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This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature examining the three-way linkage between weather/climate variability, agricultural productivity and migration. Highlighting low elasticity of migration to agricultural productivity in India, the paper explores potential reasons behind low rural-urban/inter-state migration rates. The paper further provides evidence on short-term migration in India and discusses a potential manifestation of the same in the form of feminization of agriculture. The paper argues for enabling policies that enhance non-agricultural rural livelihood options as well as policies that facilitate greater participation of women in agricultural management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionospheric anomalies are often responsible for compromising the accuracy and performance of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) is the autonomous Space Based Augmentation System of India which serves to provide timely error detection and correction for the corrupted GNSS signals in aircrafts. This paper discusses a Maximum Minimum Eigen (MME) detector to identify the ionosphere induced errors in the GNSS signals. Data has been collected from 24 different GAGAN receivers spread over the length and breadth of India from January to December, 2015. The climatology of ionospheric anomaly over India, has been established using the MME detector. This paper discusses the spatio-temporal dependence of ionospheric anomalies over India. The observations indicate an increased ionospheric activity in the course of equinoxes and a comparitively quiet ionosphere in the course of solstices. A higher number of ionospheric disturbance incidents have been noticed closer to the anomaly crest. The results from the MME detector have been verified against the Rate of Total Electron Content (TEC) Index (ROTI) values and S4 observations for the year 2015 at the 24 GAGAN TEC stations. The disturbance climatology obtained from MME detector, ROTI and S4 exhibit a high correlation. However, the outcome of the MME detector clearly shows that it is capable of picking up even small irregularities in the ionospheric TEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious spaces are an integral part of Indian cities. Unique in their spatiality, they function as socio-cultural hubs drawing users from varied economic and social hierarchies. This study deals with physical and perceptional assessments of micrometeorological conditions in two religious squares namely Hanuman Mandir Square (HMS) and Gurudwara Bangla Sahib Square (GBS) located in New Delhi (28.6° N; 77.2° E), India. The study involved real-time physical measurement of environmental variables such as dry-bulb temperature (Ta, °C), globe temperature (Tg, °C), relative humidity (RH), and air velocity (Va). Variables such as physiological effective temperature (PET), universal thermal comfort index (UTCI), and mean radiant temperature (Tmrt, °C) were computed from measured variables. Concurrent thermal comfort surveys were carried out with 353 respondents in both the squares. The paper describes the thermal characteristics of the studied squares and presents the associated subjective thermal response and preferences of the users. PET was found to correlate well with the subjective responses. The neutral value of PET is found to be 24.7 °C. The neutral PET value of respondents visiting for non-worship purposes was found to be 2.7 °C lesser than those visiting for worship purposes. People visiting the squares for non-worship purpose however were found to be more tolerant of higher PET conditions as compared to others. Factors such as intent of visit, solar exposure, thermal history, and landscape elements were found to have a statistically significant influence on the thermal perception. The paper further summarizes the adaptive opportunities preferred by the users in order to improve thermal comfort in the studied squares. A weighted ranking of adaptive preferences reported by the respondents has also been presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dried blood spots (DBS) on filter paper have been used as a practical method of sample collection in sero-surveillance studies of numerous diseases. DBS may be particularly useful for HIV screening in remote areas, in which unrefrigerated transfer time to a laboratory may take a number of days. In this study, we evaluate the ability to detect human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type-1 antibodies from DBS that have been subjected to a tropical climate in southern India for 6 days. DBS were prepared from blood samples of 59 known HIV-positive individuals and 30 known HIV-negative individuals. ELISA and Western blot results from DBS that were subjected to a mean temperature of 35.8 degrees C and humidity of 73% for 6 days had a sensitivity of 100% and 92%, respectively, and a specificity of 100% and 100%, respectively. Based on these findings, we conclude that DBS sampling could serve as a cost-effective and convenient tool for widespread HIV sero-surveillance in remote areas within tropical countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While extensive scholarship has explored principles for pro-poor climate support, there is a need for knowledge of specific strategies that can achieve these objectives on the ground. This paper examines India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and its effects on climate risk reduction. Although the MGNREGA was not designed specifically as a climate programme, it incorporates three key elements with the potential to advance pro-poor climate assistance objectives: (a) social protection through the provision of minimum wage labour; (b) the development of small-scale, natural resource-focused infrastructure; and (c) a decentralized, 'community-based' planning architecture. Analysis of a primary dataset comprising 1400 households and 798 projects in India's state Himachal Pradesh, interpreted through intensive qualitative