11 research outputs found
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE IN THE CHALIYAR RIVER BASIN IN KERALA, INDIA
Assessing climate change impacts on river hydrology – A case study in the Western Ghats of India
The objective of this study is to evaluate the hydrological impacts of climate change on rainfall,
temperature and streamflow in a west flowing river originating in the Western Ghats of India. The longterm
trend analysis for 110 yr of meteorological variables (rainfall and temperature) was carried out using
the modified Mann–Kendall trend test and the magnitude of the trend was quantified using the Sen’s slope
estimator. The Regional Climate Model (RCM), COordinated Regional climate Downscaling EXperiment
(CORDEX) simulated daily weather data of baseline (1951–2005) and future RCP 4.5 scenarios (2006–
2060) were used to run the hydrological model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), in order to
evaluate the effect of climate change on rainfall, temperature and streamflow. Significant changes were
observed with regard to rainfall, which have shown decreasing trend at the rate of 2.63mm per year for
the historical and 8.85mm per year for RCP 4.5 future scenarios. The average temperature was found
to be increasing at 0.10 â—¦C per decade for both historical and future scenarios. The impact of climate
change on the annual streamflow yielded a decreasing trend at the rate of 1.2Mm3 per year and 2.56Mm3,
respectively for the past and future scenarios. The present work also investigates the capability of SWAT
to simulate the groundwater flow. The simulated results are compared with the recession limb of the
hydrograph and were found to be reasonably accurate