This volume reviews recent hydrological and environmental issues resulting from human-induced water pollution practices while providing case studies on the physical, chemical, and eco-biological techniques used to mitigate the impacts of river ecosystem pollution in South Asian countries. The book demonstrates the key methods of measurement, monitoring, mapping, and modeling of river water quality and how it is impacted by pollution and incorporates contemporary geospatial technological applications for the management and sustainability of future water resources. The major topics that the book addresses are the fundamental concepts of river ecosystem health, riverine ecology and habitats, risk assessment of riverine pollution, and technology-based river pollution control strategies. The book will serve as an interdisciplinary guide for researchers, students, and GIS specialists working in various disciplines, including pollution hazards, river ecosystem restoration, water quality, remote sensing, zoology, natural resources management, and environmental geography.

Table of contents :
1 Acknowledgments Disclaimer Contents About the Editors Contributors Chapter 1: River Health and Ecology: Perspective View and Approach 1 Introduction 2 River Health: Issues and Challenges 3 Key Aims of the Book 4 Individual Chapters References Chapter 2: Arthropods: An Important Bio-Indicator to Decipher the Health of the Water of South Asian Rivers 1 Introduction 2 Monitoring Pollution Using Bioindicator 2.1 Various Characteristics that Make an Organism a Bioindicator 2.1.1 How to Select a Bioindicator? 2.2 Biomonitoring and Bioindicators 2.3 Various Advantages of Biomonitoring 2.3.1 Biomonitoring Approaches Based on Hopkin (1993): 3 Various Aquatic Organisms used as Bioindicators 4 Various Arthropod Species Used as a Bioindicator 4.1 Class: Insecta 4.2 Class: Crustacea 5 Arthropods Used as Bioindicators in South Asian Rivers 6 Advantages of Biomonitoring the River Ecosystem 6.1 Diversity Indices 6.2 Multimeric Approaches 6.3 Indices of Biological Integrity 6.4 Biotic Indices 6.5 Multivariate Approaches 6.6 Functional Approaches 6.6.1 Functional Feeding Groups (FFGs) 6.6.2 Multiple Biological Traits 6.7 Early Warning Bioindicators 6.8 Bioassays Protocols 6.9 Widely Used Methods of Biomonitoring in River 6.9.1 Measures of the BMWP Scores 6.9.2 BMWP-ASPT (Biological Monitoring Working Party Average Score Per Taxon) 6.9.3 Percentage of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (%EPT) 7 Conclusion References Chapter 3: Anthropogenic Stress on River Health: With Special Reference to Kangsabati River, West Bengal, India 1 Introduction 2 Materials and Methods 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Impacts on Riparian Areas 3.2 Sand Mining 3.3 Agricultural Practices 3.4 Construction of Bridge on River 3.5 Brick Factory Adjacent to River 3.6 Recreational Use 3.7 Harmful Fishing 3.8 Construction of Dam 3.9 Introduction of Exotic Fish and Plant Species 3.10 Fisheries Sector/Overfishing 3.11 Discharge of Plastic and Domestic Sewage 3.12 Cattle Washing 3.13 Soaps and Detergents 3.14 Mass Bathing and Religious Activities 3.15 Pollution Indicator Species 4 Conclusions 4.1 River Conservation Efforts 4.2 Recommendations References Chapter 4: Role of Modern Biotechnology in the Era of River Water Pollution 1 Introduction 2 Metagenomics Approach for Detection of Water Pollution 3 NGS Platform for Metagenome Sequencing 4 Bioinformatics Tools Used for Sequence Analysis 5 Biofilms as Aquatic Environment Cleaning Technology 6 Removal of Pesticide from Polluted Water through Remediation Technology 7 Floating Treatment Wetlands as a Remediation Agent of Contaminated Water 8 Conclusion References Chapter 5: Assessment of Chitinolytic Bacteria Isolated from Zooplankton of Freshwater Ecosystem 1 Introduction 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Plankton Density and Water Physiochemical Property 2.3 Isolation and Screening 2.4 Colloidal Chitin Agar (CCA) Preparation and Screening of Chitinolytic Bacteria 2.5 Biochemical Characterization and Assessment of Enzyme Sensitivity through Vitek2 Compact System 2.6 Assay of β-N-Acetyl-Glucosaminidase