Architecture and Building Construction

This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Solids, Materials and their Mechanics has been developed by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner.

The paper by the Institute for Social and Economic Change documents the case of Ward No. 39 situated at the outskirts of the Bangalore city to understand the emerging groundwater crisis due to overdraft in urban areas. Bangalore has no perennial river, which resulted in the growth of many lakes, acting as a source of groundwater recharge earlier.

This book is essential reading for economists, power sector officials, power generation companies and environmentalists alike.

Dr.Bharat Jhunjhumwala holds a BSc degree in physics, chemistry and mathematics. He earned his PhD in food and Resource Economics from University of Florida at a tender age of 23 years. He joined Indian institute of management, Bangalore as Assistant professor immediately thereafter. He lived in a slum for two years to understand poverty and organized the Trade Union at IIM during the Emergency. He resigned from the IIM and became a consultant to donor agencies like Swiss Development Cooperation, Oxfam, Care, Overseas Development Institute and others mainly on rural development and watershed issues. He writes a column on economic issues for about 50 newspapers in india. He lives on the banks of River Alaknanda in uttarakhand on the feet of Lord Badri Vishal.

The report presents the status of risk based hydrologic designs that have been reported in literature and based on these, identifies a computational procedure for developing hydrologic design bases for dams and spillways. Some illustrative examples are presented in order to demonstrate the impact of risk based analysis on current design practices.

The report develops rainfall-runoff modeling for simulating and forecasting the flow from a catchment, and in determining the inflow series for the ungauged catchments on the basis of records of gauged catchments.

Because of the scarcity of data, mostly lumped models have been used to model the rainfall-runoff process in a catchment. However distributed models are more accurate and need to be adopted for modeling the complex processes at the scale of basins.

Topics:

• Landscaping
• Water harvesting,
• Waste management
• Organic food
• Renewable energy
• Appropriate building technologies
• Environmental awareness

Description:

Auroville, the international township near Puducherry in India is well known for its green thinking and sustainable practices. More than 30 Auroville experts are presenting their recent projects and experiences in this seminar which also includes visits to demonstration sites. The event is meant for project developers, consultants, architects and decision makers involved in the planning of eco-friendly townships and residential complexes.

Image and Content Courtesy: SIWW 2009

Singapore International Water Week 2009, themed Sustainable Cities , Infrastructure and Technologies for Water, aims to help achieve long-term benefits. You will find sound professional advice and clear business direction from various market segments to help you overcome tough challenges in uncertain times at SIWW 2009!

The event's flagship programmes comprise: • Water Leaders Summit • Water Convention • Water Expo • Business Forums • Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Access the Event Schedule online here: Singapore International Water Week 2009 - Schedule Access Advance Event Programme here: Singapore International Water Week 2009 - Advance Programme

Both Mohenjo daro and Harappa reported wells in every household and also community wells. They are perhaps the oldest in the subcontinent. Here is one open well from the Konark temple in Orissa. These must have been the sole providers of good clean water during that time and one of them continues to provide water for the repair work underway.

Guest Post by: Dinesh Kumar Mishra

The foundation stone of the Kosi Project was laid on January 14, 1955 amidst fanfare, jubilation and victory. Dr. Shrikrishna Sinha, thgen Chief Minister of Bihar, laid the foundation stone near Bhutaha village close to Nirmali, in Saharsa (now Supaul) district with the chanting of mantras by Pt. Mahabir Jha of Jhitki village and shouting of slogans like 'Aadhi Roti Khayengein, Kosi Bandh Banaayengein.' (We will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the Kosi embankments). A majority of people lost the other half of the bread too on the 18th August 2008 when the Kosi embankment breached on that day.

Col. Townsend of the US Army while deliberating in a seminar organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers to discuss the Mississippi floods of 1927 had said that even the best designed and carefully constructed embankments remain at the mercy of burrowing animals like rats, foxes, muskrats who can create a hole in the finest levee that has been devised, which if not closed within a few moments will ensure its destruction. The Mississippi River of the United States broke loose in 1927 inundating an area of 51,200 sq. kilometer and damaging property to an estimated extent of two hundred million to a billion dollars. The breaches drove nearly three quarters of a million people from their homes and six hundred thousand of them were dependant on Red Cross. The wealth and power of the United States enabled much to be done for the sufferers, still they suffered. He further added a 'careless supervisor and dark nights' to the list destroyers of embankments. His observations remain valid till date as the Kosi comes out of its shackles in Kusaha in Nepal some 13 kilometers upstream of the Kosi Barrage. All the eight breaches that have occurred so far can be brought under these categories.

Col. Townsend gave benefit of doubt to the planners and engineers when he prefixed 'best designed and carefully constructed' adjectives to the embankments. The Kosi has breached its embankment eighth time and it is for the first time that the 'disaster' has generated so much of interest. These embankments are spaced at an average distance of 9 to 10 kilometers below the barrage with a maximum width of 16 kilometres between Kisunipatti and Bhaptiahi and minimum width of nearly 3 kilometres at the barrage itself. The spacing of the embankments is only 8 kilometres at the tail end, between Baluaha Ghat and Ghonghepur. In Nepal portion the spacing between them is restricted to between 3 to 6 kilometers. Common sense suggests that the spacing between the embankments should increase as the river advances further as more and more streams join the river from western side. This simple common sense was kicked around when these embankments were constructed in late 1950s. There were 304 villages with a population of 192,000 (1951 census) going to be trapped between the embankments and each one of them was trying to be located outside the embankments. Later the embankments were extended and 380 villages of Bihar and 34 villages of Nepal came within them. Their current population is nearly 1.2 million. The village locations were fixed and it was the embankment on either side of the river that could be moved. So did it happen. Now the embankment alignment is a caricature of what it was designed, if there was any design.

Desalt Innovation Middle East LLC (DIME) has introduced hydrophobic sand or "water proofed" sand. DIME has exclusive rights from a chemical manufacturer in Germany to produce the sand, by the addition of an additive SP-HFS 1609 by a specially developed mixer.