P h u l b a r l C o a l P r o j e c t

oIume 1
Mkl 8EF08I
ASIA
(Bangladesh) Pty Ltd
ENERGY CORPORATION
Environmental and
Social lmpact Assessment
Chater 18

Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of Asia Energys Phulbari Coal Project Chapter 18 of Volume 1

Final Report
April 2006
Glossary Page - 18-1

18 GLOSSARY

This glossary has been compiled to assist in the technical understanding of the ESIA. For this reason
some of the definitions given are not rigorous, but are developed to avoid misunderstanding in most
contexts. Terminology follows the British nomenclature, which may differ in some respects from other
countries.

A-HORIZON The uppermost zone in the soil profile, from which soluble salts and colloids have been
leached and in which organic matter has accumulated.
ACID Any chemical compound containing hydrogen capable of being replaced by positive ions.
Examples of acids or acidic substances are humic and hydrochloric acids.
ACIDIC pH value < 7.0. The lower the pH, higher acidity and more corrosive material.
ACID SOIL A soil with a pH reaction of less than 7.0, ie a greater number of hydrogen ions over hydroxyl
ions.
ALLUVIUM General term for deposits made by streams on river beds, flood plains, and alluvial fans.
ANION A negatively charged ion that migrates to an anode, as in electrolysis.
ANION EXCHANGE Ion exchange process in which anions in solution are exchanged for other anions.
ANISOTROPIC Having some physical property that varies with direction.
ANNUAL EXCEEDENCE
PROBABILITY(AEP)
The chance of a flood of a given or larger size occurring in any one year, usually expressed
as a percentage. For example, if a peak flood of discharge 500 m
3
/s has an AEP of 5%, it
means that there is a 5% chance (that is one-in-20 chance) of a peak flood discharge of
500m
3
/s or larger occurring in any one year.
AQUIFER An aquifer is a body of saturated rock or sediment containing a system of interconnected
voids sufficient to yield significant quantities of water to tubewells, dug wells or springs.
AQUICLUDE A rock that will absorb water slowly but not transmit it fast enough to supply a tubewell.
AQUITARD A saturated, but poorly permeable rock of sediment that does not yield water freely. An
aquitard may transmit water to and from an aquifer when the latter is pumped.
ARENACEOUS Composed primarily of granular material, e.g, sandstone, gravel, conglomerate.
ARGILLACEOUS Composed predominantly of clays e.g, shale, claystone, limonite.
ARTESIAN Usually applied to groundwater whose static head is above the land surface and water flows
naturally at the surface. The USA artesian is synonymous with confined, so that an artesian
tubewell is one drawing water from a confined groundwater body.
ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE Recharge at a rate greater than natural, resulting from deliberate actions of man.
AUSTRALIAN HEIGHT
DATUM
A common national plane of level corresponding approximately to mean sea level.
AVERAGE RECURRENCE
INTERVAL
The long term average number of years between the occurrences of a flood as big as, or
larger than, the selected event.
B-HORIZON A soil horizon, usually located beneath the A-horizon that is characterised by a concentration
of silicate clays, iron and aluminium oxides and humus, alone or in combination.
BAOR A surface water body created when a meandering river cuts off a portion of its length to
follow a shorter route, or when a river changes course leaving behind a water filled
depression.
BASE FLOW That part of stream discharge that is not attributable to direct runoff from precipitation and is
generally derived from groundwater storage.
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Final Report
April 2006
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BEDROCK Rock, usually solid, that underlies soil or other unconsolidated material.
BEEL A large surface waterbody that accumulates surface runoff water through internal drainage
channels (both seasonal and perennial).
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN
DEMAND (BOD)
An empirical measurement to assess relative oxygen requirement of a microbial population
degrading organic material in a water sample. BOD test results provide an indication of
organic contamination.
BOVINE Cattle and buffalo.
BOX CUT Initial pit excavation that exposes the first coal.
CADASTRAL BASE Information in map or digital form showing the extent and usage of land.
CAPILLARY FRINGE The zone at the bottom of the vadose zone where groundwater is drawn upward by capillary
force.
CATCHMENT The land area through which a watercourse drains.
CATION An ion having a positive charge and, in electrolytes moving toward a negative electrode.
CATION EXCHANGE Ion exchange process in which cations in solution are exchanged for other cations.
CHALA Gently undulating land.
CLAY A detrital mineral particle of any composition having a diameter less than 0.004 mm.
COLLUVIAL Unconsolidated material at the bottom of a cliff or slope.
