Home > Academics > Academic Units > Departments > Agricultural and Food Engineering > Bhabani Sankar Das
Professor
Agricultural and Food Engineering
We focus on improving water and nutrient efficiency in soils using intensive measurement and modeling. Specifically, we work on water and solute transport; use of visible, near-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy for rapid assessment of soil, crop and water quality; hyperspectral remote sensing, digital soil mapping, and environmental pollution and contaminant hydrology.
Over the years, we have produced some interesting results:
A. We have created national-scale digital soil maps for key soil properties (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706120309861) at 500 m resolution using digital soil mapping
B. We have also shown that the VNIR technology may also be used for assessing soil water potential (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017WR021494). The spectral data for rice canopies under water stress may be obtained from the dryad website (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2fq726m)
C. Flow and transport experiments have helped us establish that the polymer coating may be a smart option for improving use effiencincy of nitrogen in rice fields. But one must have a control over water use; otherwise, the use of such smart fertilizers only would be more expensive than conventional fertilizers.
D. We have shown that soil hydrauic properties and aggregate size distributions may be used to upscale soil response.
E. Our experimental and modeling work have shown that water stress at vegetative growth stages may be controlled to create yield advantage (Dasgupta et al., 2015)
F. We have developed spectral algorithms to rapidly assess several soil properties such as water holding capacity, aggregate size distribution, weathering indices, Atterberg limits, and nutrient contents.
G. We conducted a series of flow and transport studies in rice fields over a decade to show that preferential flow of water is a major menace in ponded rice fields. We have shown that plugging such flow paths can reduce water use to almost at the levels of consumptive use.
Variable indicators for optimum wavelength selection in diffuse reflectance spectroscopy of soils. by Sarathjith , M. C., B. S. Das, S. P. Wani, and K. L. Sahrawat Geoderma. 267 1-9 (2016)
Estimation of weathering indices using spectral reflectance over visible to mid-infrared region. by Mohanty, B., A. Gupta, B. S. Das. Geoderma. 266 111-119 (2016)
Greenhouse gas emission from direct seeded paddy fields under different soil water potentials in Eastern India. by Kumar, A., A. K. Nayak, S. Mohanty, B. S. Das Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 228 111-123 (2016)
Soil Water Potential and Recoverable Water Stress in Drought Tolerant and Susceptible Rice Varieties. by Dasgupta P., B. S. Das, S. K. Sen Agril. Water Manage. 152 110-118 (2015)
Dependency measures for assessing the covariation of spectrally active and inactive soil properties. by Sarathjith , M. C., B. S. Das, S. P. Wani, and K. L. Sahrawat Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. doi:10.2136/sssaj2014.04.0173 - (2014)
Delineation of hydrologically similar units in a watershed based on fuzzy classification of soil hydraulic properties. by Santra,P., B. S. Das, D. Chakravarty Hydrologic Processes 25 64-79 (2011)
Assessing the effect of puddling on preferential flow processes through under bund area of lowland rice field. by Patil, M. D. and B. S. Das Soil and Tillage Res. 134 61-71 (2013)
Towards Identifying Strategic Research and Development Priorities for Living with Arsenic in the Environment The University of Sheffield
AI for Agriculture and Food Sustainability Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Soil Testing and Spectral Analysis The University of Sydney
Assessment of Suspended Sediments Concentration and Phytoplankton Contents in the Chilika Lagoon using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology (BIG Data Initiatives Division), Govt. of India
Central Laboratory Facility for Eastern Region for Water Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology (BIG Data Initiatives Division), Govt. of India
Sourav Roy
Area of Research: Hyperspectral remote sensing
Joynath Mishra
Area of Research: Coal Identification and Hyperspecrtal Image Processing
Nafisa Begum
Area of Research: Hydrocarbon Micro-Seepage and Hyperspectral Study
Nukala Nagarjuna Reddy
Area of Research: Soil moisture prediction
Ojha Suchitra Rani
Area of Research: Hyperspectral remote sensing
Israr Majeed
Area of Research: Soil hydrology
Smita Rani Swain
Area of Research: Remote sensing for soil assessment
Sarimalla Naveena
Area of Research: Soil Assessment
