Table Of ContentAdvances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences
R.B. Singh
Pawel Prokop
Editors
Environmental
Geography
of South Asia
Contributions Toward
a Future Earth Initiative
Advances in Geographical and Environmental
Sciences
Serieseditor
Dr.R.B.Singh
AIMSANDSCOPE
Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences synthesizes series
diagnostigationandprognostication ofearthenvironment,incorporating challeng-
ing interactive areas within ecological envelope of geosphere, biosphere, hydro-
sphere, atmosphere and cryosphere. It deals with land use land cover change
(LUCC), urbanization, energy flux, land-ocean fluxes, climate, food security,
ecohydrology, biodiversity, natural hazards and disasters, human health and their
mutualinteractionandfeedbackmechanisminordertocontributetowardssustain-
able future. The geosciences methods range from traditional field techniques and
conventional data collection, use of remote sensing and geographical information
system,computeraidedtechniquetoadvancegeostatisticalanddynamicmodeling.
Theseriesintegratepast,presentandfutureofgeosphericattributesincorporat-
ing biophysical and human dimensions in spatio-temporal perspectives. The
geosciences, encompassing land-ocean-atmosphere interaction is considered as a
vital component in the context of environmental issues, especially in observation
and prediction of air and water pollution, global warming and urban heat islands.
It is important to communicate the advances in geosciences to increase resilience
of society through capacity building for mitigating the impact of natural hazards
and disasters.Sustainability ofhumansociety dependsstronglyonthe earth envi-
ronment, and thus the development of geosciences is critical for a better under-
standingofourlivingenvironment,anditssustainabledevelopment.
Geosciencealsohastheresponsibilitytonotconfineitselftoaddressingcurrent
problemsbutitisalsodevelopingaframeworktoaddressfutureissues.Inorderto
build a ’Future Earth Model’ for understanding and predicting the functioning of
the whole climatic system, collaboration of experts in the traditional earth disci-
plinesaswellasinecology,informationtechnology,instrumentationandcomplex
system is essential, through initiatives from human geoscientists. Thus human
geosceinceisemergingaskeypolicyscienceforcontributingtowardssustainabil-
ity/survivalitysciencetogetherwithfutureearthinitiative.
Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences series publishes books
thatcontainnovelapproachesintacklingissuesofhumangeoscienceinitsbroadest
sense – books in the series should focus on true progress in a particular area or
region.Theseriesincludesmonographsandeditedvolumeswithoutanylimitations
inthepagenumbers.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13113
R.B. Singh • Pawel Prokop
Editors
Environmental Geography
of South Asia
Contributions Toward a Future Earth
Initiative
Editors
R.B.Singh PawelProkop
UniversityofDelhi PolishAcademyofSciences
Delhi Krakow
India Poland
ISSN2198-3542 ISSN2198-3550 (electronic)
AdvancesinGeographicalandEnvironmentalSciences
ISBN978-4-431-55740-1 ISBN978-4-431-55741-8 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-4-431-55741-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015950343
SpringerTokyoHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
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Preface
SouthAsiaisadistinctgeographicalregionwithanincrediblediversityofnatural
environment having the world’s highest mountain belt – the Himalayas of India,
Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan – stretching along the entire northern border of the
region. The region comprises the Himalayas, the alluvial plains of the Indus and
Ganga–Brahmaputrariversystems,andtheuplandsoftheDeccanPlateauinIndia,
togetherwith the central hill massifofSri Lanka. The region is surrounded inthe
southbythreemarineecosystems:theArabianSea,theIndianOcean,andtheBay
ofBengal.Theseasonalalterationofatmosphericflowpatternsbetweenlandmass
and sea, associated with the monsoons, frequently cause severe floods, droughts,
andmassmovementsoverlargeareasofSouthAsia.Althoughtheregionoccupies
only4.8%oftheworld’stotallandarea,ithasapopulationof1.67billion(23.8%
of the world’s total), growing at the rate of 1.8 % per annum. Thus, vulnerable
natural features of environment combined with the high population density, rapid
economicdevelopment, andcorresponding competition for agriculturalandurban
landaswellaswaterresourceshaveenormoussocietalconsequences.Theeffects
ofthesenatural–humaninteractionsarenotlimitedonlytotheSouthAsianregion
buthaveanimpactonenvironmentandsocietyonaglobalscale.
ThisbookontheenvironmentalgeographyofSouthAsiacomprisesaselectionof
paperspresentedatthesessiononthenaturalenvironment,climatechange,disasters,
andtheirimpactonhumansocietyinSouthAsiaduringtheInternationalGeograph-
icalUnion(IGU)RegionalConference,heldinKrakow,Poland,18–22August2014.
