Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

Objective: The environmental stress such as climatic conditions, anthropogenic activities on river water quality and its flow is of challenging interest. In the present study, evaluation of the surface water (in Cooum river, India) quality and the seasonal impact have been investigated. Methodology: Hydrogeochemical facies such as piper plots, chloroalkali indices, kelly index, sodium absorption ratio, magnesium hazard and rock water interaction have been considered to understand the ionic constituents, geochemistry of the river water and its influence on water quality. The water samples were collected seasonally during March, 2013-2014 and are categorized as pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon. Results: The investigation results reveal that the ionic concentration and organic loads exhibits for all three seasons indicating the anthropogenic activities. Conclusion: The rock water interaction shows that plagioklase weathering is mainly dominant in the sampling sites and the ionic constituents were due to seawater intrusion and gypsum dissolution in the water. © 2016 A. Dhamodharan et al.

VIT Unitversity

Department of Environmental and Water Resources Engineering

School of Civil Engineering

Vellore Campus

Asian Journal of Earth Sciences

Assessment of Seasonal Disparity on Hydrogeochemical Facies Distribution in Cooum River, India

World University root node

Proceedings of the conference on Recent Advances in Rock Engineering (RARE 2016)

Geomorphic studies for identification of active fault: observations from smaller river basins, south India

Overview of seismic monitoring and assessment of seismic hazard based on a decade of seismic events

The Nilgiris district in the Tamilnadu state of India is frequented by many landslides in the recent past. Though many of these landslides are rainfall-induced, there is a need to evaluate the potential of earthquake-induced landslides considering seismicity of the region. In this paper, deterministic seismic hazard of Nilgiris is carried out by considering a study area of 350 km radius around Nilgiris. Seismotectonic map of the Nilgiris, showing the details of faults and past earthquakes, is prepared. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) at bed rock level and response spectrum are evaluated. The potential sources for Nilgiris are Moyar and Bhavani shears. The PGA at bed rock level is 0.156 g corresponding to maximum considered earthquake 6.8. Ground response analysis for seven sites, in the Nilgiris, is carried out by one-dimensional equivalent linear method using SHAKE 2000 program after considering the effect of topography. PGA of surface motion got amplified to 0.64 g in Coonoor site and 0.44 g in Ooty site compared to 0.39 g of the input motion. The bracketed duration of time history of surface acceleration has increased to 20 s in Coonoor site and 18 s in Ooty site compared to that of 8 s of input motion. Results from seismic displacement analysis using Newmark’s method revealed that out of seven sites investigated, five sites have moderate seismic landslide hazard and two sites (Coonoor and Ooty) have high hazard. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Department of Structural and Geotechical Engineering

Natural Hazards

Evaluation of seismic hazard and potential of earthquake-induced landslides of the Nilgiris, India

Use of hazard and vulnerability maps for landslide planning scenarios: a case study of the Nilgiris, India

Over groundwater exploitation owing to population, urbanization and industrialization make the groundwater unfavorable for living beings. This study deals with the assessment of groundwater quality in Gudiyattam and Vaniyambadi blocks of Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, India where groundwater is the major source of drinking due to deficiency in surface water. The significant physicochemical parameters such as pH, conductivity, total dissolved solids, chlorides, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, magnesium hardness and sulphate were assessed. Correlation matrix, box plot, multivariate statistical tools such as cluster analysis and principal component analysis were applied to groundwater quality analysis. The groundwater samples were assessed for its applicability in irrigation and drinking purposes and geographic information system techniques are used for mapping consequence. The parameters analyzed were compared with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and WHO standards. Box plot analysis revealed that total dissolved solids and electrical conductivity was strongly correlated. Correlation analysis exhibits strong correlation (R2&gt;0.7) between total dissolved solids and electrical conductivity, anions such as Ca2+ and Mg2+ for both the study areas. © 2015 Academic Journals Inc.

