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Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and related sustainability initiatives will require halving of global greenhouse gas emissions each decade from now on through to 2050, when net zero emissions should be achieved. To reach such significant reductions requires a rapid and strategic scaling of existing and emerging technologies and practices, coupled with economic and social transformations and novel governance solutions. Here we present a new "Powers of 10" (P10) logarithmic framework and demonstrate its potential as a practical tool for decision makers and change agents at multiple scales to inform and catalyze engagement and actions, complementing and adding nuance to existing frameworks. P10 assists in identifying the suitable cohorts and cohort ranges for rapidly deploying climate and sustainability actions between a single individual and the globally projected ~10 billion persons by 2050. Applying a robust dataset of climate solutions from Project Drawdown's Plausible scenario that could cumulatively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1051 gigatons (Gt) against a reference scenario (2190 Gt) between 2020 and 2050, we seek to identify a "sweet spot" where these climate and sustainability actions are suitably scaled. We suggest that prioritizing the analyzed climate actions between community and urban scales, where global and local converge, can help catalyze and enhance individual, household and local practices, and support national and international policies and finances for rapid sustainability transformations.
Avit K. Bhowmik; Mark S. McCaffrey; Abigail M. Ruskey; Chad Frischmann; Owen Gaffney. Powers of 10: seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scales. Environmental Research Letters 2020, 15, 094011 .
AMA StyleAvit K. Bhowmik, Mark S. McCaffrey, Abigail M. Ruskey, Chad Frischmann, Owen Gaffney. Powers of 10: seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scales. Environmental Research Letters. 2020; 15 (9):094011.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit K. Bhowmik; Mark S. McCaffrey; Abigail M. Ruskey; Chad Frischmann; Owen Gaffney. 2020. "Powers of 10: seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scales." Environmental Research Letters 15, no. 9: 094011.
Air travel accounts for a major share of individual greenhouse gas emissions, particularly for people in high-income countries. Until recently, few have reduced flying because of climate concerns, but currently, a movement for staying on the ground is rising. Sweden has been a focal point for this movement, particularly during 2018–2019, when a flight tax was introduced, and air travel reduction was intensely discussed in the media. We performed semi-structured interviews with Swedish residents, focusing primarily on individuals who have reduced flying because of its climate impact. We explore how such individual transformation of air travel behavior comes about, and the phases and components of this process. Applying a framework of sustainability transformation, we identify incentives and barriers in personal and political spheres. We show that internalized knowledge about climate change and the impact of air travel is crucial for instigating behavioral change. Awareness evokes negative emotions leading to a personal tipping point where a decision to reduce or quit flying is made. However, the process is often counteracted by both personal values and political structures promoting air travel. Even individuals with a strong drive to reduce flying feel trapped in social practices, norms and infrastructures. Hence, we argue that personal and political spheres interact complexly and to reduce flying at larger scales, interventions are needed across spheres, e.g., change of norms, effective policy instruments and better alternatives to air travel.
Lisa Jacobson; Jonas Åkerman; Matteo Giusti; Avit K. Bhowmik. Tipping to Staying on the Ground: Internalized Knowledge of Climate Change Crucial for Transformed Air Travel Behavior. Sustainability 2020, 12, 1994 .
AMA StyleLisa Jacobson, Jonas Åkerman, Matteo Giusti, Avit K. Bhowmik. Tipping to Staying on the Ground: Internalized Knowledge of Climate Change Crucial for Transformed Air Travel Behavior. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (5):1994.
Chicago/Turabian StyleLisa Jacobson; Jonas Åkerman; Matteo Giusti; Avit K. Bhowmik. 2020. "Tipping to Staying on the Ground: Internalized Knowledge of Climate Change Crucial for Transformed Air Travel Behavior." Sustainability 12, no. 5: 1994.
Background: The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) has emerged as a key global sustainability concept in international sustainable development arenas. Initially presented as an agenda for global sustainability research, it now shows potential for sustainability governance. We use the fact that it is widely cited in scientific literature (>3500 citations) and an extensively studied concept to analyse how it has been used and developed since its first publication. Design: From the literature that cites the PBc, we select those articles that have the terms 'planetary boundaries' or 'safe operating space' in either title, abstract or keywords. We assume that this literature substantively engages with and develops the PBc. Results: We find that 6% of the citing literature engages with the concept. Within this fraction of the literature we distinguish commentaries—that discuss the context and challenges to implementing the PBc, articles that develop the core biogeophysical concept and articles that apply the concept by translating to sub-global scales and by adding a human component to it. Applied literature adds to the concept by explicitly including society through perspectives of impacts, needs, aspirations and behaviours. Discussion: Literature applying the concept does not yet include the more complex, diverse, cultural and behavioural facet of humanity that is implied in commentary literature. We suggest there is need for a positive framing of sustainability goals—as a Safe Operating Space rather than boundaries. Key scientific challenges include distinguishing generalised from context-specific knowledge, clarifying which processes are generalizable and which are scalable, and explicitly applying complex systems' knowledge in the application and development of the PBc. We envisage that opportunities to address these challenges will arise when more human social dimensions are integrated, as we learn to feed the global sustainability vision with a plurality of bottom-up realisations of sustainability.