TheconferencewasorganizedbytheInstituteofGeographyofthePolishAcademy
of Sciences and seven other geographical research institutions in Poland. A few
invited papers are also included here to cover all dimensions of environmental
geography. The book consists of 19 chapters that contribute to better recognition
andunderstandingofrapidcivilizationdevelopmentinthecontextofbothregional
andglobalenvironmentalchanges.Thusthisvolumeintegratesattributesrelatingthe
past, present, and future of South Asia broadly based on biophysical and human
dimensionsinspatio-temporalperspectives.Climatechange,spacebornemonitoring,
andmitigationofnaturalhazardsareconsideredvitalcomponentsinthecontextof
v
vi Preface
environmental issues, especially in observation and prediction of extreme climate
events,land-usechangesleadingtolanddegradation,andurbanization. Thecontri-
butionsrangefromtraditionalfieldtechniquesandconventionaldatacollectiontothe
useofremotesensingandgeographicinformationsystems.
We hope that the present volume will deepen the awareness of numerous
changesinbothnaturalandhumansystemsthatsignificantlyinfluencethepresent
and future well-being of South Asian societies in general. The increasing impor-
tance of interdisciplinary research is the best tool to combine the different
approacheswithknowledgeandtechniquesfromparticularbranchesofgeography.
We believe that the book will also be beneficial to people in other fields such as
geology, ecology, environmental sciences, tourism, disaster management, and
urban studies. We hope, that this volume stimulates further research and that
these topics will continue to be focal points for future geographical research at
global,regional,andnationallevels.
We would like to thank the IGU officers and the members of the Conference
Organizing Committee. We appreciate the hard work of the contributors and
referees of the papers both for their time and their early responses. We are also
thankful to Dr. Ajay Kumar for providing assistance. We wish to express our
deepest thanks to Ms. Taeko Sato from Springer Japan for all the help provided
inthepublicationprocessofthisbook.
Delhi,India R.B.Singh
Krakow,Poland PawelProkop
Contents
PartI Introduction
1 DisasterMitigationandManagementandImportanceofEarth
Observation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
AnupamAnandandJyotheshwarNagol
2 ExclusionaryUrbanisationinSouthAsia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
DebolinaKundu
PartII India
3 PrioritizingWatershedsforSustainableDevelopmentinSwan
CatchmentArea,HimachalPradesh,India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
AmitKumarBatar,R.B.Singh,andAjayKumar
4 DeglaciationandImpactofExtremeRainfallsonRecentRelief
TransformationoftheUpperPindariValley:TheKumaun
Himalaya,India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
ZofiaRa˛czkowskaandRameshCh.Joshi
5 RiverbedsLevelChangesintheMarginandForelandofthe
DarjeelingHimalayaDuringtheYearswithaNormalMonsoon
Rainfall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
ŁukaszWiejaczka
6 BioclimateoftheAndamanIslandsandItsImpactontheLives
oftheNativeandNon-nativePopulationsoftheArchipelago. . . . . 97
MaciejKe˛dzierskiandDominikGargol
vii
viii Contents
7 SpatialandTemporalVariationsofRainfallintheSouthernPart
oftheMeghalayaPlateau. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
DominikGargolandRomanSoja
8 RainfallStructureforCherrapunjeeandMawsynraminNortheast
India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
RomanSoja,MałgorzataJuszczyk,andJoannaNowakowska
9 LandUseandLandCoverChangesintheAreawiththeHighest
RainfallintheWorld(MeghalayaPlateau,India):Causesand
Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
PawełProkop
10 MaximumFlowandMaximumSpecificFlowinaSmallCatchment
AffectedbyanExtremeRainfallNearCherrapunjeeinNortheast
India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
TomaszBryndalandRomanSoja
11 AltitudinalZonationofFloralBiodiversityandItsConservation
PatterninMizoram,North-EastIndia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
VishwambharPrasadSatiandLalrinpuiaVangchhia
12 TheDistributionandManagementofForestsinArunachalPradesh,
India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
KazuharuMizuno
13 InstitutionalDimensionsandChangingRoleofForestManagement
GovernanceinDehradunValley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
PoonamKumria,R.B.Singh,andKoichiKimoto
14 OrganicAgriculturefromthePerspectiveofSmallFarmers’
LivelihoodStrategies:TwoCasesfromCentraland
SouthIndia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
RieMakita
15 IntegratedCoastalZoneManagementinNorthKanara
Coast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
AshokKumarandAnjuSingh
PartIII OtherSouthAsianCountries
16 AnthropogenicandEnvironmentalDisturbanceFactorsinthe
AnnapurnaConservationAreaofNepal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
N.G.Pricope,J.D.All,andL.Miles
17 MangroveDiversityAcrossSalinityGradientinNegombo
Estuary-SriLanka. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
C.M.KanchanaN.K.Chandrasekara,K.D.N.Weerasinghe,Sumith
Pathirana,andRanjanaU.K.Piyadasa
Contents ix
18 Nepal:UrbanEnvironmentAnalysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
PushkarK.PradhanandPuspaSharma
19 FightingFloodsforSurvival:ExperiencesofSufferingPeople
inBangladesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
TulshiKumarDas
