Rehabilitation and Preservation of the St. Lourdes Church, Tiruchirappalli

This paper reports the rehabilitation of the historic St. Lourdes Church in Tiruchirappalli, India. The structure is a critical landmark and a significant representation of religious buildings in the area. Inspections of the Gothic style masonry church were completed in 1998, where distress and decay due to water damages were identified and repaired using lime-based materials. A subsequent inspection 10 years later indicated that remains a critical issue. This case study demonstrates the importance of rehabilitation of historic structures using appropriate construction techniques including possible alternative rehabilitation approaches to ensure the preservation of these structures.     

Agronomic and economic evaluation of site-specific nutrient management for irrigated wheat in northwest India

Similar to other regions of Asia, irrigated wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield increases in Punjab, India, have slowed in recent years. Future yield increases may occur in smaller increments through fine-tuning of crop management mainly by accounting for the large spatial and temporal variation in soil characteristics. On-farm experiments were conducted from 2002–03 to 2004–05 on 56 irrigated wheat farms (hereafter referred to as ‘sites’) in six key irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat regions of Punjab to evaluate an approach for site-specific nutrient management (SSNM). Site-specific N–P–K applications were calculated by accounting for the indigenous nutrient supply, yield targets, and nutrient demand as a function of the interactions between N, P, and K. The performance of SSNM was tested for two wheat crops. Compared with the current farmers’ fertilizer practice (FFP), average grain yield increased from 4.2 to 4.8 Mg ha⁻¹, while plant N, P, and K accumulations increased by 12–20% with SSNM. The gross return above fertilizer cost (GRF) was about 13% greater with SSNM than with FFP. Improved timing and/or splitting of fertilizer N increased N recovery efficiency from 0.17 kg kg⁻¹ in FFP plots to 0.27 kg kg⁻¹ in SSNM plots. The agronomic N use efficiency was 63% greater with SSNM than with FFP. As defined in our study, SSNM has potential for improving yields and nutrient use efficiency in irrigated wheat. Future research must build on the present approach to develop a more practical way for achieving similar benefits across large areas without site-specific modeling and with minimum crop monitoring.     

尿基复合肥的生产

如何利用尿素作为氮源生产高浓度复合肥,国内外都进行了长期的探索。本文侧重介绍印度和尼日利亚的三家工厂生产尿基复合肥的产品规格、所选用的主要设备规格、操作参数和生产经验     

印度手工雕版印染工艺的特点及当代应用

印度是东西方文化的交融之地,雕版印染在世界纺织文化中具有举足轻重的地位.印度的雕版印染具有浓郁的传统乡土气息,在工艺、审美特点、文化内涵等方面都具有很高的艺术价值和应用价值,是印度纺织文化的杰出代表.     

Enhancing urban planning using simplified models: SIMPLAN for Ahmedabad,India

Urban planners are faced with the decision of what planning policy to pursue in order to achieve the best possible future. Many cities in developed nations use comprehensive models that simulate various aspects of the urban system, capable of predicting implications of a given set of policy inputs, to assist the planning process. However, in developing countries, demographic and socioeconomic data with appropriate spatial disaggregation are difficult to obtain. This constrains the development of such comprehensive urban models to support planning decisions. In the absence of models, the plan-making process usually inclines towards a more intuitive approach.