Andrea S Downing; Avit Bhowmik; David Collste; Sarah E Cornell; Jonathan Donges; Ingo Fetzer; Tiina Häyhä; Jennifer Hinton; Steven Lade; Wolf M Mooij. Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science. Environmental Research Letters 2019, 14, 073005 .
AMA StyleAndrea S Downing, Avit Bhowmik, David Collste, Sarah E Cornell, Jonathan Donges, Ingo Fetzer, Tiina Häyhä, Jennifer Hinton, Steven Lade, Wolf M Mooij. Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science. Environmental Research Letters. 2019; 14 (7):073005.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndrea S Downing; Avit Bhowmik; David Collste; Sarah E Cornell; Jonathan Donges; Ingo Fetzer; Tiina Häyhä; Jennifer Hinton; Steven Lade; Wolf M Mooij. 2019. "Matching scope, purpose and uses of planetary boundaries science." Environmental Research Letters 14, no. 7: 073005.
Avit Bhowmik; Mark McCaffrey; Abigail Ruskey; Chad Frischmann; Owen Gaffney. Powers of 10: cross-scale optimization of social agencies for rapid climate and sustainability action. 2018, 1 .
AMA StyleAvit Bhowmik, Mark McCaffrey, Abigail Ruskey, Chad Frischmann, Owen Gaffney. Powers of 10: cross-scale optimization of social agencies for rapid climate and sustainability action. . 2018; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Bhowmik; Mark McCaffrey; Abigail Ruskey; Chad Frischmann; Owen Gaffney. 2018. "Powers of 10: cross-scale optimization of social agencies for rapid climate and sustainability action." , no. : 1.
In the current study, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in outdoor dustfall was monitored for the first time along the Indus river system of Pakistan. Among the studied OCPs (ng/g, dry weight), DDTs (0.16-62) were the predominant contaminants identified in deposited dust followed by HCHs (0.1-10.2), HCB (0.09-7.4) and chlordanes (0.1-2.8). The indicative diagnostic ratio for DDTs and HCHs suggested recent emission of DDTs as well as historical emission of both chemicals in regions where they were used for crop protection and malarial control. The levels of ∑31PCBs (ng/g, dry weight) in dust ranged from 0.95-125, and compositional profiles suggested arochlor-1248, -1254 commercial mixtures as source. A few exceptions were samples from urban areas that reflected the use of aroclor-1260, and-1262 and/or unintentional leakage from several industrial processes. The WHO05-TEQ values for dioxin-like PCBs (with major contributions of PCB-126) were found to be 0.07-34.5 (median; 1.87) pg TEQg(-1)dw for all the studied samples. Correlation analysis identified that DDTs, HCHs, HCB and PCBs were significantly associated (r=90; p<0.01) with dusts collected in proximity to urban centers with widespread anthropogenic activities in these areas. A few cases where high levels of POPs from remote mountain highlands were detected, point to the potential for long range transport of these chemicals. Human risk assessment analysis of contaminated dust showed that DDTs and PCBs are major constituent chemicals of concern with regard to the development of cancer in children, with ingestion being the main route of exposure of dust-borne DDTs (0.12-1.03×10(-6)) and PCBs (0.86-12.43×10(-6)).
Muhammad Sohail; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Joel Podgorski; Avit Bhowmik; Adeel Mahmood; Nadeem Ali; Tara Sabo-Attwood; Habib Bokhari; Heqing Shen. Persistent organic pollutant emission via dust deposition throughout Pakistan: Spatial patterns, regional cycling and their implication for human health risks. Science of The Total Environment 2018, 618, 829 -837.
AMA StyleMuhammad Sohail, Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani, Joel Podgorski, Avit Bhowmik, Adeel Mahmood, Nadeem Ali, Tara Sabo-Attwood, Habib Bokhari, Heqing Shen. Persistent organic pollutant emission via dust deposition throughout Pakistan: Spatial patterns, regional cycling and their implication for human health risks. Science of The Total Environment. 2018; 618 ():829-837.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMuhammad Sohail; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Joel Podgorski; Avit Bhowmik; Adeel Mahmood; Nadeem Ali; Tara Sabo-Attwood; Habib Bokhari; Heqing Shen. 2018. "Persistent organic pollutant emission via dust deposition throughout Pakistan: Spatial patterns, regional cycling and their implication for human health risks." Science of The Total Environment 618, no. : 829-837.