fieldwork, shows that both projects and labour have helped vulnerable households confront climate and other risks, while the Act's decentralized architecture has expanded the channels for citizens to claim support for local challenges. The paper argues for the importance of building a broader 'ecosystem' of support to target diverse local needs, and of the need to strengthen the political architectures through which vulnerable groups access these benefits on the ground – especially in the context of decentralized approaches for climate assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst Bollywood's romanticized landscapes and grandeur settings, depiction of the flora and fauna, roaring rivers and drought prone lands, is difficult to locate. But the new millennium has witnessed some new generation filmmakers, sensitized towards the ecological concerns, thus marking a shift from the illustration of idealised landscapes to the representation of nature's wrath. Since, cinema in India, has a deep-rooted impact on the masses, these creators employ films as tools to sensitize the population towards the climate change threat which though as perilous as the COVID-19 crisis, is often ignored by a significant amount of population. Dawning upon themselves the responsibility of environmental awakening, Nila Madhab Panda and Abhishek Kapoor highlight in their movies, Kadvi Hawa(2017) and Kedarnath(2018), respectively, the horrors of human callousness, leading to drastic change in Climatic condition in India. Panda's Kadavi Hawa, dealing with non-repayment of loans followed by suicides, portrays the heartwrenching imagery of environmental degradation and Climate change that has rendered the Village of Mahua, arid and infertile. Kapoor's Kedarnath on the other hand, appeals for action through horrifying imagery of the catastrophic floods that disrupted the holy town of Kedarnath, in 2013. Through a detailed analysis of the aforementioned visual portrayals, this article aims to emphasise as to how Films can play an important role in effectively addressing dealing with the issues related to Climate. Further, the rationale of this paper is to underscore the possibility of more such storylines, as a tool towards effective engagement and levitation of conscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind power constitutes one of the largest forms of renewable energy in India. Many operational models have predicted wind energy in India, but most rely on satellite reanalysis data. In contrast, this paper examines historical generation data at an unprecedented granularity to understand its potential and variance. We find actual wind capacity factor (CF) during the Indian Summer Monsoon to be less than half that predicted in NREL's recent landmark production cost modeling study. Further, we find that the yearly moving average of aggregated CF exhibits a +0.640 correlation with the ENSO SOI, a widely-used climatological parameter. At the feeder level, we confirm an expected exponential relationship between average CF and turbine hub height. However, this effect is 261% more pronounced during the monsoon, a finding with troublesome implications for grid planning. We also test the assumption that higher wind turbines perform proportionately better outside of the monsoon and find no evidence to support it. Finally, we present a new method to measure the geographic smoothing effect that reduces inherent variability by 18% when compared to normalized standard deviation. We find limits to the effect of decreasing variability through geographic diversity; the effect mostly disappears at about 125 km. • Historical wind energy capacity factor is half that predicted by recent models. • Wind energy in Karnataka exhibits strong correlation with El Nino cycles. • Higher hub height leads to higher capacity factor, disproportionately during the monsoon. • New method improves method of measuring geographic smoothing effect. • Geographic smoothing in Karnataka disappears at about 125 km. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Identified 30 agro-ecosystem specific sustainability indicators. • Sustainability indicators help in mapping the climate resilience of agriculture. • We propose a framework, "Climate Risk Management Package for Agriculture (CRiMPA)", to aid in planning interventions. The impending threats of changing climate have been well documented across sectors. The climate risks are best addressed through increasing adaptive capacity and building resilience. Ever since the global call during the Rio Summit in 1992 for establishing sustainability indicators across sectors, there have been several studies across the world on developing indicators for sustainability, vulnerability and climate resilience. Agriculture, the most vulnerable system to changing climate, depends on the resilience of both social and ecological systems. This paper focuses on integrating the variability of climate into the agricultural sustainability measurement with a broad base of indicators and bringing in the localized factors for representing the agroecosystem specificities. The paper also aims at identifying indicators for measuring climate resilient agriculture in Indian sub-continent and developing a conceptual framework for profiling the spatial resilience across various agro-ecosystems for appropriate location-specific policy interventions. In the current study 1209 indicators used in various research studies were screened, grouped for similarity and purpose and classified based on the various dimensions viz., social, economic, ecological, etc. After a critical review based on their appropriateness as a measurable indicator, extent of overlap, relevance in Indian context and possible data availability, 41 indicators were shortlisted for validation through a comprehensive structured online survey among subject matter specialists (n = 225). The responses from the experts (n = 36) were analysed using weighted sum model (WSM) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The study identifies a list of 30 sustainability