Abhishek KumarUniversity of Georgia | UGA · Department of Geography
Abhishek Kumar
Doctor of Philosophy
About
33
Publications
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Introduction
My research is focused on the use of multiple new and past satellite sensors towards developing remote sensing models for inland and coastal waters. My primary research interest is the applications of remote sensing and geospatial science in water resources, mangroves/forest/vegetation, and climate change studies.
Publications
Publications (33)
Artificial manipulation of lake water levels through practices like winter water-level drawdown (WD) is prevalent across many regions, but the spatiotemporal patterns are not well documented due to limited in situ monitoring. Multi-sensor satellite remote sensing provides an opportunity to map and analyze drawdown frequency and metrics (timing, mag...
Winter drawdown (WD) is a common lake management tool for multiple purposes such as flood control, aquatic vegetation reduction, and lake infrastructure maintenance. To minimize adverse impacts to a lake's ecosystem, regulatory agencies may provide managers with general guidelines for drawdown and refill timing, drawdown magnitude, and outflow limi...
The environmental factors contributing to the Microcystis aeruginosa bloom (hereafter
referred to as Microcystis bloom) are still debatable as they vary with season and
geographic settings. We examined the environmental factors that triggered Microcystis
bloom outbreak in India’s largest brackish water coastal lagoon, Chilika. The warmer
water temp...
The period of disrupted human activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, coined the "anthropause," altered the nature of interactions between humans and ecosystems. It is uncertain how the anthropause has changed ecosystem states, functions, and feedback to human systems through shifts in ecosystem services. Here, we used an existing disturbance fra...
India successfully executed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, which provided unique opportunities to analyze the second-largest populous coun-try's anthropogenic footprint on its natural systems. India's first Ramsar site and the world's second-largest brackish water system Chilika...
Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs) are progressively becoming a major water quality, socioeconomic, and health hazard worldwide. In India, there are frequent episodes of severe CyanoHABs, which are left untreated due to a lack of awareness and monitoring infrastructure, affecting the economy of the country gravely. In this study, for t...
In 2020, nearly 400 elephants died within the Okavango Delta region in Botswana, creating the worst-ever elephant mass die-off event in history. This catastrophic event was widely blamed on toxic cyanobacterial blooms after lab results showed the presence of toxin-forming cyanobacteria in inland waters of the Delta. However, it did not explain why...
Spatial and seasonal heterogeneity in phytoplankton communities are governed by
many biotic and abiotic drivers. However, the identification of long-term spatial and
temporal trends in abiotic drivers, and their interdependencies with the phytoplankton
communities’ structure is understudied in tropical brackish coastal lagoons. We
examined phytopla...
Ganges River water quality was assessed to record the changes due to the nation-wide pandemic lockdown. Satellite-based (Sentinel-2) water quality analysis before and during lockdown was performed for seven selected locations spread across the entire stretch of the Ganges (Rishikesh–Dimond Harbour). Results revealed that due to the lockdown, the wa...
Cyclones can produce a wide variety of short-term and long-term ecological impacts on coastal lagoons depending on cyclone’s physical-meteorological characteristics and the lagoon’s geographic, geomorphic, and bathymetric characteristics. Here, we theorized that in monsoon regulated tropical coastal lagoons, another important factor that could dete...
The SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19) lockdown in India, which started at an early stage of its infection curve, has been one of the strictest in the world. Air quality has improved in all urban centers in India, a major emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). This study is based on the hypothesis that an abrupt halt in all urban activities resulted in a massive...
Over the past decade, the global proliferation of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) have presented a major risk to the public and wildlife, and ecosystem and economic services provided by inland water resources. As a consequence, water resources, environmental, and healthcare agencies are in need of early information about the develop...
The Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) has a panchromatic band (503–676 nm) that can be used to derive a novel virtual orange band (590–635 nm) by using the multispectral green band and red band components. The orange band is useful for the accurate detection and quantification of phycocyanin (PC), an accessory pigment in toxin-producing cyano...
The 2017 and 2018 Atlantic hurricane seasons poignantly illustrated the dangers tropical cyclones pose to US, Central American, and Caribbean coastlines. In particular, Hurricane Maria inflicted widespread damage, including catastrophic defoliation, to Puerto Rico, altering surface heat fluxes and possibly modifying precipitation patterns. This stu...
A comprehensive analysis of sediment and phytoplankton dynamics in Chilika lagoon by synthesizing various remote sensing datasets is presented in this study. The goal of the study was to monitor and analyze the spatio-temporal variability of total suspended sediment (TSS) and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration and associated environmental forcings...
Hydrilla is an invasive aquatic plant that has rapidly spread through many inland water bodies across the globe by outcompeting native aquatic plants. The negative impacts of hydrilla invasion have become a concern for water resource management authorities, power companies, and environmental scientists. The early detection of hydrilla infestation i...
In September 2017, Hurricane Maria severely defoliated Puerto Rico's landscape, coinciding with a series of persistent hydrological consequences involving the atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine components of the water cycle. During the defoliated period, the atmosphere's thermodynamic structure more strongly explained daily cloud activity (R ²PRE...
Mangroves are one of the most productive ecosystems known for provisioning of various ecosystem goods and services. They help in sequestering large amounts of carbon, protecting coastline against erosion, and reducing impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes. Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha harbors the second largest mangrove ecosy...
As the frequency of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) become more common in recreational lakes and water supply reservoirs, demand for rapid detection and temporal monitoring will be imminent for effective management. The goal of this study was to demonstrate a novel and potentially operational cross-satellite based protocol for synop...
Mangroves around the world play a major role in coastal ecosystem processes by mitigating erosion and serving as a barrier against storm surges. India holds approximately 5% of the world’s mangroves, over half of which are found along its east coast. Situated in the state of Odisha, Chilika Lagoon and Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary are two wetland...
Mapping spatio-temporal dynamics of suspended load in a lagoon before-during-after a cyclone is crucial for monitoring sudden nutrient enrichment and associated processes such as algal blooms and siltation. However, not all cyclones produce similar impact on a coastal lagoon, some trigger algal blooms after passage while others just increase the ov...
We present a comprehensive analysis of sediment dynamics in a coastal lagoon by synthesizing various remote sensing datasets. The goal of the study was to monitor and analyze the spatio-temporal variability of total suspended sediment (TSS) concentration and associated environmental forcings in Chilika Lagoon, the largest brackish water lagoon in A...