Mining for resources extraction may lead to geological and associated environmental changes due to ground movements, collision with mining cavities, and deformation of aquifers. Geological changes may continue in a reclaimed mine area, and the deformed aquifers may entail a breakdown of substrates and an increase in ground water tables, which may cause surface area inundation. Consequently, a reclaimed mine area may experience surface area collapse, i.e., subsidence, and degradation of vegetation productivity. Thus, monitoring short-term landscape dynamics in a reclaimed mine area may provide important information on the long-term geological and environmental impacts of mining activities. We studied landscape dynamics in Kirchheller Heide, Germany, which experienced extensive soil movement due to longwall mining without stowing, using Landsat imageries between 2013 and 2016. A Random Forest image classification technique was applied to analyze land-use and landcover dynamics, and the growth of wetland areas was assessed using a Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA). We also analyzed the changes in vegetation productivity using a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We observed a 19.9% growth of wetland area within four years, with 87.2% growth in the coverage of two major waterbodies in the reclaimed mine area. NDVI values indicate that the productivity of 66.5% of vegetation of the Kirchheller Heide was degraded due to changes in ground water tables and surface flooding. Our results inform environmental management and mining reclamation authorities about the subsidence spots and priority mitigation areas from land surface and vegetation degradation in Kirchheller Heide.
Rajchandar Padmanaban; Avit K. Bhowmik; Pedro Cabral. A Remote Sensing Approach to Environmental Monitoring in a Reclaimed Mine Area. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2017, 6, 401 .
AMA StyleRajchandar Padmanaban, Avit K. Bhowmik, Pedro Cabral. A Remote Sensing Approach to Environmental Monitoring in a Reclaimed Mine Area. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 2017; 6 (12):401.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRajchandar Padmanaban; Avit K. Bhowmik; Pedro Cabral. 2017. "A Remote Sensing Approach to Environmental Monitoring in a Reclaimed Mine Area." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 6, no. 12: 401.
Urban sprawl (US), propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, adversely affects the provision of ecosystem services. The quantification of US is thus crucial for effective urban planning and environmental management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu and one of the business hubs in India, has experienced extensive US triggered by the doubling of total population over the past three decades. However, the extent and level of US has not yet been quantified and a prediction for future extent of US is lacking. We employed the Random Forest (RF) classification on Landsat imageries from 1991, 2003, and 2016, and computed six landscape metrics to delineate the extent of urban areas within a 10 km suburban buffer of Chennai. The level of US was then quantified using Renyi’s entropy. A land change model was subsequently used to project land cover for 2027. A 70.35% expansion in urban areas was observed mainly towards the suburban periphery of Chennai between 1991 and 2016. The Renyi’s entropy value for year 2016 was 0.9, exhibiting a two-fold level of US when compared to 1991. The spatial metrics values indicate that the existing urban areas became denser and the suburban agricultural, forests and particularly barren lands were transformed into fragmented urban settlements. The forecasted land cover for 2027 indicates a conversion of 13,670.33 ha (16.57% of the total landscape) of existing forests and agricultural lands into urban areas with an associated increase in the entropy value to 1.7, indicating a tremendous level of US. Our study provides useful metrics for urban planning authorities to address the social-ecological consequences of US and to protect ecosystem services.
Rajchandar Padmanaban; Avit K. Bhowmik; Pedro Cabral; Alexander Zamyatin; Oraib Almegdadi; Shuangao Wang. Modelling Urban Sprawl Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case Study of Chennai City, Tamilnadu. Entropy 2017, 19, 163 .
AMA StyleRajchandar Padmanaban, Avit K. Bhowmik, Pedro Cabral, Alexander Zamyatin, Oraib Almegdadi, Shuangao Wang. Modelling Urban Sprawl Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case Study of Chennai City, Tamilnadu. Entropy. 2017; 19 (4):163.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRajchandar Padmanaban; Avit K. Bhowmik; Pedro Cabral; Alexander Zamyatin; Oraib Almegdadi; Shuangao Wang. 2017. "Modelling Urban Sprawl Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case Study of Chennai City, Tamilnadu." Entropy 19, no. 4: 163.
Aisha Olushola Arowolo; Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Wei Qi; Xiangzheng Deng. Comparison of spatial interpolation techniques to generate high-resolution climate surfaces for Nigeria. International Journal of Climatology 2017, 37, 179 -192.
