Dealing with Water Body contamination
- Arpit Shah
- Jul 1, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
INTRODUCTION
My parents often try to nudge me out of Kolkata, the place I've called home for most of my life. Indifferent, as most inhabitants of this city are, I refuse to budge. Instead of using a plausible lack of economic opportunity rationale, I am informed that my horoscope indicates that I will achieve professional growth and success if I were to reside besides a sea (as if the obese Hooghly river just a few miles away flowing into the not-so-distant Bay of Bengal wasn't enough!). In order to lend credence to their claim, they highlight the proximity between the moments of fulfilment I've experienced in my life and the presence of a sea/ocean nearby. I fail to muster a response.
And since the cosmos works in mysterious ways, it also dawns on me that I've written extensively on Water and related workflows here on Mapmyops website. Not that I didn't know about it already but it is still way more than I had anticipated. In chronological order-
Detection and Temporal Analysis of Shipping Activity using Radar Remote Sensing
Monitoring Land Subsidence in Kolkata using DinSAR Interferometry
Mapping the extent of Flooding after Amphan Cyclone using Radar Satellite Imagery
Mapping Solutions for Insurance Sector - Assessing Risk to Property from Cyclonic Storms
Mapping the extent of Oil Spill in Mauritius using Radar Remote Sensing
Extracting Water Body Footprint from Optical and Radar Satellite Imagery
Mapping Sargassum Seaweed Invasion using Multispectral Satellite Imagery
Monitoring Snow Cover in Himachal Pradesh using Remote Sensing
Monitoring Drought Conditions at Indirasagar Reservoir using Multispectral Satellite Imagery
Estimating Actual Evotranspiration at Field-scale using Remote Sensing
Monitoring, Delineating and Analysing Shorelines (after this post)
Go immerse yourself. If the recent Titan submersible tragedy piques your interest, you may want to view the video demonstration within the Ocean Currents Mapping post (#10) to know about one of the several complications involved in deep-sea missions. Topics such as Evotranspiration and Ship Detection may inspire feelings of awe while Drought Monitoring, Sargassum Invasion and Chamoli Flash Floods would, on the other hand, would make you aware of the severity of the water system-related threats that we face today.
HYPERLINKS TO SECTIONS
In a departure from the routine, the written content in this post is minimal - you can jump straight into the video demonstrations hyperlinked below-
Here is a compilation of all the three workflows-
TIMESTAMPS
00:06 - Case Details
00:26 - W1: Trace Analysis on a Stream Network to map the spread of Water Pollution
00:29 - W1.1: Exploring & Setting up the Geodataset
07:00 - W1.2: Configuring a Trace Network of the Water Streams
10:55 - W1.3: 1st Scenario - Upstream Trace Analysis without Barrier - to determine extent of water body that has already been affected by pollution given no known point of origin
15:48 - W1.4: 2nd Scenario - Upstream Trace Analysis with Barrier - to determine extent of water body that has already been affected by pollution given a particular point of origin
17:40 - W1.5: 3rd Scenario - to determine extent of water body that can be affected by the pollution
19:17 - W2: Assessing Groundwater Vulnerable Zones using Suitability Modeling
19:20 - W2.1: Exploring & Setting up the Geodatasets
28:03 - W2.2: 1st Scenario - Suitability Modeling with Soil Drainage Conditions & Water Table Depth Datasets
37:00 - W2.3: 2nd Scenario - New Suitability Model combining Land Cover dataset with the previous model (Soil Drainage Conditions & Water Table Depth)
45:09 - W2.4: 3rd Scenario - Identifying Land Clusters for Conservation efforts from within High Risk Groundwater Contamination Zones
52:41 - W3: Novel, Nature-based Pollution Treatment in Open Water Bodies & at Wastewater Plants
52:44 - W3.1: Pollution in Water Bodies: Establishing the Context
59:15 - W3.2: Treating Water Pollution
01:15:54 - Video Summary Note
Since the central theme of this post revolves around Water Contamination, it would help you to know that I have covered aspects such as the sources, types and effects of Organic Pollution as well as the Water Quality parameters in the video on Water Treatment. It is our civic responsibility to be aware about how this precious resource is misused and how that impacts not only humankind but also a wide variety of flora and fauna on land as well as in marine ecosystems and in the atmosphere.
India, my country, is no stranger to Water Contamination (Figure 2). Exponential increase in population, rapid industrialization and urbanization and poor waste management practises contribute significantly towards the increasing pollution in open water bodies such as ponds, lakes, and rivers and these eventually find their way into the sea/ocean - wreaking havoc wherever it goes.
