Civil Engineering Department

Water resources are affected by development activities and land use change which is undeniable and most significant. Land use change can alter the hydrology of a watershed. The present study has been carried out for Rawal and Simly Dams 'watershed. This study analyzed the historical land use changes which had taken place in catchment area for the period 1975-2012 (38 years) for Rawal Dam and for period of 1983-2012 (30 years) for Simly Dam. The main objectives of this study were to identify the land use change pattern over time, to obtain land use information from satellite imagery classification using GIS and Remote Sensing and to analyze its effects on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships for the catchment areas of Rawal and Simly Dam. In this study the catchment area of the Rawal and Simly Dam was delineated on topographic sheets and using Planimeter the catchment area of Rawal Dam was computed as270 km 2 and the catchment area of Simly Dam was computed as150km 2...

Purpose – This paper aims at collecting and reviewing the published literature on the Six Sigma in construction along with its critical success factors (CSFs).

Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on literature review. Based on the keyword and semantic search techniques, papers published on the topic of Six Sigma during 2000-2015 are retrieved. Frequency analysis is performed to find out significance of identified CSFs, and zoning is performed based on the product of frequency of appearance and parties affected by the CSFs.

Findings – A total of 69 CSFs are identified as published in the literature. Based on an inclusion criterion of minimum 15 appearances, 22 CSFs are shortlisted for further analysis. Of these CSFs, around 32 per cent fall into red zone (most critical), 50 per cent into yellow and 18 per cent into green zone (least critical).

Research limitations/implications – This work is limited by partial identification of CSFs. Though based on an extensive search, the retrieved CSFs may not be all the published ones. However, more thorough search techniques can be applied to improve upon this work.

Practical implications – The findings can be used to facilitate the decision-making in the context of project success.

Originality/value – This work is an original attempt at gathering Six Sigma CSFs applicable to construction projects. It may be used for further research and development to help ensure project quality and success.

Almost all construction projects face delays resulting in extension of time (EOT) or liquidated damages, depending upon which of the two parties absorbs the responsibility as per terms of the contract. A number of factors influence the realistic assessment of EOT claims, along with the level of awareness and technical support. The construction industry of Pakistan, which operates in a rather traditional and outdated style, has never been assessed on such critical contract management aspects. It has resulted into various disputes, court cases, and bad blood between stakeholders. To help facilitate the local practitioners, this study analyzed 29 EOT-influencing factors. Prevalent practices in the construction industry also were investigated. On the basis of an extensive survey, it was found that delayed payment to the contractor was the primary cause of EOT claims. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations are proposed to resolve EOT issues, float ownership, and prolongation cost.

Sediment deposition in a reservoir decreases storage capacity and effects many other parameters of the reservoir adversely. It reduces benefits and useful life of a hydro power project that have huge socioeconomic impacts. Flushing is one of the techniques to remove sediments from reservoirs. This study investigates sediment accumulation, transportation and flushing using both the physical and numerical modeling. Gulpur Hydro Power Project (HPP) on Poonch River in Pakistan was chosen for this purpose. The geometry, cross-sections and other physical attributes of the Poonch River were prepared and hydraulic structures were placed on the basis of topographic survey using AutoCAD. Physical model of scale 1:40 was developed at Nandipur Research Station in Pakistan. After base test the model was used to get data for various scenarios of sediment flows. HEC-RAS was used for numerical simulations. Delta profile and flushing were simulated. Delta modeling was made for hourly time step for 20 years of sediment deposition with average discharge conditions, whereas, suitable flushing durations were predicted for various flushing discharges to de-silt yearly deposited sediments. Simulation showed that life of the un-sluiced Gulpur HPP is about 14-15 years. To enhance the life of project, annually 4-5 days are required for flushing with 250 m 3 /s discharge.

Water is essential for life, agriculture, and industrialization; however, a rapid increase in population is constantly causing water scarcity and pollution in Pakistan. Mining activities produce the potential toxic element (PTE) accumulation, which lead to unnatural enrichment, ecological pollution, and environmental degradation. The ecological resources impeded by the PTEs cause serious abnormalities in the population through dermal contact, inhalation, and digestion. Mining induced anthropogenic activities are well-known causes of contamination of ecological resources. The produced effluents have drastic effects by changing the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the concerned resources. The Central Indus Basin is a well-known coal regime, where more than 160 mines are active at present. The samples that were collected from the mine water, groundwater, surface water, and the soil were analyzed by atomic absorption and elemental determination analysis (EDA) for an assessment of their quality and the presence of PTEs. The results were correlated with available quality standards, including the World Health Organization (WHO), National Standard of Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs). These analyses showed the noticeable anthropogenic concentration of PTEs, like iron, cadmium, sulphur, and copper, which can degrade the quality of resources in the Central Indus Basin and have adverse effects on human health. An excessive amount of acid mine drainage (AMD) draws attention to some suitable active or passive treatments for disposal from mines to avoid degradation of ecological resources in the Central Indus Basin of Pakistan.

Wastewater treatment plants are used to reduce pollution depending upon their effectiveness, treatment-efficiency, available-land, energy-sources, topography, climate and prevailing-winds, seasonal and climatic variations, and principal-cost. Integrated constructed wetlands (ICWs) are diversely used for wastewater treatment because of their increased treatment efficiency. Purpose of the study: This study comprises of large-scale-ICW located at NUST Islamabad, Pakistan. Purpose of study was to monitor and identify the nutrient removal over the period of six month from October 2018 to March 2019. Samples were taken from each compartment of HSSF-CW (Horizontal Sub-Surface Flow Constructed Wetland) and FILTER technology (Filtration and Irrigated cropping for Land Treatment and Effluent Reuse) of treatment system. Different parameters including EC (Electrical conductivity), NO3 (Nitrate), NO2 (Nitrite), TKN (Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen), PO43- (Phosphate) were measured. Removal efficiency of above discrice parameters was recorded 3, 0, 43, 43 and 27% of HSSF-CW respectively, while FILTER- technology contribute in removal by 6, 75, 19, 23 and 37% respectively. Spatial, temporal and plantation variation was calculated and results showed that effluent concentrations were significantly varied. TKN and Phosphate showed significant spatial and temporal variation, and also significantly varied due to presence and absence of plantation while no significant spatial variation was recorded in EC and Nitrite. Correlation was observed between physicochemical and weather parameters.