AMA StyleAisha Olushola Arowolo, Avit Kumar Bhowmik, Wei Qi, Xiangzheng Deng. Comparison of spatial interpolation techniques to generate high-resolution climate surfaces for Nigeria. International Journal of Climatology. 2017; 37 ():179-192.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAisha Olushola Arowolo; Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Wei Qi; Xiangzheng Deng. 2017. "Comparison of spatial interpolation techniques to generate high-resolution climate surfaces for Nigeria." International Journal of Climatology 37, no. : 179-192.
Urban sprawl propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, substantially alters ecosystem services. Hence, the quantification of urban sprawl is crucial for effective urban planning, and environmental and ecosystem management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu and one of the business hubs in India, has experienced extensive urban sprawl triggered by the doubling of total population over the past three decades. We employed the Random Forest (RF) classification on Landsat imageries from 1991, 2003, and 2016, and computed spatial metrics to quantify the extent of urban sprawl within a 10km suburban buffer of Chennai. The rate of urban sprawl was quantified using Renyi’s entropy, and the urban extent was predicted for 2027 using land-use and land-cover change modeling. A 70.35% increase in urban areas was observed for the suburban periphery of Chennai between 1991 and 2016. The Renyi’s entropy value for year 2016 was ≥ 0.9, exhibiting a two-fold rate of urban sprawl. The spatial metrics values indicate that the existing urban areas of Chennai became denser and the suburban agricultural, forests and barren lands were transformed into fragmented urban settlements. The forecasted urban growth for 2027 predicts a conversion of 13670.33ha (16.57 % of the total landscape) of existing forests and agricultural lands into urban areas with an associated increase in the entropy value of 1.7. Our findings are relevant for urban planning and environmental management in Chennai and provide quantitative measures for addressing the social-ecological consequences of urban sprawl and the protection of ecosystem services.
Rajchandar Padmanaban; Pedro Cabral; Avit K. Bhowmik; Alexander Zamyatin; Oraib Almegdadi. Urban Sprawl Detection Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case of Chennai, Tamilnadu. 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleRajchandar Padmanaban, Pedro Cabral, Avit K. Bhowmik, Alexander Zamyatin, Oraib Almegdadi. Urban Sprawl Detection Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case of Chennai, Tamilnadu. . 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRajchandar Padmanaban; Pedro Cabral; Avit K. Bhowmik; Alexander Zamyatin; Oraib Almegdadi. 2017. "Urban Sprawl Detection Using Remotely Sensed Data: A Case of Chennai, Tamilnadu." , no. : 1.
Given the multitude of pesticides used in agriculture, adjacent streams are typically exposed to pesticide mixtures. Previous studies analysed the ecological risks of a few pesticide mixtures or were limited to an individual region or crop, whereas a large scale analysis of pesticide mixtures is missing. We analysed routine monitoring data from Germany, France, the Netherlands and the USA comprising a total of 4532 sites and 56,084 sampling occasions with the aim to identify the most frequently detected pesticides, their metabolites and mixtures. The most frequently detected compounds were dominated by herbicides and their metabolites. Mixtures mostly comprised of two up to five compounds, whereas mixtures in the USA and France had clearly less compounds than those of Germany and the Netherlands. The number of detected pesticides and thereby the size of mixtures is positively correlated to the number of measured pesticides (r=0.57). In contrast, a low relationship was found to the ratio of agricultural areas within the catchment (r=0.17), and no relationship was found to the size of the catchment (r=0.06). Overall, our study provides priority mixtures for different countries that may be used for future ecotoxicological studies to improve risk assessment for stream ecosystems.
Verena C. Schreiner; Eduard Szöcs; Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Martina G. Vijver; Ralf B. Schäfer. Pesticide mixtures in streams of several European countries and the USA. Science of The Total Environment 2016, 573, 680 -689.
AMA StyleVerena C. Schreiner, Eduard Szöcs, Avit Kumar Bhowmik, Martina G. Vijver, Ralf B. Schäfer. Pesticide mixtures in streams of several European countries and the USA. Science of The Total Environment. 2016; 573 ():680-689.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVerena C. Schreiner; Eduard Szöcs; Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Martina G. Vijver; Ralf B. Schäfer. 2016. "Pesticide mixtures in streams of several European countries and the USA." Science of The Total Environment 573, no. : 680-689.
