Radiation dose from dissolved radon in potable waters of the Bangalore environment,South India

Potable waters from various locations of the Bangalore environment were investigated for their ²²²Rn concentrations by the emanometry method. About 94 groundwater (borewell) samples were analysed for ²²²Rn concentrations and found to vary in the range 5.3–283.4 Bq L^?1 with a mean value of 87 Bq L^?1. Frequency distribution showed the ²²²Rn concentration in a large number of samples in the range of 0–50 Bq L^?1. From the measured concentrations, the effective doses (lung and stomach) for the population of the region were estimated. The effective dose was found to vary from 42.6 to 2280.2 µSv y^?1 with a mean value 702.5 µSv y^?1. The effect of boiling of water showed a drastic reduction in the ²²²Rn concentration. The results of the present investigation are systematically analysed, compared with the literature values and discussed.     

Water crisis through the analytic of urban transformation: an analysis of Bangalore’s hydrosocial regimes

ABSTRACT

This paper explores intensified water crisis in Bangalore (or Bengaluru) in India by using the analytic of three hydrosocial regimes: the catchment-based regime, the hydraulic regime and the speculative urban regime. It uses a wide range of qualitative interviews, scientific reports and secondary sources to analyze shifting urban trajectories, agrarian relations and their interlinkages with water. Historical ruptures (in the realm of governance, urban growth and changing urban–rural dynamics) allow one to highlight the complex role of speculative logics that shape urban expansion and water scarcity.     

Ecomasterplanning

Best known as the pioneer of the green skyscraper, Ken Yeang is now applying his innovative, ecological thinking to the urban masterplan. Here he outlines how the introduction of an ecoinfrastructure can bring multiple benefits to a city, encouraging connectivity between green spaces, providing natural habitats for wildlife and alleviating the impact of climate change by offsetting CO2 emissions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ‘Background’ in Bangalore; Architecture and Critical Resistance in a New Modernity

As the centre of India's new information and biotechnology industries, Bangalore has been at the forefront of the country's globalisation. As Prem Chandavarkar explains, the city's architectural culture continues at the leading edge to be one of ‘intellectualism’, valuing ‘the background’, a sense of place and contextualism over the more brash facadism of other cities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mathew & Ghosh Architects

The work of Mathew & Ghosh Architects (Nisha Mathew-Ghosh and Soumitro Ghosh) boldly extends an abstract Modernist language and at the same time draws from the vitality of places. While the firm's early works were small in scale, mostly residential in nature and based on a reappraisal of the early Corbusian idiom, recent projects include large-scale urban and landscape interventions with diverse conceptual and metaphorical imperatives. They have moved from a more reticent stance to the urban exuberance of their more recent projects (for example, their own office building), something akin to a ‘savage architecture’ as posited by Kazuo Shinohara in the context of the unsynchronised nature of the modern city. The architects' object of contemplation is the urban ‘box’, whether a private residence, office or part of a church. The box is first fractured and reconstructed as a bricolage of tectonic fragments, memories and events, all tenuously related as if unity in a contemporary culture is for ever denied. Like the Japanese notion of ‘ma’, the moment between fragments - a slit or an emptiness between two hovering planes - is telling. Mathew & Ghosh participate in the continuity of a historical narrative yet mark out the fissures and disjunctions; sometimes negotiations with the continuity emerge from unintended interstices. While these configurations of the contemporary urban ‘box’ are both contextual and abstract, they are also phenomenologically rich. There is a sustained dialect to the architecture of Mathew & Ghosh that includes consummate materiality and fine crafting, light as a medium, and always, as Nisha Mathew-Ghosh states, ‘good spatial possibilities’. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hundredhands

Directed by Sunitha Kondur and Bijoy Ramachandran, Hundredhands is a multidisciplinary design studio whose work draws on a keen sense of the urban. In their projects, often represented in patiently executed analytical drawings, the architects have redirected their focus on the urban context by returning to questions of scale, character, spatial and visual impact, and remaking the public domain, all of which is so vital to the tempestuous urbanism of Indian cities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Architecture Autonomous (Gerard da Cunha)

Gerard da Cunha maintains his practice from the old Portuguese colony of Goa, which he considers has a novel history in that it was the site of the ‘first sustained encounter between the East and the West’. This encounter has engendered a unique culture and architecture that is evident in da Cunha's lively and rather Gaudíesque work. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In Depth: Inscribing the Indian Landscape

When India was colonised by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was systematically surveyed and delineated in map form for administrative and political purposes. Here, Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha urge a new, ‘deeper’ reading of the landscape that fully acknowledges the multiple uses and potential initiations of public spaces. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

水下多次爆破法解决大口径深井卡钻问题

应用水下爆炸理论,结合井下地质情况,在分析卡钻原因的基础上,采用多次爆破法解决了深井卡钻问题。,根据计算出的一次最大起爆药量,在钻头下方1.0m处进行小药量、多次水下爆破,成功处理了某大型煤矿在大孔径深井钻孔施工中出现的卡钻事故,可为类似工程提供参考。     

超深温泉井爆破增加流量关键技术

从爆破位置筛选、爆破装置设计、爆破效果评价等方面,系统地研究了超深温泉井爆破增加流量关键技术。设计了一种加工方便、成本低廉、安全可靠的防水耐高压深井爆破筒及其配套的爆破装置系统,并利用该系统在温泉井内呈破碎带或非闭合裂隙处爆破,导通地下水源地与温泉井间的屏障,从而增加温泉井的涌水量,达到高效开采深部温泉资源的目的。