CONE OF DEPRESSION Measures the extent and amount of lowering of the potentiometric surface by groundwater
withdrawal. It varies in size and shape with the rate and duration of withdrawal and the
nature of the aquifer.
CONFINED GROUNDWATER Confined groundwater is held in an aquifer at a pressure greater than atmospheric by the
presence of an overlying confining bed.
CONFINING BED A confining bed is a body of less permeable material overlying or underlying an aquifer. This
term is now preferred to the terms AQUICLUDE, AQUIFUGE and AQUITARD.
CONTAMINATION The degradation of natural water and/or soil quality as a result of man's activities. The
degree of permissible contamination depends upon the intended end use, or uses, of the
water and/or soil.
COPPICING

Cutting a tree to leave a short stump that will promote regrowth from buds at the trees base.
This process encourages regeneration.
DECIMAL A land measuring unit which is standard in different parts of Bangladesh. One decimal in the
study area is equal to 0.01 acres (100 decimals is equivalent to one acre).
DEEP TUBEWELL A large capacity (50-60 L/s) irrigation hole. The largest water lifting device for pumping
groundwater for irrigation and domestic purposes.
DEPRESSURISATION Causing appreciable drop in pressure in an aquitard by groundwater removal.
DEWATERING Part removal of water from an aquifer system in excess of natural recharge so that the
potentiometric surface declines appreciably in the area of extraction.
DIGHI Local name for a larger pond.
DISCHARGE The rate of flow of water measured in terms of volume per unit time, for example, cubic
metres per second (m
3
/s). Discharge is different from the velocity of flow, which is a
measure of how fast the water is moving for example, metres per second (m/s).
DISSOLVED OXYGEN The amount of oxygen dissolved in water or sewage, expressed in parts per million (ppm) by
weight, or milligrams per litre (mg/L).
DRAINAGE A natural or artificial gravity method of groundwater removal from an aquifer system.
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April 2006
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DRAWDOWN The drawdown at a point in an aquifer is the lowering of potential, due to the withdrawal of
groundwater from an adjacent tubewell or dugwell.
ECOLOGY Study of the interrelationships between individual organisms and between organisms and
their environment.
ECOSYSTEM An assemblage of interacting plant and animal communities and nonliving environmental
components.
EFFLUENT The substance that flows away from a designated course.
EIDGAH An open venue for Eid prayers.
ELECTRICAL
CONDUCTIVITY
Measure of ease that a current can be caused to flow through a material under the influence
of an applied electric field. It is measured in microSiemens per cm.
ENDANGERED SPECIES Defined by World Conservation Union (IUCN) as a species having a very high risk of
extinction in the near future.
EQUIPOTENTIAL
CONTOURS
Lines of equal hydraulic head in an aquifer expressed as isometric contours on a map.
Groundwater flow is at right angles to equipotential contour lines.
EROSION Process whereby the materials of the earth's crust are moved from one place to another by
running water (including rainfall), waves and currents, glacier ice, or wind.
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION Loss of water from a land area via transpiration of plants and evaporation from the soil.
FALLING HEAD TEST A method to assess the permeability of an aquifer by measuring the decline rate of an
artificially induced water level in an observation piezometer.
FAULT A fracture or a zone of fractures along which there has been displacement of the sides
relative to one another parallel to the fracture.
5 KILOMETRE ZONE Area within a five kilometre radius from the centre of the Phulbari Coal Deposit.
FLOOD PRONE LAND Land susceptible to flooding by the probable maximum flood event. Flood prone land is
synonymous with flood liable land.
FLOOD RISK Potential danger to personal safety and potential damage to property resulting from flooding.
The degree of risk varies with circumstances across the full range of floods.
FLOODPLAIN RISK
MANAGEMENT PLAN
A management plan that is both written and diagrammatic, describing how particular flood
prone lands are to be used and managed to achieve defined objectives.
FLOODWAY Those areas of the floodplain where a significant discharge of water occurs during floods.
They are often aligned with naturally defined channels.
FLOWLINES Lines indicating the direction followed by groundwater towards points of discharge. Flow
lines are perpendicular to equipotential lines.
FRACTURE Breakage of a rock along a direction or directions not associated with cleavage or fissility.
FREEBOARD A factor of safety typically used in relation to the setting of flood levels and levee crest levels.
GEOTECHNICAL A term currently employed to cover the fields of soil mechanics, rock mechanics and
engineering geology.
GRABEN An elongated depression between geological faults.
GRAVEL Unconsolidated accumulation of rounded rock fragment of a diameter greater than 2 mm.
