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Temporal variability of ozone and its precursors at tropical megacity, Bengaluru, India: Effect of volatile organic compounds and meteorology
No full textRoutine observations of surface ozone (O3) and its precursors (NO, NO2, NOx) were taken over Bengaluru, a southern megacity, India, for 4 years period between January 2015 and December 2018. The seasonal variations of O3, NO, NO2, and NOx have been analysed to understand the short-term variability of the pollutants at this site. The magnitude of O3 varied significantly by season, with maximum concentration during winter (13.07 ppbv) and minimum concentration during monsoon (9.52 ppbv). The highest concentration was observed in the post-monsoon season (17.38 ppbv) for NO, while NO2 and NOx showed the highest (41.75, 50.42 ppbv) in the winter season. The lowest concentrations of NO (5.70 ppbv), NO2 (30.43 ppbv) and NOx(36.28 ppbv) were observed in summer. An estimate was performed to determine the site's VOC-NOx sensitivity, using the TNMHC/NOX ratio as a photochemical measure. This ratio indicates that the study region is NOX responsive in all seasons. Analysis was done on the effects of meteorological factors such as temperature, water vapour, and ventilation coefficient on pollutants. Higher correlation of O3 with temperature showed the role of photochemical reactions in the formation of ozone and water vapour content leads to the removal of ozone concentration. The influence of meteorological variables on NO2 and TNMHC did not appear to be very significant. An analysis of CAMS data with real-time measurements of ozone and oxides of nitrogen showed that ozone is significantly correlated, while nitrogen oxides are not significantly correlated with CAMS data
Frugal Technological Praxis as Empowerment
No full textFrugal technological activity through jugaad or frugal invention, collective and defensive technological strategies, or grassroots innovation can battle the lived experience of inequality, and perhaps even the condition of socio-economic disadvantage. The article argues that such practices are in fact technological weapons of disadvantaged socio-economic groups to mitigate lived inequality and economic adversity. They are the indicators of technological modernity
Manufacturing Threat: Reality and Rhetoric of Urban Maoism in India
No full textThere is an ongoing debate on the issue of Urban Maoism (read Urban Naxal) in India. At a time when the activities of the Maoists (violent or otherwise) have been confined to little pockets of Central and Eastern Indian states, the nature and the intent of the debates around urban Maoism merit scholarly interventions. The debates around the issue of urban Maoism are mainly engaged through two critical positions: one that believes in the existence of the urban Maoists who, according to the votaries of this position, are necessarily working against the Indian state, and the second position that rejects the first one and terms it as a manufactured narrative with a motive to target the dissenters and genuine opposition to the government. Stepping away from these two contrarian and competitive positions, this paper intends to reason with the more significant issues of Maoists’ urban movement and the ongoing urban Maoism debate. In this process, the paper deals with the critical aspects of the Maoist movement in India and attempts to investigate the status of urban Maoism. In the first part, the paper engages with the idea of the urban movement within the larger Maoist revolutionary framework. In doing so, it highlights the process through which there has been a shift favoring the dominance of the urban intellectuals over the Maoist movement. The second part of the paper engages with the status of the urban movement of the Maoists and the threat perception it poses to the state. The last section investigates the intent and the process through which successive governments use the issue of urban Maoism as an instrument of effective rhetoric that helps them further the latter’s interests
A ‘South within the South’: writing from more-than-human entanglements in Guwahati, India
No full textThis paper attempts to theorize from two peripheries within the Indian ‘knowledge production nexus’: one which is spatial vis-à-vis a ‘peripheral’ city; and the other which is relational vis-à-vis more-than-human relations in the city. Drawing from Southern and postcolonial urban theory and more-than-human geographies, we postulate that first, the city of Guwahati in North-East India remains a ‘South within the South’ as a site to theorize from, and second, the everyday enmeshed lives and relations of animals within this landscape remain negligible within the above-mentioned discursive nexus. In a parallel enquiry over ‘other Souths’ and ‘other lifeforms’, we explore animals’ geographies in Guwahati, finding potential in the framing of ‘entanglements’ to encapsulate varied relations with pigs, rhesus macaques, bovines, and dogs – both historically and in the contemporary. More-than-human entanglements, we contend, unveil more-than-human material, spatial, and liminal relations in the city, striated along economic, gender, caste, and class lines. Such a framing is both located and dislocated, suggestive of a comparative analytic and a plural ethic