Mercury (Hg) contamination of environment is a major threat to human health in developing countries like Pakistan. Human populations, particularly children, are continuously exposed to Hg contamination via dust particles due to the arid and semi-arid climate. However, a country wide Hg contamination data for dust particles is lacking for Pakistan and hence, human populations potentially at risk is largely unknown. We provide the first baseline data for total mercury (THg) contamination into dust particles and its bioaccumulation trends, using scalp human hair samples as biomarker, at 22 sites across five altitudinal zones of Pakistan. The human health risk of THg exposure via dust particles as well as the proportion of human population that are potentially at risk from Hg contamination were calculated. Our results indicated higher concentration of THg in dust particles and its bioaccumulation in the lower Indus-plain agricultural and industrial areas than the other areas of Pakistan. The highest THg contamination of dust particles (3000ppb) and its bioaccumulation (2480ppb) were observed for the Lahore district, while the highest proportion (>40%) of human population was identified to be potentially at risk from Hg contamination from these areas. In general, children were at higher risk of Hg exposure via dust particles than adults. Regression analysis identified the anthropogenic activities, such as industrial and hospital discharges, as the major source of Hg contamination of dust particles. Our results inform environmental management for Hg control and remediation as well as the disease mitigation on potential hotspots.
Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Avit Bhowmik; Sehrish Qamar; Syed Tahir Abbas Shah; Muhammad Sohail; Sikandar I. Mulla; Mauro Fasola; Heqing Shen. Mercury contamination in deposited dust and its bioaccumulation patterns throughout Pakistan. Science of The Total Environment 2016, 569-570, 585 -593.
AMA StyleSyed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani, Avit Bhowmik, Sehrish Qamar, Syed Tahir Abbas Shah, Muhammad Sohail, Sikandar I. Mulla, Mauro Fasola, Heqing Shen. Mercury contamination in deposited dust and its bioaccumulation patterns throughout Pakistan. Science of The Total Environment. 2016; 569-570 ():585-593.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSyed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Avit Bhowmik; Sehrish Qamar; Syed Tahir Abbas Shah; Muhammad Sohail; Sikandar I. Mulla; Mauro Fasola; Heqing Shen. 2016. "Mercury contamination in deposited dust and its bioaccumulation patterns throughout Pakistan." Science of The Total Environment 569-570, no. : 585-593.
This study aims to assess the spatial patterns of selected dust-borne trace elements alongside the river Indus Pakistan, their relation with anthropogenic and natural sources, and the potential risk posed to human health. The studied elements were found in descending concentrations: Mn, Zn, Pb, Cu, Ni, Cr, Co, and Cd. The Index of Geo-accumulation indicated that pollution of trace metals were higher in lower Indus plains than on mountain areas. In general, the toxic elements Cr, Mn, Co and Ni exhibited altitudinal trends (P < 0.05). The few exceptions to this trend were the higher values for all studied elements from the northern wet mountainous zone (low lying Himalaya). Spatial PCA/FA highlighted that the sources of different trace elements were zone specific, thus pointing to both geological influences and anthropogenic activities. The Hazard Index for Co and for Mn in children exceeded the value of 1 only in the riverine delta zone and in the southern low lying zone, whereas the Hazard Index for Pb was above the bench mark for both children and adults (with few exceptions) in all regions, thus indicating potential non-carcinogenic health risks. These results will contribute towards the environmental management of trace metal(s) with potential risk for human health throughout Pakistan.
Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Ayesha Kanwal; Avit Bhowmik; Mohammad Sohail; Rizwan Ullah; Syeda Maria Ali; Ambreen Alamdar; Nadeem Ali; Mauro Fasola; Heqing Shen. Spatial distribution of dust–bound trace elements in Pakistan and their implications for human exposure. Environmental Pollution 2016, 213, 213 -222.
AMA StyleSyed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani, Ayesha Kanwal, Avit Bhowmik, Mohammad Sohail, Rizwan Ullah, Syeda Maria Ali, Ambreen Alamdar, Nadeem Ali, Mauro Fasola, Heqing Shen. Spatial distribution of dust–bound trace elements in Pakistan and their implications for human exposure. Environmental Pollution. 2016; 213 ():213-222.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSyed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Ayesha Kanwal; Avit Bhowmik; Mohammad Sohail; Rizwan Ullah; Syeda Maria Ali; Ambreen Alamdar; Nadeem Ali; Mauro Fasola; Heqing Shen. 2016. "Spatial distribution of dust–bound trace elements in Pakistan and their implications for human exposure." Environmental Pollution 213, no. : 213-222.