and Chitinase Activity 2.7 16 S rRNA Sequencing and Phylogenetic Tree Construction 2.8 Statistical Analysis 3 Results 3.1 Abiotic and Plankton Density 3.2 Microbiological Study 3.3 Biochemical Characterizations of the Isolates 3.4 Isoenzyme Activity Analysis of the Isolates 3.5 β-N-Acetyl-Glucosaminidase and Chitinase Activity 3.6 Identification of Isolates and Phylogenetic Tree Analysis 4 Discussion 5 Conclusion References Chapter 6: Microplastics in Freshwater Riverine Systems: Brief Profile, Trophic-Level Transfer and Probable Remediation 1 Introduction 2 Major Pollutants Responsible for Degradation of Riverine Health 3 Microplastics as an Anthropogenic Pollutant 4 Distribution of MPs in Aquatic Ecosystems 5 Freshwater Riverine Systems are in Crisis due to MPs Pollution 6 Difficulties of South-Asian Rivers: An Overall Scenario of MPs Pollution 7 MPs Pollution in the European River Basins 8 MPs pollution in the North and South American River Basins 9 MPs Pollution in African Riverine Basins 10 Plastic Pollution and MPs Interaction with Biota: Status and Risk Assessment 11 Probable Remediation 12 Concluding Remarks References Chapter 7: Assessment of River Health through Water and Biological Characteristics 1 Introduction 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Meta Diversity Analysis 2.3 Analysis of Water Quality Parameters 2.4 Water Quality Index (WQI) 2.5 Nutrient Pollution Index (NPI) 2.6 Qualitative Habitat Index (QHEI) and Assessment of Physical Habitats 2.7 Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) 2.8 Statistical Analyses 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Assessment of Water Quality 3.2 Water Quality Index (WQI) 3.3 Chemical Health Evaluation Based on Nutrient Pollution Index (NPI) 3.4 Physical Habitat Health Assessment Based on Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) 3.5 Macroinvertebrates 3.6 Biological River Health Evaluation Based on Biological Integrity Index (IBI) 4 Conclusion References Chapter 8: Estimating Water Quality of Sundarban Coastal Zone Area Using Landsat Series Satellite Data 1 Introduction 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Data and Methodology 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Surface Water Resource 3.2 Physico-Chemical Analysis 3.2.1 pH 3.2.2 Dissolved Oxygen (DO) 3.2.3 Chlorophyll Concentration 3.2.4 Water Salinity Range 3.2.5 Turbidity Water 3.3 Hydrological Condition 3.3.1 Waterbodies 3.3.2 Ground Water 3.3.3 Freshwater Related Problems in Sundarbans 3.3.4 Remediation of Water Issues 4 Conclusions References Chapter 9: Anthropogenic Impacts on Hydro-Morphodynamic Behavior in the Middle–Lower Course of Subarnarekha River, India 1 Introduction 2 Material and Methods 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Database and Data Processing 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Impacts of Sand Mining and Artificial Structural Measures 3.1.1 Changing Hydrodynamic Behavior 3.1.2 Morphodynamic Adjustment 3.1.3 Ecological Impact 3.1.4 Impact on Socioeconomic Status 3.2 Loss of Channel Capacity 3.3 Recommended Management Strategies 4 Conclusion References Chapter 10: Perturbation of the Health of the Riverine Ecosystem and its Impact on the Biogeochemical, Ecological, and Molecular Perspectives 1 Introduction 2 Toxicology of Riverine Pollution: Impact on the Microbial Communities, Plants, and Animals 2.1 Effect of Organic Compounds on the Health of the Riverine Ecosystem 2.1.1 Phenol and Phenolic Compounds 2.1.2 Organophosphorus Compounds and their Derivatives 2.1.3 Organochlorines and Polychlorinated Derivatives 2.1.4 Pyrethroids 2.1.5 Herbicides 2.2 Effects of Heavy Metals on the Health of the Riverine Ecosystem 2.2.1 Cadmium 2.2.2 Lead 2.2.3 Arsenic 2.2.4 Mercury 2.2.5 Nickel 2.2.6 Barium 2.2.7 Chromium 3 Impact of Riverine Pollution on the Riverine and Extra-Riverine Ecosystem 3.1 Behavioral Abnormalities Caused by Freshwater Pollution 3.2 Reproductive Abnormalities Caused by Freshwater Pollution 3.3 Effects on Bioaccumulation, Biomagnification, and Food Web 3.3.1 Bioaccumulation, Bioconcentration, Bioaccumulation Factor, and Bioconcentration Factor 3.3.2 