From Freud to Zuckerberg and back
No full textFrom Freud to Zuckerberg and Back, the first book for adults from Storywell Books, asks parents and policymakers to consider the mental health of children first. For thousands of years, children have managed to grow, survive and achieve what they and their parents wished for without any external influences aside of family, community and other socio-cultural entities. Into this secure world, globalisation, IOT and AI have introduced extraneous and unhealthy elements like video games, meta platforms and mobile phones, creating a misunderstanding of ‘Reality’ for today’s children. This book is a call to return to the traditional outdoors play, listen to real bird calls, experience real seas, sands and sunshine, rain and stop the overuse of electronic gadgets that have zombified youth and led people to behave like computers
Forest Biomass Assessment Using Multisource Earth Observation Data: Techniques, Data Sets and Applications
No full textForests cover around one-third of the Earth's surface (Pan et al., 2013), offering a myriad of ecosystem services crucial for sustaining life on our planet. Among these, a pivotal service is their ability to sequester carbon, thereby mitigating the impacts of emissions from fossil fuels and associated global warming (Tian et al., 2022). An essential parameter in this process is forest biomass, recognized as the essential climate variable. Aboveground biomass (AGB) in forests serves as a fundamental indicator of ecosystem productivity, biodiversity, and carbon storage (Ma et al., 2024). Although traditional methods such as site-level studies, national forest inventories, and regional synthesis have yielded significant insights, there is now widespread recognition of the need to address gaps in spatial carbon capture. Identifying carbon sink areas and predicting future sink capacities under varying climate and policy scenarios have become critical aspects of climate change mitigation strategies
Validation of ESA-CCI Forest Biomass Products over India: Methodological and Data Challenges and Results
No full textForest aboveground biomass (AGB), an essential climate variable, is a major priority for the delivery of usable products from multi-sensor remote sensing data. Recent AGB global products such as ESA-CCI and GlobBiomass could provide critical inputs for carbon sequestration, emission and climate change studies. While these have been developed and tested with global field datasets, very little use of Indian field measurements and validation with Indian observations has been reported. In this study, a database of field measurements was created, of 1 ha (135 plots), clustered plots of 0.1 ha (101 plots) and 582 plot AGB of 0.1–0.04 ha from the published literature and used for validating ESA-CCI 2018 & 2010 and Santoro-2010 (Santoro et al., Earth System Science Data 13:3927–3950, 2021) datasets. Validation of mean AGB for larger areas such as regional and national estimates was carried out with field-based national forest inventory results of Forest Survey of India (FSI), which indicated an RMSE of 13.47 Mg/ha at zone level and a bias of 48.82 Mg/ha for AGB density and 983.96 Mt in AGB pool at national level. The plot-level comparison at 1 ha plots had RMSE of 215 Mg/ha. However, data from smaller plots did not show any correlation with the AGB product. In general, all products exhibited saturation and were unable to capture AGB of plots above 250 Mg/ha. The large area mean AGB was underestimated when compared with national forest inventory results. Expanding the Indian datasets for use in the development and validation of AGB models, updating the global datasets with Indian observations through new data integration approaches is suggested
Equity assessment of global mitigation pathways in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
No full textThis paper analyses 556 model scenarios assessed by IPCC’s Working Group-III for the 6th Assessment Report, which have an underlying 10-region classification and correspond to restricting warming levels to 1.5 ℃ and 2 ℃. We show that across all scenarios, the current global inequalities in incomes, energy use, and emissions, are projected to continue even in 2050. Scenarios also project higher per capita fossil fuel use and lower carbon dioxide removal in developed countries in 2050 compared to developing countries. Our results demonstrate the scale and scope of unequal outcomes in these scenarios, that have been anticipated by theoretical critiques of the underlying models. The paper explores the potential reasons for the unequal outcomes of the scenarios focusing on the two key issues of scenario design and modelling framework. Our analysis also suggests that instead of summary assessments focusing on singular median values or percentile ranges, as undertaken in the IPCC report, more could be learned from focusing on differences between models or considering outliers that could present new and innovative solutions to the determination of equitable and efficient future mitigation pathways. Our analysis underlines the need for new frameworks for emissions modelling and scenario building, for constructing possible futures that can also foreground equity and climate justice