I've used Satellite-based Remote Sensing to detect Water Contamination previously-
Sargassum Seaweed Invasion in the Atlantic ocean, which extends from the eastern coast of the Americas to the western coast of Africa, is the most read post on my website as of today. It is caused by, among other things, the nitrogen-rich runoffs from the increasingly agriculture-ized Amazonian forests
The devastating Oil Spill in Mauritius from the bulk carrier MV Wakashio which ran aground on a coral reef in 2020 resulted in widespread destruction of oceanic and coastal habitat and brought economic gloom to the country which relies extensively on tourism
Besides Remote Sensing, Geospatial (GIS) technology also plays an important role in monitoring and planning to deal with Water Pollution. The first two video workflows in this post are devoted to this-
to identify the spread of a harmful pollutant in a network of streams flowing into a reservoir
deploying Suitability Modeler (an advanced location analytics tool which I've demonstrated previously) to identify those land zones that are highly vulnerable to groundwater contamination
Credits: Esri Learn ArcGIS platform - I've used ArcGIS Pro software in the demonstration.
The cornerstone of this post is the third workflow on polluted water remediation where I highlight the features and characteristics of a novel, nature-based remedy invented and patented by an Indian scientist which is an effective, scalable and economical solution for treating organic pollution in open water bodies and for improving the performance of sewage/wastewater treatment plants. It was during the formation of this workflow that it dawned to me that while necessary for the healthy functioning of the human body, nutrients actually pollute water bodies!
PERFORMING TRACE ANALYSIS ON A STREAM NETWORK USING GIS TO DETERMINE THE SPREAD OF A POLLUTANT
Situation: A harmful contaminant was observed at a particular water stream and reported to you, member of the municipal government. The region is populated with a network of such streams and you have to quickly ascertain the locations, number and length of the streams that would have been contaminated already and which could be contaminated by the time remedial measures are deployed.
You are informed about the potential location(s) of the origin of the contaminant - for example, a factory that is known to release effluents into an upstream water body. Your task is to factor these pieces of information and chart an effective action plan. Explore the demonstration-
SUITABILITY MODELING USING GIS TO DETERMINE ZONES VULNERABLE TO GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION
Situation: You are tasked with safeguarding the economic prosperity of a district and the health of its residents by preventing contaminants to reach the Groundwater table. Surface water contamination has increased over time - increasing industrialization and urbanization are the driving factors. Parameters such as drainage conditions of the soil and distance to the groundwater table determine the probability of the pollutants to seep in and contaminate the groundwater table.
The demonstration below has you assigning weights to the influencers and create a risk model which will assist you in identifying those zones within the district that are most vulnerable to groundwater contamination. Even within these high-risk zones, you will prioritize those regions that are in need of conservation measures.
TREATING ORGANIC POLLUTION IN OPEN WATER BODIES AND AT SEWAGE/WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS
My firm, Intelloc Mapping Services, sells this patented, made-in-India, nano-tech enabled Polluted Water Treatment solution. If you like what you see in the demonstration below and are interested to rejuvenate a polluted pond near your residence, get rid of foul smell and disease emanating from an open drain, or enhance the performance of the wastewater treatment plant at your township or factory (with potential savings to add), I'll be happy to help - you may email the water body's location, photos, dimensions (length, breadth, depth), numbers of inlets and outlets and their respective flow rates, existing treatment used, and the water quality reports if available, for me to suggest a plan of action as well as share a cost estimate of the treatment.
As you will gather from the video, the treatment neither involves the addition of chemicals nor the installation of equipment. The biosolution just restores the right conditions for the Aquatic Food Web to thrive using Phycoremediation principles. Not only is the solution effective (treats harmful pollutants only, leaves the good bacteria alone), but also it is scalable (can treat large quantities of water) as well as economical (~ INR 0.04 per litre of water treated). The resolved water is fit for industrial consumption.
CONCLUSION
It was the Academy Award-winning animated comedy Rango (2011) where I was first introduced to the concept of Water Conflict. Significant wars are predicted to be fought between those seeking access and those exercising control over water, an eventuality that has surfaced already. While the quirky lizard with no name found his calling by becoming Rango - the Sheriff who fought for his friends in Dirt Town and restored their water supply, would we be able to safeguard the very same precious resource for our future generations?
ABOUT US
Intelloc Mapping Services, Kolkata | Mapmyops.com offers Mapping services that can be integrated with Operations Planning, Design and Audit workflows. These include but are not limited to Drone Services, Subsurface Mapping Services, Location Analytics & App Development, Supply Chain Services, Remote Sensing Services and Wastewater Treatment. The services can be rendered pan-India and will aid your organization to meet its stated objectives pertaining to Operational Excellence, Sustainability and Growth.
Broadly, the firm's area of expertise can be split into two categories - Geographic Mapping and Operations Mapping. The Infographic below highlights our capabilities-
Our Mapping for Operations-themed workflow demonstrations can be accessed from the firm's Website / YouTube Channel and an overview can be obtained from this brochure. Happy to address queries and respond to documented requirements. Custom Demonstration, Training & Trials are facilitated only on a paid-basis. Looking forward to being of service.
Regards,
