equation was developed to simulate rise in water table, assuming the recharge taking place from a hypothetical well screen fully penetrating the saturated thickness of the aquifer. The developed mathematical equation was able to predict the rise in water table reasonably well under existing field conditions.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Impact of Landuse Change on Runoff and Sediment Yield of a Watershed in Shivalik Foot-Hills
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Sushanth, Kallem; Bhardwaj, Anil
    Landuse change significantly alters the hydrologic characteristics of the land surface within a watershed. In the present study, the impact of landuse change (2006 - 2016) on runoff and sediment yield has been assessed in Patiala-Ki-Rao watershed located in Shivalik foot-hills, using RS, GIS and WEPP watershed model. Landuse maps were generated in GIS environment using LANDSAT imageries for the years 2006 and 2016 with overall classification accuracy and Kappa statistic both above 0.9. The watershed was classified into seven major landuse classes namely agriculture, built-up, fallow land, forest, grass land, streams and water bodies. The analysis of landuse maps indicated that the area under all the landuses decreased except built-up that increased by 372.27 ha (112.04%) in a period of 10 years. Change detection matrix was prepared to determine land encroachment by different landuse categories. Forest is the most affected landuse among all watershed landuses that shrinked by 194.90 ha followed by agriculture (64.57 ha), grass land (50.81 ha), streams (30.42 ha), fallow land (21.86 ha) and water bodies (9.72 ha). Runoff and sediment yield for the landuse of the years 2006 and 2016 were simulated by the WEPP model using climatic data for the year 2006 and again with that of the year 2016. The simulated runoff, sediment yield and sediment delivery ratio got increased from 53.70 mm to 63.70 mm (18.62%), 10.20 Mg/ha to 15.10 Mg/ha (48.04%) and 0.192 to 0.254 (32.23%) under climate-2006 and 64.60 mm to 81.90 mm (26.78%), 12.90 Mg/ha to 16.80 Mg/ha (30.23%) and 0.261 to 0.303 (16.09%) under climate-2016 due to change in landuse during the study period of 10 years. Runoff coefficient increased from 0.054 to 0.064 under climate-2006 and 0.058 to 0.074 under climate-2016 for landuse of the years 2006 and 2016, respectively. However, threshold value of rainfall that produced runoff decreased from 15 mm to 9 mm under climate-2006 and 15 mm to 11 mm under climate-2016 for the years 2006 and 2016, respectively. Hillslope and channel slope soil loss also increased significantly due to landuse change in the watershed.
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    ThesisItemRestricted
    Performance evaluation and simulation of solar photovoltaic pumping system round the year
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Mahekpreet Kaur; Garg, Sunil
    The present study was undertaken to analyze the performance of solar photovoltaic (SPV) pumping system parameters, variation of solar insolation and amount of water pumped per month under different seasons. The average flow rate in summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter season was 3.0 Lps, 2.17 Lps, 3.44 Lps and 2.93 Lps, respectively. The amount of water pumped in summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter season was 110.7m3/9hr/day, 75.16 m3/9hr/day, 105.93 m3/9hr/day and 83.98 m3/7hr/day, respectively. The average conversion efficiency in summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter season was 14.36 %, 15.13 %, 17.04 % and 16.85 %, respectively. Based on this relationship between solar irradiance and flow rate; panel temperature and conversion efficiency under different seasons were developed. The major factor which influences the performance of any SPV pumping system is the conversion efficiency and conversion efficiency is significantly affected by the panel temperature. The range of optimum panel temperature should be between 12 ˚C to 32 ˚C at which conversion efficiency will be maximum varying from 18.39 % to 21.0 %. The relationship between solar irradiance and flow rate during summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter season followed linear equation having R2 value of 0.70, 0.89, 0.81 and 0.92, respectively. The relationship between panel temperature and conversion efficiency during summer, monsoon, post monsoon and winter season followed linear equation having R2 value of 0.75, 0.83, 0.71 and 0.78, respectively. The presence of clouds significantly affected/lowe-red down the current, RPM and flow rate but the temperature did not change much which reveals that temperature has minimum effect on the development of current and voltage in solar photovoltaic cells. Flow rate was estimated using utilizability method and simulated by PV SYST model. The coefficient of variation between estimated flow rate by utilizability method and measured flow rate and simulated flow rate and measured flow rate was found to be 9.00 % and 15.08 %, respectively.
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    ThesisItemRestricted
    Impact of different irrigation methods on microbial activity in pea and chickpea
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Singhal, Neha; Siag, Mukesh
    Field experiment was conducted in winter seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 at PAU, Ludhiana to study the impact of different irrigation methods on microbial activity in pea and chickpea. Pea var. PB-89 and chickpea var. PBG-5 were grown under five types of irrigation treatments. The treatments were drip irrigation in crop grown on plain (T1), drip irrigation in crop grown on ridges (T2), flood irrigation (T3), furrow irrigation (T4) and rainfed crop (T5). Growth parameters of plant height and leaf area index were recorded significantly higher under drip irrigation treatments. Symbiotic traits as number of nodules per plant and dry weight of nodules were recorded similar under different irrigation treatments but significantly more than rainfed treatment. However, leghaemoglobin content of nodules was found significantly more under drip irrigation. Microbial population of bacteria and Rhizobia were found non-significant but population of fungi and p-solubilizer bacteria and dehydrogenase activity of soil were significantly higher in drip and furrow irrigation. Significantly higher yields were found in drip irrigation treatments with maximum values under T1 for both the crops in both years and minimum values were observed under T5. A constant moisture regime was maintained in T1 and T2 which resulted in increased microbial activity and yield, while fluctuating moisture content under flood and furrow and deficit moisture content under rainfed treatment adversely affected yields. It may be concluded that drip irrigation positively impacts symbiotic traits and microbial activity which leads to better growth and yield of pea and chickpea crops.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Design and Evaluation of Automated Drip Irrigation System
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Sandeep Kumar; Jain, A.K.
