Soil Water Laboratory
The Soil Water Laboratory, an integral part of the Division, is one of the state-of-the-art laboratories of the Institute and provides all facilities necessary for conducting field and laboratory investigations/ experimentation in the sampling protocol, in-situ determination of soil properties and lab-based analysis of various soil and water parameters including hydraulic properties of both unsaturated and saturated zone. It is one of the state-of-the-art laboratories of the Institute and provides all facilities necessary for conducting field and laboratory investigations/experimentation in the subsurface, sampling protocol, in-situ determination of soil properties and lab-based analysis of various soil and water parameters including hydraulic properties of both unsaturated and saturated zone materials..
Available Equipment
- EVRI
- CHNS Analyzer.
- ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometry).
- Multi-wave Digestion System.
- Pressure Plate Apparatus.
- Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer (Microtrac S3500).
- GeoPyc and AccuPyc
- TDR (Time Domain Reflectrometry) Soil Moisture Meter.
- Soil Moisture Profile Probe.
- Soil Salinity Probe.
- Guelph In-situ Permeameter.
- ICW Lab Permeameter
- Electromagnetic sieve shakers.
- Mobile Drill.
- Aquameter CRM for Resistivity Surveys.
- Infiltrometer
- Plant Canopy Analyzer.
- Digital pH Meter.
- Soil Moisture Balance.
- Tensiometers (Standard/ Electronic).
- Soil Moisture Sensors.
- Nitsch Sampling Set.
- Electronic Balances.
- Altimeter
- Clinometer
- Bearing Compass.
- Groundwater level indicators
- Water Purification Assembly
Laboratory Capabilities to measure/determine
- Percentage of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Sulphur in the samples
- Trace metals analysis in samples
- Digestion of samples.
- Soil moisture characteristic curve to estimate available moisture, field capacity and wilting point
- In-situ soil salinity measurement up to one-meter depth.
- In-situ saturated hydraulic conductivity, sorptivity and matrix flux potential of soil
- Soil particle size distribution - dry and wet sieving
- Laser diffraction based soil particle size distribution (0.02 - 2800 microns)
- Soil textural classification
- Porosity, particle and bulk density
- Permeability of undisturbed soil sample
- Soil infiltration rates
- In-situ soil moisture content, salinity, and TDR based soil moisture monitoring
- Soil moisture of disturbed samples
- pH and EC of soil / water
- Flow under unsaturated conditions
- Leaf area index, foliage and other canopy structure attributes
- Depth to groundwater level
Centre of Excellence for Advanced Groundwater Research
The ‘Centre of Excellence for Advanced Groundwater Research (CEAGR)’ at the Division possesses state–of-the-art hardware and software computational facilities. The Centre comprises of two units:
- Numerical Groundwater Modelling Unit, and
- Indo-German Competence Centre for Riverbank Filtration, to cater to the R & D services in groundwater sector
The hardware facilities include workstations, desktops, 24×7 internet connectivity, A0 size scanner, etc.; software facilities include latest numerical modelling, earth sciences, water quality and statistical software packages such as, MODFLOW, FEFLOW, MIKE SHE, WHI UnSat Suite Plus, ArcGIS, TNT Mips, HydroGeoAnalyst, Surfer for 3D contouring, AquaChem, Aquatest, etc.
Indo-German Competence Centre for Riverbank Filtration
As a drive to provide cost-effective natural treatment technique to attain drinking water security in India, NIH and University of Applied Sciences (HTWD), Germany has signed a MoU in the year 2011 with the highest level approval of the Federal Government of India and Germany. The objective is to collaborate and cooperate in research and promotion of Bank Filtration Technology by establishing an ‘Indo-German Competence Centre for Riverbank Filtration (IGCCRBF)’ at NIH, Roorkee. The IGCCRBF has a number of partners from India and Germany and is functioning under the Division in close cooperation with its partners.
Name of Head: Dr. Anupma Sharma
Designation: Scientist ‘G’
Office Address: Groundwater Hydrology Division, NIH, Roorkee
Phone:01332-249224
Email:anupma[dot]nihr[at]gov[dot]in