Computer Science

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Chennai Campus

Civil

Assessment of Groundwater Quality Using GIS and Statistical Approaches

Utilisation of plants for the soil stability and shear strength increase is studied by bountiful researchers across the globe, it’s a proven fact that soil roots provide an additional cohesion which increases the shear strength of soil and also helps in stabilizing natural slopes. But very few studies had focused on increase of bearing capacity by the usage of plant roots, in this study author had studied the bearing capacity and shear strength increase for various plants that can be used in soil bioengineering which is a potential tool for slope stability. Various plants were grown in pot culture in landslide affected soil collected from Nilgris District and the strength variation during the course of plant growth is studied. It is also found that not many standard test procedures are available for studying the real contribution of plant roots in soil stabilization, authors had utilized the North Dakota cone study for bearing capacity calculation which is a special case test used widely. It is found that plant roots not only provide additional cohesion for stabilizing the soil but also helps in increasing various other geotechnical characteristics on positive side. © 2015 CAFET-INNOVA TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Earth Sciences and Engineering

Studies on soil-root stabilization for slope protection – A study using some grass varieties from Nilgris district

For many centuries, man has been concerned with stabilizing soils in order to either prevent them from being easily eroded or to make them better suited for construction such as for earth building and road construction purposes. Attempts have been made to utilize many natural, synthetic or waste materials for such soil stabilization. Plants have been used as soil cover to prevent erosion and protect slopes. However, there is need to evaluate the engineering characteristics of soils reinforced with plant roots. Consequently, this research work was aimed at investigating the effects of the reinforcement of a landslide-affected soil using the roots of a locally-available plant on the strength and permeability properties of the soil. The natural moisture content, specific gravity, particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, compaction characteristics, shear strength, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and permeability of the natural (landslide-affected) soil were determined. Results obtained for the natural landslide-affected soil were compared with those of the soil sample admixed with varying proportions (1%, 2%, 3% and 4%) of lemon grass roots. The result shows that the shear strength and UCS of the soil having 4% lemon grass roots is almost double that of the natural soil. Also, the permeability of the soil-root matrix was sufficiently reduced. Planting lemon grass on soils located along slopes is recommended to improve its strength and minimize the ease with which water infiltrates the soil, thereby reducing the incidence of landslide and other water-induced types of slope failure.

Journal of Materials and Environmental Science

Evaluating the use of lemon grass roots for the reinforcement of a landslideaffected soil from Nilgris district, Tamil Nadu, India

Leather and its products are the sources of employment, export and foreign exchange earnings for many developing countries. Leather industries are often blamed for the environmental damage it creates. In the absence of tanneries, the slaughter houses would have faced serious disposal problems of skin and hides and resulted in environmental disaster. Cleaner technologies are applied to reduce the environmental impact of leather production. With the cleaner technologies followed in many tanneries, they are successfully operated in the centers of the cities. The main objective of the present study is to understand the leather process and its various environmental impacts related to it. The water consumption for the production of leather from one tone of raw hides is around 15000 to 40000 litres and 110 to 260 litres per sheep skin. Quality chemicals and optimum dosing in every process can lead to lower pollution level and thus reduce the environmental impact. Environment friendly advanced technologies are followed in the tanneries on the basis of recycling and recovering techniques that lead to the improvement of leather quality. The wastewater from the tanneries been treated in the effluent treatment plants using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology and converted into reusable water for the tannery processes and the reject from the RO treatment being evaporated either by solar system or by mechanical evaporation and converted into salt. Thus the environmental impact of tannery industry in Tamil Nadu, India has drastically reduced by achieving Zero Liquid Discharge system.

Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Tannery process and its environmental impacts a case study: Vellore District, Tamil Nadu, India

Earthquake hazards such as seismic ground shaking and soil liquefaction are the most dangerous during an earthquake. It is very much important to understand these hazards and its consequences in urban centers particularly in the capital cities of the any state, which may end up in severe socio economic damage. Chennai city, which is head quarters of Tamil Nadu state in India is an urbanized area, it's categorized as fourth densely populated city in India. A study has been carried out to understand the seismic hazards of the city using remote sensing and GIS. The seismic hazards viz., seismic ground shaking in terns of seismic microzonation, liquefaction susceptibility were assessed and integrated in Geographical Information System. For preparation of earthquake microzonation map the data on geology, faults, seismicity and geotechnical data were used. Geotechnical data were collected and the parameters viz, grain size, effective stress, water table, soil layers, depth were studied and the SPT 'N' value used to prepare the liquefaction susceptibility map for the city. These maps were integrated in a GIS platform using raster calculation and a combined seismic hazards map was prepared. The areas were divided in the three categories viz., Low, Moderate and High Seismic Hazards. The present study is first of its kind for the Chennai city, and this can be used as first hand information for decision making and earthquake disaster preparedness.