    An automated drip irrigation system (ADIS) was designed and evaluated in collaboration with JISL, Jalgaon, (Maharashtra). To optimize the design parameters of the system, two types of drip irrigation systems were considered, viz. wired based automated drip irrigation system (IS1) and wireless automated drip irrigation system (IS2). The experiment was carried out for two seasons on tomato crop (Abhinav, Syngentha) using two water sources viz. ground water and treated fruit processing waste water. The study revealed that the quality parameter of tomato was better for treated fruit processing water (WQ2) in comparison of ground water (WQ1) quality. Based on the optimization of ADIS, it was found that the irrigation system and water quality significantly affect the plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, number of fruits and yield. The wireless based irrigation system (IS2) with treated fruit processing waste water (WQ2) was found as best combination. The maximum tomato yield of 37.79 ton/ha was obtained with wireless based irrigation system with pressure compensating drippers (PC) for treated fruit processing waste water (WQ2). Economic analysis has been done to check the commercial viability of the automatic drip irrigation system. The benefit cost ratio for wired based irrigation system was found to be as 1.44 without subsidy and 1.77 with 50 percent subsidy, whereas, benefit cost ratio for wireless irrigation system was found to be as 1.56 without subsidy and 1.90 with 50 percent subsidy. Breakeven point for wired based irrigation system has been achieved after 14 years without subsidy and 10 years with 50 percent subsidy, whereas, breakeven point for wireless based irrigation system has been achieved after 10 years without subsidy and 5 years with 50 percent subsidy. Based upon the above study it was found that wireless irrigation system is more economical and best suited automated drip irrigation system to get higher net returns as compared to wired based irrigation system.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Modeling Microclimate of Naturally Ventilated Greenhouse under Cropped Conditions in Soilless Media
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2018) Mahesh Chand Singh; Singh, J.P.
    A study was undertaken to develop mathematical models for simulating microclimate of a naturally ventilated greenhouse under cropped conditions and develop the optimal operating microclimatic conditions for drip fertigated cucumber crop in soilless media. Cucumber crop was grown in coco-peat in a split plot design in three replicates during two successive growing seasons of 2016-17. The treatments included three levels of fertigation in main plots viz. F1=100.0%, F2=85.0% and F3=70.0% of complete nutrient solution under optimal microclimatic conditions. Sub-plots included cultivars viz. V1 (Kafka), V2 (Multistar) and V3 (PBRK-4). Mathematical models for standardizing the temperature of greenhouse cover, air, plant and growing media were developed, calibrated and validated in Simulink MATLAB with a mean model efficiency and coefficient of determination values of 94.7% and 0.96 respectively. Mathematical models of sensible and latent heat balance were developed to predict vertical air temperature profile and vapour pressure and solved analytically. Models for predicting saturation vapour pressure (SVP), actual vapour pressure (AVP) and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) from internal and external climates were developed and solved in Simulink MATLAB. Further, models for predicting temperature of air, leaf, plant root-zone and relative humidity were also developed from external climate. The average fruit yield was obtained in the range of 2.4-3.5 kg plant-1 and 3.3-4.4 kg plant-1 with and without fruit thinning having lowest and highest yield under treatments F3V3 and F1V2. Crop water use efficiency (CWUE) was found in the range of 60.4-86.3 kg m-3 and 84.5-108.9 kg m-3 with and without fruit thinning respectively. The average benefit cost ratio (BCR) was computed to be 1.91 and 1.54 with and without subsidy respectively without fruit thinning. However, BCR decreased by 23.7% and 23.8% with and without subsidy respectively with fruit thinning. The developed models were calibrated and validated separately for both growing seasons and a good agreement was observed between the model predictions and observed data. Thus, the developed models successfully simulated the greenhouse microclimate. Based on microclimate modeling, the desirable range of Tapc, TL, Trz, Eapc, Irad and VPD were worked out to be 22.0-27.0°C, 20.5-25.1°C, 16.9-22.9°C, 60.0-85.0%, 100.0-169 Wm-2 and 0.53-1.10 kPa respectively for optimal plant growth and development.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Assessment of groundwater vulnerability of Amritsar district using GIS based DRASTIC model
    (Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 2017) Sandeep Kaur; Khullar, N. K.
    Groundwater contamination is of particular concern as groundwater is the principal source of water for irrigation, drinking and industrial activities. The present study investigated the groundwater vulnerability of Amritsar district (Punjab) by using the GIS based DRASTIC model. This model uses seven hydrogeological parameters viz. depth to water table, net recharge, aquifer media, soil media, topography, impact of vadose zone and hydraulic conductivity. Layers for all these parameters were created in ArcGIS. Groundwater vulnerability index was computed within ArcGIS and it varies between 129 and 175. The results of the analysis showed that about 57.91% study area lies in the low vulnerable zone with vulnerability index ranges between 129 and 145, 40.46% area lies in the moderately vulnerable zone with vulnerability index ranging between 145 and 160 and 1.63% area is the high vulnerable zone with vulnerability index range between 160 and 175. Sensitivity analysis was also carried out to evaluate the impact of each DRASTIC parameter on groundwater vulnerability index. Two methods were used namely single parameter sensitivity analysis and map removal sensitivity analysis. Single parameter sensitivity indicated that depth to water table, net recharge, topography and hydraulic conductivity layers are most significant hydrogeological parameters for the assessment of groundwater vulnerability of the study area. Map removal sensitivity analysis indicates that vulnerability index is highly sensitive to the depth to water table layer, topography and soil layers but it is least sensitive to aquifer media layer. The study will be helpful for land use planning.