indicators for climate resilient agriculture in India, that are particularly suitable for different agro-ecosystems of the sub-continent. The authors advocate an action-oriented model called Climate Risk Management Package for Agriculture (CRiMPA) to aid in planning spatial/agro-ecosystem specific interventions, which in turn could strengthen the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) of Government of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's position on climate change negotiations is likely to have far reaching implications for the success of global climate cooperation. Since the beginning of negotiations, the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) remained the centerpiece of India's stand. The stand started to evolve at the 15th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Copenhagen in 2009, when India accepted voluntary commitments to reduce emission intensity. Though India still swears by CBDR, status of the principle in the negotiations has become doubtful after the Durban Climate Conference in 2011 committed all parties to take emission targets. This paper traces major transition points in India's negotiating position over the years and provides a descriptive context of its climate-related concerns. It analyzes the interview responses of 15 top scientists, experts, and negotiators to build upon core areas of climate change issues in India, its future role, and position in negotiations. Interviewees, in general, were in favor of protecting the carbon space for the poor who had very low emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research on climatic parameters contributing to psychiatric disorder seasonality is limited, particularly in subtropical, arid climates like Rajasthan, necessitating investigation into seasonal variations in psychiatric disorder incidence in the region. This study investigates seasonal variations in psychiatric disorder prevalence over 2 years at a Rajasthan tertiary healthcare center, aiming to uncover links with climatic factors. Aims: To investigate seasonal variations in the utilization of outpatient psychiatry services and elucidate potential determinants contributing to these temporal variations. Settings and Design: This is a hospital-based study. A retrospective chart review of all new patients who utilized psychiatry outpatient services from July 2021 to July 2023 was conducted. Methods and Material: Data were gathered from psychiatric outpatient records of adults (July 2021 to July 2023), diagnosed using ICD-10. Seasons were categorized: winter (November-January), spring (February-April), summer (May-July), and rainy (August-October). Meteorological data, temperature, and day length were obtained. Statistical analyses, including Pearson correlation and Chi-square fitness, assessed seasonal associations with psychiatric disorders. Results: A total of 29,164 patient records were observed. Depression correlated with temperature and photoperiod. Mania peaked in August, linked to day length. Schizophrenia showed seasonal variation without environmental correlation. Anxiety peaked in March with no statistical significance. Obsessive compulsive disorder cases spiked in June, moderately correlated with temperature and photoperiod. Alcohol-related disorders peaked in December, while opioid dependence remained steady. Cannabis-induced psychosis peaked in summer, strongly correlated with temperature and day length. Headaches surged in August, positively correlated with temperature and day length. Conclusions: This study reveals complex relationships between seasonality, environmental factors, and psychiatric disorders, emphasizing their importance in mental health research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are numerous methods available for estimation of time since death (TSD) in early post-mortem interval. But, precise determination of TSD is always a big challenge. There are some methods which can be employed for precise determination of TSD, but those have been used in temperate climatic region, such as Henssge nomogram method and Moritz formula. This paper is a humble trial to test the reliability of Moritz formula in tropical climate of central India. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out on 173 randomly selected cadavers which were brought for autopsy in department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Gandhi medical college, Bhopal. After collecting routine data like age, gender, height, weight etc. following data were also collected -- ambient room temperature, rectal temperature, known TSD, determined TSD by Moritz formula. Data were analysed by using SPSS software. Conclusion: Moritz rule of thumb--method A and method B is a reliable method for determination of TSD in 24 hour time frame and in all time slots except that Moritz-A rule cannot be used in 0-6 hour time slot, both in <23 °C & >23 °C ambient temperatures in the present study circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economies have unified in their efforts to achieve the goals of sustainable development. This is in sheer contrast to the earlier approaches where governments pursued goals for the growth and development of their respective economies. The struggle for growth and excellence has created imbalance in the economic development among countries, depleted some of the natural resources and has thus altered the ecological balance. The impact of this is being experienced in the form of global warming and climate change. Since this threatens the very existence of human life on earth, a course of action that would ensure a safe environment for future generations has become the need of the hour. Sustainable development is a term coined to ensure that development takes place in such a way that natural resources are sustained and passed on to the future generations unimpaired. This paper makes an attempt to understand the challenges encountered by India in achieving Sustainable development goals and offers suggestions to overcome them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding potential impacts of climate change on trans-boundary water resources is of paramount significance for devising adaptation strategies. Climate change adaptation strategies devised after due deliberations, promise dividends in socio-political, economic and environmental domains. Indus Water Treaty (IWT) signed in 1960 is internationally considered a successful mechanism for regulating water resources between Pakistan and India. At that time, climate change due to its late realization was not incorporated in it. As the climate change phenomenon became known globally, the scarcity of water also started getting pronounced thus leading both the countries towards a conflicting situation. While the long conflict between India and Pakistan has attracted extensive interest amongst the scholars, approaches related to climate proofing IWT have largely remained ignored in the academic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hydrological Sciences Journal/Journal des Sciences Hydrologiques is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

India has good reasons to be concerned about climate change as it could adversely affect the achievement of vital national development goals related to socio-economic development, human welfare, health, energy availability and use, and infrastructure. The paper attempts to develop a framework for integrated impact assessment and adaptation responses, using a recently built railroad coastal infrastructure asset in India as an example. The framework links climate change variables — temperature, rainfall, sea level rise, extreme events, and other secondary variables — and sustainable development variables — technology, institutions, economic, and other policies. The study indicates that sustainable development variables generally reduce the adverse impacts on the system due to climate change alone, except when they are inadequately applied. The paper concludes that development is a vital variable for integrated impact assessment. Well crafted developmental policies could result in a less-GHG intensive future, enhanced adaptive capacities of communities and systems, and lower impacts due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the ability of women to adapt to climate change pressures will be enhanced by using the 'capabilities approach' to direct development efforts. By using this approach, women will improve their well-being, and act more readily as agents of change within their communities. This argument is supported by previous research on gender and livelihoods, and a study conducted in rural India. Examples are based on the experiences of poor, rural women in India, who are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Their survival is dependent on their being able to obtain many essential resources from their immediate environment. Yet these women lack many of the requirements for well-being, such as access to healthcare, literacy, and control over their own lives. Gaining these would reduce their vulnerability to their changing environmental circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of a study of long term trends in the characteristics of the within-season temporal profile of southwest monsoon rainfall over western India during the last five decades in relation to global warming induced regional climate change. In contrast to recent climate change analyses and projections, no significant long-term trends have been observed in this study. Slow decadal scale variations observed are analysed in relation to Pacific Decadal Oscillations (PDO). Daily variations in rainfall anomaly show opposite characteristics during negative and positive phases of PDO. The above-normal rainfall (>25%) is found during the starting phase of monsoon in negative PDO. Over the last decade, i.e., during 2000-2007, the seasonal rainfall amount, as well as seasonal span of southwest monsoon over western India is indicative of a gradual increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of the Indian Ocean (IO) and the atmosphere biases in generating and sustaining large-scale precipitation biases over Central India (CI) during the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) in the climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2) hindcasts that are produced by initializing the system each month from January 1982 to March 2011. The CFSv2 hindcasts are characterized by a systematic dry monsoon bias over CI that deteriorate with forecast lead-times and coexist with a wet bias in the tropical IO suggesting a large-scale interplay between coupled ocean-atmosphere and land biases. The biases evolving from spring-initialized forecasts are analyzed in detail to understand the evolution of summer biases. The northward migration of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) that typically crosses the equator in the IO sector during April in nature is delayed in the hindcasts when the forecast system is initialized in early spring. Our analyses show that the delay in the ITCZ coexists with wind and SST biases and the associated processes project onto the seasonal evolution of the coupled ocean-atmosphere features. This delay in conjunction with the SST and the wind biases during late spring and early summer contributes to excessive precipitation over the ocean and leading to a deficit in rainfall over CI throughout the summer. Attribution of bias to a specific component in a coupled forecast system is particularly challenging as seemingly independent biases from one component affect the other components or are affected by their feedbacks. In the spring-initialized forecasts, the buildup of deeper thermocline in association with warmer SSTs due to the enhanced Ekman pumping in the southwest IO inhibits the otherwise typical northward propagation of ITCZ in the month of April. Beyond this deficiency in the forecasts, two key ocean-atmosphere coupled mechanisms are identified; one in the Arabian Sea, where a positive windstress curl bias in conjunction with warmer SSTs lead to a weakening of Findlater