GROUNDWATER Groundwater is the water in the subsurface zone; it comprises both unsaturated (vadose)
zone groundwater and saturated (phreatic) zone groundwater.
GROUNDWATER
MODELLING
The use of mathematical functions to predict the flow of water below the grounds surface.
GROUNDWATER
RECHARGE
Addition of water to an aquifer, either directly from the surface, from the unsaturated zone, or
discharge from overlying or underlying aquifer systems.
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April 2006
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GROUNDWATER TABLE The water surface of an unconfined aquifer.
HAND TUBEWELL A tubewell consisting of a small diameter hole equipped with handpump.
HARDNESS A property of water causing formation of an insoluble residue when used with soap.
HEAD The elevation of the water table above a datum point.
HEAD LOSS That part of head energy which is lost because of friction as water flows.
HETEROGENEOUS Non-uniform in geological structure or composition.
HOLOCENE (part of
RECENT)
That period of geological time (an epoch) since the last ice age (120,000 years BP) also the
series of strata deposited during that epoch.
HOMESTEAD The household area of a rural residence with all its structures, courtyard and the land
occupied by the passage for entrance and exit. It is normally occupied by an extended
family.
HOMOGENEOUS Uniform in structure or composition.
HOUSEHOLD Person or persons, having relation or not, living together and taking food from the same
kitchen.
HYDRAULICS The study of water flow in waterways, in particular the evaluation of flow parameters.
HYDRAULIC
CHARACTERISTICS
Factors relating to the movement of water through aquifers and aquitards, such as
transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity (permeability) and the storage coefficient.
HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY A measure of the ease with which water, in given prevailing conditions, can flow in rock or
soil. It is measured as the flow/unit cross sectional area under unit hydraulic gradient.
HYDRAULIC GRADIENT The hydraulic gradient is the change in static head per unit of distance in a given direction.
The direction is understood to be that of the maximum rate of decrease in head.
HYDROGEOLOGIC Those factors that deal with groundwaters and related geologic aspects of surface waters.
HYDROGEOLOGY The science that deals with subsurface waters and related geological aspects.
HYDROGRAPH A graph that shows how the discharge or stage/flood level at any particular location changes
with time during a flood.
HYDROLOGY The term given to the study of the rainfall and runoff process; such as, the evaluation of peak
flows, flow volumes and the derivation of hydrographs for a range of floods.
INFILTRATION Infiltration is the movement of water through the ground surface into small voids in either the
saturated or unsaturated zone.
IN SITU In/at place of origin.
INTERFERENCE Condition occurring when the area of influence of a tubewell overlaps with a neighbouring
tubewell, when two tubewells are pumping from the same aquifer or are located near each
other.
INTERMITTENT
(EPHEMERAL)
A channel in which water sometimes flows or a lake sometimes containing water (that is,
water is not always present).
ISOTROPIC Descriptive term for a medium whose properties are the same in all directions.
J ALMAHAL Freshwater fishing grounds.
J OINTS A fracture in rock between the sides of which there is no observable relative movement.
KABIRAJ A practitioner in herbal medicine not registered or not having any formal medical education.
KANUNGO A senior land surveyor employed by the Land Records Office that supervises staff in the
measurement of land. Works directly under the Assistant Settlement Officers and senior
ASOs called charge officer.
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KHAS Government owned property.
KUTCHA Of non-permanent construction using construction materials such as bamboo, thatch, wood,
tin sheets, mud.
LAMINAR FLOW Groundwater flow in which the stream lines remain distinct and in which the flow direction at
every point remains unchanged with time.
LITHOLOGY The description of rocks on the basis of colour, mineral composition and grain size.
LOCAL OVERLAND
FLOODING
Inundation by local runoff rather than overbank discharge from a stream, river, estuary, lake
or dam.
MAJ OR FLOODING Appreciable urban areas are flooded and/or extensive rural areas are flooded.
MATHEMATICAL/COMPUTER
MODELS
Mathematical representation of the physical processes involved in runoff and stream flow,
run on computers due to the complexity of the mathematical relationships.
MBBS A registered medical practitioner having a Bachelor Degree in Medicine and Surgery.
MICA Monoclinic minerals, found in metamorphic & igneous rocks and weathered derivatives.
MINE FOOTPRINT Area where the mine, overburden dump and infrastructure will be established.
MINOR FLOODING Causes inconvenience such as closing minor roads and submergence of low level bridges.
MIOCENE An epoch of the early Tertiary period, after the Oligocene and before the Pliocene.