The present study aims to assess the arsenic (As) levels into dust samples and its implications for human health, of four ecological zones of Pakistan, which included northern frozen mountains (FMZ), lower Himalyian wet mountains (WMZ), alluvial riverine plains (ARZ), and low lying agricultural areas (LLZ). Human nail samples (N=180) of general population were also collected from the similar areas and all the samples were analysed by using ICP-MS. In general the higher levels (p1) for children populations in all areas (except FMZ), and for adults in LLZ (0.74) and ARZ (0.55), suggesting that caution should be paid about the dust exposure. Similarly, carcinogenic risk assessment also highlighted potential threats to the residents of LLZ and ARZ, as in few cases (5-10%) the values exceeded the range of US-EPA threshold limits (10(-6)-10(-4)).
Ambreen Alamdar; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Saeed Waqar Ali; Mohammad Sohail; Avit Bhowmik; Alessandra Cincinelli; Marghoob Subhani; Bushra Ghaffar; Rizwan Ullah; Qingyu Huang; Heqing Shen. Human Arsenic exposure via dust across the different ecological zones of Pakistan. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 2016, 126, 219 -227.
AMA StyleAmbreen Alamdar, Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani, Saeed Waqar Ali, Mohammad Sohail, Avit Bhowmik, Alessandra Cincinelli, Marghoob Subhani, Bushra Ghaffar, Rizwan Ullah, Qingyu Huang, Heqing Shen. Human Arsenic exposure via dust across the different ecological zones of Pakistan. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety. 2016; 126 ():219-227.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAmbreen Alamdar; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani; Saeed Waqar Ali; Mohammad Sohail; Avit Bhowmik; Alessandra Cincinelli; Marghoob Subhani; Bushra Ghaffar; Rizwan Ullah; Qingyu Huang; Heqing Shen. 2016. "Human Arsenic exposure via dust across the different ecological zones of Pakistan." Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 126, no. : 219-227.
The consumption of contaminated drinking water is one of the major causes of mortality and many severe diseases in developing countries. The principal drinking water sources in Pakistan, i.e. ground and surface water, are subject to geogenic and anthropogenic trace metal contamination. However, water quality monitoring activities have been limited to a few administrative areas and a nationwide human health risk assessment from trace metal exposure is lacking. Using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and eight relevant spatial predictors, we calculated nationwide human health risk maps by predicting the concentration of 10 trace metals in the drinking water sources of Pakistan and comparing them to guideline values. GWR incorporated local variations of trace metal concentrations into prediction models and hence mitigated effects of large distances between sampled districts due to data scarcity. Predicted concentrations mostly exhibited high accuracy and low uncertainty, and were in good agreement with observed concentrations. Concentrations for Central Pakistan were predicted with higher accuracy than for the North and South. A maximum 150-200 fold exceedance of guideline values was observed for predicted cadmium concentrations in ground water and arsenic concentrations in surface water. In more than 53% (4 and 100% for the lower and upper boundaries of 95% confidence interval (CI)) of the total area of Pakistan, the drinking water was predicted to be at risk of contamination from arsenic, chromium, iron, nickel and lead. The area with elevated risks is inhabited by more than 74 million (8 and 172 million for the lower and upper boundaries of 95% CI) people. Although these predictions require further validation by field monitoring, the results can inform disease mitigation and water resources management regarding potential hot spots.
Avit Bhowmik; Ambreen Alamdar; Ioannis Katsoyiannis; Heqing Shen; Nadeem Ali; Syeda Maria Ali; Habib Bokhari; Ralf Schäfer; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani. Mapping human health risks from exposure to trace metal contamination of drinking water sources in Pakistan. Science of The Total Environment 2015, 538, 306 -316.
AMA StyleAvit Bhowmik, Ambreen Alamdar, Ioannis Katsoyiannis, Heqing Shen, Nadeem Ali, Syeda Maria Ali, Habib Bokhari, Ralf Schäfer, Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani. Mapping human health risks from exposure to trace metal contamination of drinking water sources in Pakistan. Science of The Total Environment. 2015; 538 ():306-316.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Bhowmik; Ambreen Alamdar; Ioannis Katsoyiannis; Heqing Shen; Nadeem Ali; Syeda Maria Ali; Habib Bokhari; Ralf Schäfer; Syed Ali Musstjab Akber Shah Eqani. 2015. "Mapping human health risks from exposure to trace metal contamination of drinking water sources in Pakistan." Science of The Total Environment 538, no. : 306-316.