jet and the other in the east equatorial IO where a remote forcing by the predominantly westerly bias in the western-central equatorial IO in the summer strengthen the seasonal downwelling Kelvin wave that in turn deepens the thermocline in the eastern IO. The equatorial Kelvin wave continues as a coastal Kelvin wave and disperses as Rossby waves off Sumatra and induces positive SST and precipitation biases in the eastern and southern Bay of Bengal. This study shows that the biases that first appear in winds lead to a cascade of coupled processes that exacerbate the subsequent biases by modulating the evolution of seasonal processes such as the annual Kelvin and Rossby waves and the cross-equatorial vertically integrated moisture transport. While this analysis does not offer any particular insights into improving the ISM forecasts, it is a foundational first step towards this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper looks at the crucial issue of dry-season groundwater-availability in the state of Maharashtra, India. We look at the two key hydro-climatological measurements which are used to implement groundwater policy in the state, viz., water levels in 5000+ observation wells across the state and aggregate rainfall data. We see that there is substantial variation in groundwater levels within and across the years in most wells. We argue that for a large number of these observation well locations, aggregate rainfall data is inadequate to model or to predict groundwater levels. For this, we use a novel random rainfall coefficient model for the purpose of modelling the effect of rainfall in a composite setting where extraction and changing land-use data is unknown. The observed high variance of this coefficient points to significant variations in groundwater levels, which may only be explained by unmeasured anthropogenic factors. Next, we see that the uncertainty in actual groundwater levels along with scarcity are two distinct features of groundwater availability and will elicit different behaviours from the typical user. Finally, we recommend that quantitative groundwater assessment protocols of the state should move to incorporating data from which extraction and land-use may be modelled. We believe this is one of the first studies where large spatio-temporal scale data gathered by state agencies have been analysed for scientific adequacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with analysing the thermal comfort performance of apartment units in a typical hot, dry climatic region, through real-time monitoring and dynamic simulation adopting Environmental Systems Performance – research (ESP-r) thermal simulation software. Real-time monitoring of thermal comfort parameters was carried out in representative units for a period of six months between January and June (winter to summer). The measured data were analysed and used to validate the simulated results obtained from the ESP-r model, which was subsequently used to establish the prevailing comfort characteristics and the thermal comfort response of the residential units. Thermal comfort predictions through Fanger’s expected Predicted Mean Vote (ePMV), Tropical Summer Index (TSI) and comfort temperature (Tcomf) exhibited a significant variation. During summer, ePMV and Tcomf estimated higher amount of heat discomfort (50% and 62%, respectively) compared to TSI index, which estimated 76% tolerable conditions when an air velocity of 1 m/s is available. During winter, TSI index indicated the prevalence of higher cold discomfort compared to the other indices. The results obtained have been used to develop predictive formulae for assessing thermal comfort for this building type, which can be used to arrive at quick thermal comfort estimates for any proposed design in a similar context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, growing water insecurity in the Himalayan region has attracted new scientific research and fresh attention on policy. In this paper, we synthesize field research evidence from a sample of five Himalayan cities—three in Nepal and two in the western Indian Himalayas—on various forms of water insecurity and cities' responses to such challenges. We gathered evidence from a field research conducted in these cities between 2014 and 2018. We show how different types of Himalayan towns (mainly hilltop, foot hill, river side, touristic, and regional trading hub) are struggling to secure water for their residents and tourists, as well as for the wider urban economy. We found that even though the region receives significant amounts of precipitation in the form of snow and rainfall, it is facing increasing levels of water insecurity. Four of the five towns we studied are struggling to develop well-performing local institutions to manage water supply. Worse still, none of the cities have a robust system of water planning and governance to tackle the water challenges emerging from rapid urbanization and climate change. In the absence of a coordinated water planning agency, a complex mix of government, community, and private systems of water supply has emerged in the Himalayan towns across both Nepal and India. There is clearly a need for strengthening local governance capacity as well as down-scaling climate science to inform water planning at the city level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper, precipitation outputs from retrospective seasonal forecasts made by nine General Circulation Models ( GCMs) are used to investigate historical Indian summer monsoon seasonal rainfall variability and predictability over India. The observed data is taken from the India Meteorological Department whereas GCMs are obtained from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, the National Center for Environmental Prediction, and the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology. The study focusses on June- September precipitation hindcasts initialized from the 1 May. First, the mean climatology, variance of interannual variability ( IAV), and long-term trends for the nine GCMs