Climate change impact assessment on hydrology of Indian river basins

As part of the National Communication (NATCOM) project undertaken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, the present study has been taken up to quantify the impact of the climate change on the water resources of Indian river systems. The study uses the HadRM2 daily weather data to determine the spatio-temporal water availability in the river systems. A distributed hydrological model namely SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) has been used. Simulation over 12 river basins of the country has been made using 40 years (20 years belonging to control or present and 20 years for GHG (Green House Gas) or future climate scenario) of simulated weather data. The initial analysis has revealed that under the GHG scenario, severity of droughts and intensity of floods in various parts of the country may get deteriorated. Moreover, a general reduction in the quantity of the available runoff has been predicted under the GHG scenario. This paper presents the detailed analyses of two river basins predicted to be worst affected (one with respect to floods and the other with respect to droughts).