Climate is the predominant environmental driver of freshwater assemblage pattern on large spatial scales, and traits of freshwater organisms have shown considerable potential to identify impacts of climate change. Although several studies suggest traits that may indicate vulnerability to climate change, the empirical relationship between freshwater assemblage trait composition and climate has been rarely examined on large scales. We compared the responses of the assumed climate-associated traits from six grouping features to 35 bioclimatic indices (~18 km resolution) for five insect orders (Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera and Trichoptera), evaluated their potential for changing distribution pattern under future climate change and identified the most influential bioclimatic indices. The data comprised 782 species and 395 genera sampled in 4,752 stream sites during 2006 and 2007 in Germany (~357,000 km² spatial extent). We quantified the variability and spatial autocorrelation in the traits and orders that are associated with the combined and individual bioclimatic indices. Traits of temperature preference grouping feature that are the products of several other underlying climate-associated traits, and the insect order Ephemeroptera exhibited the strongest response to the bioclimatic indices as well as the highest potential for changing distribution pattern. Regarding individual traits, insects in general and ephemeropterans preferring very cold temperature showed the highest response, and the insects preferring cold and trichopterans preferring moderate temperature showed the highest potential for changing distribution. We showed that the seasonal radiation and moisture are the most influential bioclimatic aspects, and thus changes in these aspects may affect the most responsive traits and orders and drive a change in their spatial distribution pattern. Our findings support the development of trait-based metrics to predict and detect climate-related changes of freshwater assemblages.
Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Ralf Schäfer. Large Scale Relationship between Aquatic Insect Traits and Climate. PLOS ONE 2015, 10, e0130025 .
AMA StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik, Ralf Schäfer. Large Scale Relationship between Aquatic Insect Traits and Climate. PLOS ONE. 2015; 10 (6):e0130025.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik; Ralf Schäfer. 2015. "Large Scale Relationship between Aquatic Insect Traits and Climate." PLOS ONE 10, no. 6: e0130025.
Estimation of pooled within-time series (PTS) variograms is a frequently used technique for geostatistical interpolation of continuous hydrological variables in spatial data-scarce regions conditional that time series are available. The only available method for estimating PTS variograms averages semivariances, which are computed for individual time steps, over each spatial lag within a pooled time series. However, semivariances computed by a few paired comparisons for individual time steps are erratic and hence they may hamper precision of PTS variogram estimation. Here, we outlined an alternative method for estimating PTS variograms by spatializing temporal data points and shifting them. The data were pooled by ensuring consistency of spatial structure and stationarity within a time series, while pooling sufficient number of data points for reliable variogram estimation. The pooled spatial data point sets from different time steps were assigned to different coordinate sets on the same space. Then a semivariance was computed for each spatial lag within a pooled time series by comparing all point pairs separable by that spatial lag, and a PTS variogram was estimated by controlling the lower and upper boundary of spatial lags. Our method showed higher precision than the available method for PTS variogram estimation and was developed by using the freely available R open source software environment. The method will reduce uncertainty for spatial variability modeling while preserving spatiotemporal properties of data for geostatistical interpolation of hydrological variables in spatial data-scarce developing countries.
A. K. Bhowmik; P. Cabral. Spatially shifting temporal points: estimating pooled within-time series variograms for scarce hydrological data. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleA. K. Bhowmik, P. Cabral. Spatially shifting temporal points: estimating pooled within-time series variograms for scarce hydrological data. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions. 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleA. K. Bhowmik; P. Cabral. 2015. "Spatially shifting temporal points: estimating pooled within-time series variograms for scarce hydrological data." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions , no. : 1.
Avit Bhowmik; Markus Metz; Ralf Schäfer. An automated, objective and open source tool for stream threshold selection and upstream riparian corridor delineation. Environmental Modelling & Software 2015, 63, 240 -250.
AMA StyleAvit Bhowmik, Markus Metz, Ralf Schäfer. An automated, objective and open source tool for stream threshold selection and upstream riparian corridor delineation. Environmental Modelling & Software. 2015; 63 ():240-250.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Bhowmik; Markus Metz; Ralf Schäfer. 2015. "An automated, objective and open source tool for stream threshold selection and upstream riparian corridor delineation." Environmental Modelling & Software 63, no. : 240-250.
Selection of accumulation thresholds for automated stream network extraction from digital elevation models (DEM) and delineation of upstream riparian corridors for given stream sampling points are important in water resources research. Accumulation threshold selection is often done by subjective comparison to a surveyed stream network and upstream riparian corridors are delineated manually. In this paper, we present "ATRIC", a combination of two algorithms developed by integrating the open source software packages R and GRASS GIS. ATRIC extracts DEM stream sources based on lateral displacements from surveyed stream network. The lateral displacement is selected by optimizing the number of DEM streams compared to the number of surveyed streams. Then an accumulation threshold is selected by optimizing the percentage of overlapped DEM stream cells with surveyed stream cells buffered with the selected lateral displacement. ATRIC extracts upstream riparian corridors from upstream catchments delineated by snapping stream sampling points to DEM extracted stream network. ATRIC showed better goodness of fit when compared to available algorithms and thus will improve topographic mapping and hydrological information extraction.
Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Markus Metz; Ralf B. Schafer. Reproducible, Automated and Objective Stream Threshold Selection and Upstream Riparian Corridor Delineation from Digital Elevation Models. 2014 Fifth International Conference on Computing for Geospatial Research and Application 2014, 43 -46.
AMA StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik, Markus Metz, Ralf B. Schafer. Reproducible, Automated and Objective Stream Threshold Selection and Upstream Riparian Corridor Delineation from Digital Elevation Models. 2014 Fifth International Conference on Computing for Geospatial Research and Application. 2014; ():43-46.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik; Markus Metz; Ralf B. Schafer. 2014. "Reproducible, Automated and Objective Stream Threshold Selection and Upstream Riparian Corridor Delineation from Digital Elevation Models." 2014 Fifth International Conference on Computing for Geospatial Research and Application , no. : 43-46.
Data scarcity is a major scientific challenge for accuracy and precision of the spatial interpolation of climatic fields, especially in climate‐stressed developing countries. Methodologies have been suggested for coping with data scarcity but data have rarely been checked for their representativeness of corresponding climatic fields. This study proved that satisfactory accuracy and precision can be ensured in spatial interpolation if data are satisfactorily representative of corresponding climatic fields despite their scarcity. The influence of number and representativeness of climate data on accuracy and precision of their spatial interpolation has been investigated and compared. Two precipitation and temperature indices were computed for a long time series in Bangladesh, which is a data‐scarce region. The representativeness was quantified by dispersion in the data and the accuracy and precision of spatial interpolation were computed by four commonly used error statistics derived through cross‐validation. The precipitation data showed very little and sometimes null representativeness whereas the temperature data showed very high representativeness of the corresponding fields. Consequently, precipitation data denoted scarcity but the temperature data denoted sufficiency regarding the required number of data for ensuring satisfactory accuracy and precision for spatial interpolation. It was also found that with the available data, accurate and precise precipitation surfaces can be produced only for representative synoptic spatial scales whereas such temperature surfaces can be generated for the regional scale of Bangladesh. It is highly recommended that the rain‐gauge network of Bangladesh be increased or redistributed for computing representative regional precipitation surfaces.
Avit Kumar Bhowmik; Ana Cristina Costa. Representativeness impacts on accuracy and precision of climate spatial interpolation in data-scarce regions. Meteorological Applications 2014, 22, 368 -377.
AMA StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik, Ana Cristina Costa. Representativeness impacts on accuracy and precision of climate spatial interpolation in data-scarce regions. Meteorological Applications. 2014; 22 (3):368-377.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik; Ana Cristina Costa. 2014. "Representativeness impacts on accuracy and precision of climate spatial interpolation in data-scarce regions." Meteorological Applications 22, no. 3: 368-377.
Two climate indices, TXx and PRCPTOT, representing the summer maximum temperature and annual total monsoon precipitation, respectively, in Bangladesh were computed. The temperature and precipitation measurements from 34 meteorological stations during the temporal extent of 1948–2007 were applied for indices’ computation under thorough quality control. The spatial trends of the indices were analyzed by applying two-dimensional least square approach along latitudes and longitudes of the observation points. The temporal patterns of the spatial trends were identified by temporally interpolating them applying thin plate smoothing spline method. The analyses of TXx identified regional scale spatial trends in the east-west and south-north directions, which were increasing between 1948 and 1980s. After the 1980s the spatial trends started decreasing, and after 2000 the spatial trend along the south-north changed its direction to the north-south and continued until present. The analyses of the PRCPTOT identified spatial trends in the west-east and north-south directions, which were decreasing between 1948 and 1980s and thereafter increasing until present. About half of the spatial trends were significant in F-statistics at or more than 90% confidence level. Thus, the obtained results indicated a significant climatic shift within the regional scale of the country during the study period.
Avit Kumar Bhowmik. Temporal Patterns of the Two-Dimensional Spatial Trends in Summer Temperature and Monsoon Precipitation of Bangladesh. ISRN Atmospheric Sciences 2013, 2013, 1 -16.
AMA StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik. Temporal Patterns of the Two-Dimensional Spatial Trends in Summer Temperature and Monsoon Precipitation of Bangladesh. ISRN Atmospheric Sciences. 2013; 2013 ():1-16.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvit Kumar Bhowmik. 2013. "Temporal Patterns of the Two-Dimensional Spatial Trends in Summer Temperature and Monsoon Precipitation of Bangladesh." ISRN Atmospheric Sciences 2013, no. : 1-16.