MONITORING Systematic testing of the environment to record changes over time.
MOUZA A revenue village/land management unit, with a jurisdiction list number and defined area. It
may be populated or unpopulated.
MUDSTONE Mudstone is a rock composed by clay and silt.
NORMAL FAULT A fault in which rocks move relative to each other. The angle of dip is usually 45
O
-90
O
.
O-HORIZON A very thin organic layer that is often combined with the A-horizon
OBSERVATION
PIEZOMETER
A hole drilled for observing groundwater levels, pressure changes and water sampling.
OLIGOCENE An epoch of the early Tertiary period, after the Eocene and before the Miocene.
OPEN CUT Open cut mining occurs from the surface downwards, progressively exposing the economic
deposit.
OVERBURDEN Material overlying a useful mineral deposit.
OVERBURDEN DUMP An area where overburden materials are permanently placed after they are excavated.
PACKER TESTING Injection testing to measure hydraulic conductivity of a rock mass.
PARA Groups of homes in a village.
PARDA Refers to the practice of female seclusion. In the strictest sense parda involves keeping
women confined within the home, and covering them in veils whenever they venture outside
of the home. In a wider context, it refers to women's modesty and restrictions in their
interactions with males.
PAURASHAVA Incorporated and administered by the government as urban areas under the Paurashava
Ordinance, 1977 (a municipality or municipal area).
PEAK DISCHARGE The maximum discharge occurring during a flood event.
PERMEABILITY Is a measure of the ease fluids can flow through the rock material. In physical terms it is
independent of the fluid properties but is used as a synonym of hydraulic conductivity.
PERMIAN Rocks belonging to the last period of the Paleozoic Era.
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pH Numerically, the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion activity, equal to 7 for neutral
solutions, increasing with alkalinity and decreasing with acidity.
PIEZOMETER See observation piezometer.
PIEZOMETRIC SURFACE See Potentiometric Surface.
PLEISTOCENE The earlier of the two geological epochs comprising the Quaternary Period. The series of
sediments deposited during this epoch.
PLIOCENE An epoch of the early Tertiary period, before the Oligocene and before the Eocene.
POROSITY The property of rock containing voids. For groundwater the porosity is significant. Aquitards
are distinguished from aquifers by their low porosity and fine pore size.
POTABLE Water of suitable quality for human consumption.
POTENTIOMETRIC
SURFACE
An imaginary groundwater surface defined by the potentials at all points on a given plane in
an aquifer. Potentiometric surface is a synonym of piezometric surface.
PRECAMBRIAN All rocks formed before the Cambrian geological period.
PRECIPITATION Rainfall, sleet, snow etc that reaches the earths surface.
PROBABILITY Statistical measure of expected chance of flooding (see Annual Exceedance Probability).
PROBABLE MAXIMUM
PRECIPITATION
The greatest depth of precipitation for a given size of storm at a particular location at a
particular time of the year, with no allowance made for long term climatic trends. It is the
primary input to the estimation of the probable maximum flood.
PRODUCTION TUBEWELL Small diameter hole from which groundwater is extracted. It usually relates to a cased and
screened, adequately developed, efficient tubewell used for groundwater removal.
PUCCA Refers to a permanent structure made of concrete.
PUMPING TEST A test conducted by groundwater extraction to assess aquifer or tubewell characteristics.
Also called a pump-out test.
RADIUS OF INFLUENCE The radial distance from the centre of a tubewell to the point where there is no lowering of
the water table or potentiometric surface (the edge of its cone of depression).
RECENT See Holocene.
RESIDUAL DRAWDOWN The difference between the original static water level and the depth to water at a given
instance during the recovery period.
RUNOFF The amount of rainfall that actually ends up as streamflow, also known as rainfall excess.
SAFE YIELD The quantitative estimate of water available for the intended use, expressed as the safe
yield or sustained yield of a groundwater basin. Safe yield is not a fixed figure but varies as
hydraulic, economic and technical factors change with time.
SALINITY The total content of dissolved solids in groundwater, expressed as milligrams of dissolved
solids per litre of solution (mg/L). The significance of salinity depends on the nature and
amount of the dissolved solids.
SANDSTONE A sedimentary rock composed of abundant rounded or angular fragments of sand set in a
fine grained matrix (silt or clay) and more or less firmly united by a cementing material.
SCREEN A filtering device used to keep sediment from entering a water tubewell.
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS Rocks resulting from the consolidation of loose sediment that has accumulated in layers.