Bioamplification or Biomagnification and Biomagnification Factor 4 Remediation Approaches: Advantages and Drawbacks 5 Conclusion and Future Directions References Chapter 11: Assessment of Habitat Quality in Quarried Reach of Alluvial River 1 Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Methods and Database 2.3 Assessment of Geomorphic Indicators 2.3.1 Estimation of Planform Change 2.4 Assessment of Hydroecological Indicators 2.4.1 Water Sampling Process and Adopted Methods 2.4.2 Estimation of Water Quality Index (WQI) 2.5 Measurement of Microhabitat Patch 2.6 Final Rank Score of Assessment Indicators 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Analysis of Geomorphic Indicators 3.1.1 Channel Geometry 3.1.2 Sedimentary Facies and Textural Attributes Sediment Facies at Bank Margin Site Sediment Facies at Riparian Site Sediment Facies on a River Bed 3.1.3 Pool-Riffle Sequence 3.1.4 Thalweg Shifting 3.1.5 Channel Planform Change 3.1.6 Water Flow Regime 3.2 Analysis of Ecological Indicators 3.2.1 Riverine LULC 3.2.2 Microhabitat Patch 3.2.3 Water Quality Index 3.2.4 Biodiversity Index in Microhabitat Patch 3.3 River Habitat Assessment 4 Conclusion References Chapter 12: Physicochemical and Microbial Indicators for Water Quality Assessment in an Industrial Catchment of River Damodar, India 1 Introduction 2 Study Area 3 Materials and Methods 3.1 Collection of Samples and Physicochemical Analysis 3.2 Pollution Index (PI) for Drinking Water 3.3 Microbial Analysis 3.3.1 Total Viable Count (TVC) 3.3.2 Coliform Count (TC and FC) 3.4 Multivariate Analysis 4 Results 4.1 Hydro-Chemistry of River Water 4.2 Pollution Index (PI) Analysis 4.3 Microbial Analysis 4.3.1 Total Viable Count 4.3.2 Coliform Count 4.3.3 Faecal Coliform Count 4.4 Multivariate Analysis 5 Discussions 6 Environmental Management Planning 7 Conclusion References Chapter 13: Assessment of Water Pollution and Aquatic Toxicity of the Churni River, India 1 Introduction 2 Study Area 3 Database and Methodology 3.1 Database 3.2 Methods 3.2.1 Measuring Water Quality 3.2.2 Measurement of Aquatic Toxicity 3.2.3 Multivariate Statistical Technique 4 Results 4.1 Water Characteristics of the Churni River 4.2 Water Quality and its Spatiotemporality 4.3 PCA of the Physicochemical Parameters 4.4 Nature of Aquatic Toxicity in the Churni River 4.5 Risk Potential of Freshwater Fish Species 5 Discussion 5.1 Critical Environmental Flow 5.2 Point and Non-point Sources of Pollution 6 Conclusion References Chapter 14: River Corridor Mapping and Monitoring Using Geospatial Technology 1 Introduction 2 Geospatial Application in River Corridor Mapping 3 Remote Sensing Platform and River Corridor Mapping 4 Geospatial Methods and River Corridor Mapping 5 Integration Machine Learning Approach and River Corridor Mapping 6 Future Prospect and Conclusion References Chapter 15: Microplastic Pollution in Freshwater Systems: A Potential Environmental Threat 1 Introduction 2 Plastic Production and its Applications 3 Microplastic Pollution in Inland Waters 3.1 Morphological Characterization of Microplastics 3.1.1 MPs Shape 3.1.2 MPs Size 3.1.3 MPs Color 3.2 Chemical Characterization of MPs 4 Fate and Impact of MPs 4.1 Impact on the Environment 4.2 Impact on Humans 5 Remediation Techniques 6 Conclusion References Chapter 16: Sand and Gravel Mining and its Consequences on Morphometry of Raidak-II River in Eastern Dooars, India 1 Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Study Area 2.2 Field Survey and Analysis of Data 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 River Bank Shifting 3.2 Channel Braiding 3.3 Width Depth Ratio of the River 3.4 Pre-Monsoon and Post-Monsoon Variation in Elevation of the River Bed 3.5 Perception Assessment of the Contributing Factors 4 Conclusion References Chapter 17: Resuscitating the Regional Rivers: A Crusade against Cauvery Crisis and Coloured Legislations 1 Introduction 2 River Sand: Economical and Ecological Importance 3 Epidemic Effects of Mindless Mining 4 Field Observation in River Cauvery 5 Regional Efforts to Revive the Ecologies 6 Factors to Be Accounted for in the New Framework 7 Proposed Mining Models 8 Alternatives to River Sand 9 Conclusion