were evaluated. Then Empirical Orthogonal Function ( EOF) is used to extract major climate modes and spectral analyses method is used to investigate the temporal properties of the leading principal components. It is found that the models are able to reproduce the climatology and IAV to varying degrees. The EOF and spectral analyses of models hindcast reveal that these models are capable of predicting the observed precipitation variability to some extent. In order to study the remote response, the correlation co-efficient between model predicted rainfall and sea surface temperature ( SST) have been calculated. The results suggest that the models show exaggerated remote response to ENSO SST forcing and the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode index has less predictive skill compared to ENSO. The correlation values between the model predicted Monsoon Hadley Index ( MHI) and observed MHI reveals that only a few of them could exhibit large scale circulation features well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change scenarios generated by general circulation models (GCMs) have too coarse a spatial resolution to be useful in planning disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation strategies at regional to river/lake basin scales. This paper investigates the performances of existing state-of-the-art rule induction and tree algorithms, namely, single conjunctive rule learner, decision table, M5P model tree, decision stump, and REPTree. Downscaling models are developed to obtain projections of mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures ( Tmax and Tmin) as well as pan evaporation to lake-basin scale in an arid region in India using these algorithms. The predictor variables, such as air temperature, zonal wind, meridional wind, and geo-potential height, are extracted from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data set for the period 1948-2000 and from the simulations using third-generation Canadian coupled global climate models for emission scenarios for the period 2001-2100. A simple multiplicative shift was used for correcting predictand values. The performances of various models have been evaluated on several statistical performance parameters such as correlation coefficient, mean absolute error, and root mean square error. The M5P model tree algorithm was found to yield better performance among all other learning techniques explored in the present study. An increasing trend is observed for Tmax and Tmin for emission scenarios, whereas no trend has been observed for pan evaporation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with experimental validation of solar illuminance model for vertical plane surfaces against measured solar global illuminance at New Delhi. The paper also deals with computation of solar illuminance (daylight), both quantitatively and qualitatively, on four cardinal vertical surfaces at six Indian stations. The stations identified for the study are: New Delhi, Jodhpur, Pune, Kolkata, Shillong and Leh. Quantitative analysis of daily average solar illuminance shows that most of the stations under study receive maximum illuminance on north, east and west surfaces, during summer months of April-July, whereas the south surface receives maximum illuminance during winter months of November-February. Higher range of daily average solar illuminance on four vertical surfaces is evaluated as follows: 45-55 klx on south surface, 20-35 klx on west surface (all the stations except Pune), 20-30 klx on east (Pune) and 14-15 klx on north surface. Qualitative analysis shows that for the global illuminance in the range of 20-40 klx, for four vertical surfaces, the percentage of annual day time is: 3-8% for north surface, 25-30% for south surface, 20-30% for west surface and 20-25% for east surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the international level, India is emerging as a key actor in climate negotiations, while at the national and sub-national levels, the climate policy landscape is becoming more active and more ambitious. It is essential to unravel this complex landscape if we are to understand why policy looks the way it does, and the extent to which India might contribute to a future international framework for tackling climate change as well as how international parties might cooperate with and support India's domestic efforts. Drawing on both primary and secondary data, this paper analyzes the material and ideational drivers that are most strongly influencing policy choices at different levels, from international negotiations down to individual states. We argue that at each level of decision making in India, climate policy is embedded in wider policy concerns. In the international realm, it is being woven into broader foreign policy strategy, while domestically, it is being shaped to serve national and sub-national development interests. While our analysis highlights some common drivers at all levels, it also finds that their influences over policy are not uniform across the different arenas, and in some cases, they work in different ways at different levels of policy. We also indicate what this may mean for the likely acceptability within India of various climate policies being pushed at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sheltered natural carbonation can be similar between different climates. • Huge impact of curing on natural carbonation for very early age (i.e. 1 day) • Impact of curing is negligible for advanced curing age, regardless of cement type. • Strong impact of precipitation on natural carbonation. • The higher the number of rainy days, the lower the carbonation speed. This paper describes a unique international inter-laboratory study on the carbonation resistance of concrete prepared with different supplementary cementing materials. Concrete specimens – from 45 different concrete mixtures – prepared centrally in Lafarge Centre de Recherche (France) were shipped in a sealed condition to 4 other academia research laboratories (located in USA, Canada, India and