SEDIMENTATION Settling out of solid material held in suspension as a result of transportation by wind or water.
SEEPAGE Subsurface movement of water, or emergence of subsurface flow at the ground surface.
SEMI-CONFINED AQUIFER An aquifer where the confining bed has sufficient permeability to allow vertical water
movement through the aquitard to the aquifer, contributing water to the aquifer system.
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SEMI-UNCONFINED
AQUIFER
An aquifer where vertical flow above the water table is so great that the vertical flow
component cannot be ignored, the underlying aquifer is called semi-unconfined.
SHALE A fine grained sedimentary rock, formed by the consolidation of clay, silt or mud. It is
characterised by a finely laminated structure.
SHALLOWTUBEWELL A medium capacity (10-15L/s) irrigation hole, equipped with centrifugal pump.
SILT A detrital particle finer than fine sand and coarser than clay.
SILTSTONE An indurated silt having the texture and composition of shale but lacking its fine lamination or
fissility.
SLOPE Degree of deviation of a surface from the horizontal; measured in a numerical ratio, percent
or degrees.
SOIL EROSION The removal of material from the surface of the land by weathering, running water, wind or
mass movement.
SOIL FERTILITY The quality of a soil that enables it to provide essential chemical elements in quantities and
proportions for the growth of specified plants.
SPECIFIC CAPACITY The rate of discharge of a tubewell per unit of drawdown, commonly expressed in gpm/ft or
m
3
/day/m. It varies with duration of discharge.
SPECIFIC YIELD The volume of water yielded by gravity drainage per unit volume of previously saturated
material.
STAGE HYDROGRAPH A graph that shows how the water level at a particular location changes with time during a
flood. It must be referenced to a particular datum.
STATIC WATER LEVEL The water level that can be measured in a tubewell screened in an unconfined aquifer which
is not being pumped.
STORAGE COEFFICIENT The volume of water an aquifer releases from or takes into storage per unit surface area of
the aquifer per unit change in head.
STORATIVITY See Storage Coefficient.
STRIP RATIO The volume of overburden removed per tonne of coal mined, expressed as a ratio.
STUDY AREA Incorporates the area within 10 kilometre radius of the centre of the Phulbari Coal Deposit;
10 Kilometre Zone.
SUBSIDENCE The ground surface subsides due to depressurisation of an aquitard and/or aquifer by
groundwater removal.
SUBSOIL Subsurface soil material lying immediately below the topsoil.
SURVEY PLAN A plan prepared by a registered surveyor.
10 KILOMETRE ZONE Ten kilometre radius from centre of Phulbari Coal Deposit.
TERTIARY The first period of the Cainozoic era (after the Cretaceous of the Mesozoic era and before
the Quaternary), covering the geological time between 65 million and 2 million years ago.
THREATENED SPECIES Refers to endangered and vulnerable species collectively.
TOPSOIL The uppermost layer of soil, generally more fertile and better structured than the underlying
layers.
TOPOGRAPHY A surface which defines the ground level of a chosen area.
TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS The quantity of dissolved material in a sample of water.
TRANSMISSIVITY The rate at which the water in an aquifer is transmitted through a unit width of aquifer under a
unit hydraulic gradient. It includes permeability & thickness of the aquifer.
TRANSPIRATION The process by which water absorbed by plants, usually through the roots, is evaporated into
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the atmosphere from the plant surface.
TUBEWELL Synonymous with bore or well, term used in Bangladesh for a hole to extract groundwater.

UNCONFINED
GROUNDWATER
The upper surface of unconfined groundwater is formed either by a body of surface water or
by a water table.
UNION The smallest electoral unit in rural areas and the lowest unit of local government. A union has
an elected Union Parashid (a council consisting of a chairperson and ward representatives)
and is made up of a number of smaller mouzas and villages.
UPAZILA A sub-district.
VADOSE ZONE The zone containing water under pressure less than atmospheric. This zone is limited above
by the land surface and below by the water table.
VILLAGE The smallest geographic unit in rural areas.
VULNERABLE SPECIES Defined by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as species having a high risk of extinction
in the near future.
WATER SURFACE PROFILE A graph showing the flood stage at any given location along a water course at a particular
time.
WATER TABLE The surface in an unconfined water body at which the pressure is atmospheric.
WEATHERING The in-situ physical disintegration and chemical decomposition of rock materials near the
earth's surface.
YIELD Yield of a tubewell can refer either to the capacity of the tubewell or to the amount of water
actually withdrawn.
ZILA An administrative unit that refers to districts.