Heavy metals are known as an important group of pollutants in soil. Major sources of heavy metals are modern industries such as mining. In this study, spatial distribution and environmental behavior of heavy metals in the Jajarm bauxite mine have been investigated. The study area is one of the most important deposits in Iran, which includes about 22 million tons of reserve. Contamination factor (CF), the average concentration (AV), the enrichment factor (EF) and geoaccumulation index (GI) were factors used to assess the risk of pollution from heavy metals in the study area. Robust principal component analysis of compositional data (RPCA) was also applied as a multivariate method to find the relationship among metals. According to the compositional bi-plots, the RPC1 and RPC2 account for 57.55% and 33.79% of the total variation, respectively. The RPC1 showed positive loadings for Pb and Ni. Also, the RPC2 showed positive loadings for Cu and Zn. In general, the results indicated that mining activities in the bauxite mine have not created serious environmental hazards in the study area except for lead and nickel. Finding potential relations between mining work and elevated heavy metals concentrations in the Jajarm bauxite mine area necessitates developing and implementing holistic monitoring activities.

Micro-watershed planning and management play an important role in addressing the issues and challenges of water scarcity of a region. The assessment of hydrological framework using morphometric calculation and GIS technology is a recognized tool for carrying out planning activities for the watershed. The uncertainties associated with the earlier work of watershed prioritization can be easily addressed with new emerging geospatial-statistical correlation techniques. A sum weightages methodology is applied on the upper watershed of river Subarnarekha in the state of Jharkhand, India, for identification of critical subwatershed, a priority level ranking and zonation mapping of each individual subwatershed is developed using the morphometric calculation coupled with GIS tools. This approach helps in identification and bifurcation of subwatershed with three level of priority, i.e, Low, Medium, High. The result reveals that 5.8 % of subwatershed lies in high priority zone that signifies the area as critical and susceptible zones of soil erosion, which requires immediate attention from planners and policymakers. The high-level priority region should be considered for soil, water, and land conservation work. This approach of prioritization techniques can further be extended to another critical watershed of India for better decision support system and planning.

Despite existing literature suggesting that Dhaka City, Bangladesh is undergoing subsidence, few researches have been carried out to actually measure the subsidence rate. Previously conducted studies either do not provide sufficiently accurate subsidence results, or the study period is not long enough. In this research, we have tried to address that gap by performing time series subsidence analysis of Dhaka City utilizing Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique for a study period of 20 years. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C-band images from ERS, ENVISAT and Sentinel-1A were used to obtain the results. We had to use C-band SAR data from multiple sensors considering data availability issue of the period of investigation (i.e. 1992 to 1999(using ERS); 2003 to 2010(using ENVISAT); 2014 to 2017(using Sentinel 1A)). Most parts of the city is found to be subsiding. Mirpur and Uttara have subsided by over 221mm and 232mm respectively over the 20 years. Ramna and Cantonment subsided ar ound 205mm compared to their level in 1992, whereas both Gulshan and Tejgaon have subsided by about 200mm. Demra and Lalbagh show similar subsidence to the Ramna area, whereas Dhanmondi and Mohammadpur show subsidence rates similar to Tejgaon. We have also assessed the parameter sensitivity to perform this time series subsidence analysis. The parameter selection of coregistration, filtering and unwrapping was found to greatly influence the results. The result is being calibrated with the available GPS observation.

Pattani Basin hosts the greatest number of hydrocarbons producing fields in the Gulf of Thailand. Early to Middle Miocene fluvial channel and overbank sands are the main reservoirs in this basin. Due to their nature of very limited vertical and horizontal distribution it is not always easy to predict the geometry and distribution of these sands based on the conventional seismic interpretation. This study aims to study seismic geomorphology at different stratigraphic intervals to predict sand distribution by applying advanced imaging techniques such as RMS amplitude analysis, spectral decomposition, semblance and dip steered similarity. For this purpose, the study interval is divided into three periods. In period 1, RMS and semblance successfully identified sand bodies and mud filled channels associated with channel belts. On the other hand, deeper stratigraphic levels (period 2 & 3) can be imaged more effectively by using spectral decomposition and dip steered similarity volumes. Horizon slices from these attribute volumes show the distribution of sands and mud filled channels at different stratigraphic level. The width of channel belts varies from 200 m to 3 km. These channel belts are N-S and NW-SE oriented. The findings from seismic geomorphology analysis in these three (3) periods were then validated by well log analysis and correlation. Broad channel belts in horizon slices in period 3 correspond to stacked channel sands in well log. Whereas narrow channel belts correspond to thin sand units in well log in period 2. Widespread occurrence of coals has also been noticed in this interval. Very well-developed meander belts in horizon slices are transpired as fining upward succession in well logs in period 1. Mud filled channels identified in the horizon slices might act as a barrier and compartmentalize the reservoir. The proposed workflow of predicting sand distribution in this study might help to reduce exploration risk as well as in planning infill development wells.

High resolution aeromagnetic dataset of Abakiliki (sheet 303 SW) was used for the characterization of the subsurface lithostructural features in part of the Lower Benue Trough, Nigeria. This study was necessitated for mapping and delineating hydrocarbon prospecting zones, in order to boost the Nation’s economy. The aeromagnetic data were subjected to several forms of filtering, reductions, and enhancement techniques for both qualitative and quantitative interpretations. The result of the reduction to equator- total magnetic intensity (RTE-TMI) revealed the magnetic intensity of subsurface rocks ranging from 34.14nT to 61.40nT. These range of magnetic intensity values characterized the rocks in the area as shale and Limestone within the Asu River Group, Awgu shale, Eze-AKu shale and Nkporo shale. The upward continued RTE-TMI data to 500m, 1 km, 2 km, 3 km, 7 km and 10 km revealed regional trends of these rocks and structure thin –out with measure depth continuation. The second vertical derivative (SVD), Tilt-angle derivative (TDR) and Analytical signal (AS) revealed three (3) major faults; F1-F11, F2-F12 and F3-F13 in NE-SW, ENE-WSW and NW-SE directions respectively. The depth to top of magnetic source were revealed by the radially averaged power spectrum (RAPS) and Euler deconvolution as 27m and 2.64km for shallower and deeper sources respectively. This study has demonstrated the efficiency of aeromagnetic methods, with their improved techniques as tools for regional mapping of lithologies and structures that may host important minerals and/or aid hydrocarbon accumulation and their probable depths.