China). The specimens were exposed to the ambient environments and atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the five locations, including Lafarge Centre de Recherche in France, in both sheltered and unsheltered condition for a period of 5 years. Measurements of carbonation depth were performed at periodic intervals, and the data was analyzed to assess the influence of climatic conditions on the resistance to carbonation. The results indicate that the general trend of carbonation is not much different irrespective of the macroclimate. Further, the number of rainy days seems to have a more significant influence on the progress of carbonation than the total rainfall in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of global warming and anthropogenic activities, warming or drying episodes with respect to water deficit has brought severe challenges across the globe. It becomes imperative to understand the drought characteristics as well as water resource availability in such regions. In this paper, we employ trend analysis to investigate the tendency of Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) and Climatic Water Balance (CWB) from 1979 to 2017 in the Jhelum river basin. We applied Thornthwaite parameterization which is based on latitude and monthly mean temperature for the computation of PET. The results showed that annual PET of Srinagar and Quazigund stations has increasing tendency while annual CWB has decreasing tendency for all the selected stations in the basin. The trend test applied to monthly PET and CWB indicate that monthly PET has increasing tendency in most of the months while monthly CWB has decreasing tendency in most of the months for all the selected stations in the basin. In addition to this, the drought events were characterized using Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI) based on 3, 6 and 12-month time scales. The SPEI was also applied to investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of drought during the study period in the basin. The spatial patterns of drought severity were derived based on the Average Recurrence Interval (ARI). The temporal analysis revealed that an average of 65 long term, 69 intermediate term and 74 short term drought events were observed across the basin. However the spatial characteristics indicated that drought becomes more severe with long return periods in the western part of the basin. This study also investigated the influence of large scale climatic variables on 3 month SPEI over the basin using cross wavelet analysis. The results show that the drought characteristics are significantly influenced by both the ENSO and ENSO-M events throughout the Jhelum basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, coral proxy studies have proved largely unsuccessful in reconstructing temporal variability of the Indian monsoon system in the NW Indian Ocean. In a recent publication in this journal, Storz and Gischler demonstrated that extension rates in corals can be used to fill this gap. Those authors found a link between decadal and interannual variations of the SW monsoon current velocities and Porites lutea extension rates in the lagoon of Rasdhoo Atoll (4°N/73°W) in the central Maldives for the period 1917-2007. This sister paper shows that this extension-rate record can be used to reconstruct decadal variations of summer monsoon rainfall over peninsular India and adjacent areas. The amount of monsoon rainfall and current velocities during summer are both affected by the strength of the Indian monsoon system. Assessments of coral extension rates and the mean May-September All India Monsoon Rainfall index, a measure of monsoon strength over the Indian subcontinent, revealed a significant spectral coherence within periods of 18-19 and 6-7 years. Almost 92% of variance is shared between both time series in the former band, and 85% in the latter. A correlation between the 5-year running mean extension rate and rainfall records from the Western Ghats (grid of 73-76°E/13-15°N) is significant especially for 1958-2006 ( r = −0.82, p < 0.05). These findings imply that coral growth characteristics can serve as a new marine archive to reconstruct past variations of the Indian monsoon system on interannual to decadal timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents rigorous experimental outdoor performance of a 2.32kWP stand-alone photovoltaic (SAPV) system in New Delhi (India) for four weather types in each month such as clear, hazy, partially cloudy/foggy and fully cloudy/foggy weather conditions respectively. The daily power generated from the existing SAPV system was experimentally found in the range of 4–6kWh/day depending on the prevailing sky conditions. The number of days and daily power generated corresponding to four weather types in each month were used to determine monthly and subsequently annual power generation from the existing SAPV system. There are three daily load profiles with and without earth to air heat exchanger suitable for three seasons like summer (3.75–6.15kWh/day), winter (2.79–5.19kWh/day) and rainy (3.75kWh/day). The hourly efficiency of the SAPV system components are determined and presented in this paper. The life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for the existing typical SAPV system is carried out to determine unit cost of electricity. The effect of annual degradation rate of PV system efficiency is also presented in this paper. The energy production factor (EPF) and the energy payback time (EPBT) of the SAPV system was also determined and presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's climate is changing gradually from one year to another. A significant increase in surface air temperature in different Indian regions was observed from 1998 onwards, which became all the more pronounced in 2009. Monthly mean maximum and minimum temperatures were higher than normal values over the whole of India, accompanied by a sharp increase in the duration and frequency of hot days and heatwave conditions. In the light of these observations the paper is aimed at investigating the spatial and temporal variation of air temperature at different altitudes and the interannual trend for different months over the Indian region for a period of 108 years from 1901 to 2008. It is observed that the variation in air temperature is not uniform at all places in India. The yearly mean air temperature for the period 1948-2008 exhibits an increasing trend at all atmospheric layers from the surface up to 10 km. The recently observed increase in surface air temperature and longer periods of heatwaves and hot days in India may be due to a higher occurrence of dust storms and forest fires and the influence of local factors, such as a sharp population growth accompanied by uncontrolled urbanization and rapid industrialization, resulting in high levels of pollution and imbalances in the regional climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an insight into the long-term trends of the four seasonal and annual precipitations in various climatological regions and sub-regions in India. The trends were useful to investigate whether Indian seasonal rainfall is changing in terms of magnitude or location-wise. Trends were assessed over the period of 1954-2003 using parametric ordinary least square fits and non-parametric Mann-Kendall technique. The trend significance was tested at the 95% confidence level. Apart from the trends for individual climatological regions in India and the average for the whole of India, trends were also specifically determined for the possible smaller geographical areas in order to understand how different the trends would be from the bigger spatial scales. The smaller geographical regions consist of the whole southwestern continental state of Kerala. It was shown that there are decreasing trends in the spring and monsoon rainfall and increasing trends in the autumn and winter rainfalls. These changes are not always homogeneous over various regions, even in the very short scales implying a careful regional analysis would be necessary for drawing conclusions regarding agro-ecological or other local projects requiring change in rainfall information. Furthermore, the differences between the trend magnitudes and directions from the two different methods are significantly small and fall well within the significance limit for all the cases investigated in Indian regions (except where noted). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of possible changes in extreme climate events, in terms of the frequency, intensity as well as duration assumes profound importance on the local, regional, and national scales, due to the associated critical socioeconomic consequences. Therefore, an attempt ismade in this paper to evaluate various aspects of future projections of precipitation extremes over India, as projected by a state-of-art regional climatemodeling system, known as PRECIS (Providing REgional Climates for Impacts Studies) towards the end of the 21st century (that is, 2071-2100) using standardized indices. Study reveals that PRECIS simulations under scenarios of increasing greenhouse gas concentration and sulphate aerosols indicate marked increase in precipitation towards the end of the 21st century and is expected to increase throughout the year. However the changes in daily precipitation and the precipitation extremes during summer monsoon (June through September) season are prominent than during the rest of year. PRECIS simulations under both A2 and B2 scenarios indicate increase in frequency of heavy precipitation events and also enhancement in their intensity towards the end of the 21st century. Both A2 and B2 scenarios show similar patterns of projected changes in the precipitation extremes towards the end of the 21st century. However, the magnitudes of changes in B2 scenario are on the lower side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tree-ring analysis of teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) carried out from two different sites in Western Ghats of India is reported in this paper. Teak has distinct, datable and climatic sensitive growth rings which are formed annually. Growth rings are not only cross-matching even within the radius of a tree but also between trees growing at both the sites. The tree-ring chronology of teak and climatic data revealed that there are several alternating periods of low and high to very high rainfall years. The common low rainfall years at two sites matched with the most of drought years of India. It has been found to have good potential to know rainfall pattern, mostly the drought years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of spatiotemporal variation of lightning activity over Peninsular India (8°–22°N, 72°–88°E) by using monthly satellite-based lightning flash grid (1° × 1°) data for a period of 10 yr (1998–2007). The data are examined in terms of spatial, annual, and seasonal distribution of the lightning activity. It is found that lightning activity is higher over south Peninsular India and eastern India. On a seasonal time scale, the lightning activity shows two maxima—first in the month of May and then in the month of September. The lightning activity in the monsoon period is noticed to be considerable because of the occurrence of the low-level jet and increase in the monsoon break period. During the postmonsoon, the activity is mainly due to the presence of the convective nature of the disturbed weather during the northeast monsoon season over most parts of the east coast of south Peninsular India. The relationship between lightning activity over Peninsular India and sea surface temperature in the bordering seas (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) is also examined. The results disclose a significant link between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we specify susceptibility to drought from a psychology-based bottom-up perspective. On the basis of the protection motivation theory (Rippetoe and Rogers in J Pers Soc Psychol 52(3):596–604, ), we developed the protection-capacity model (Krömker and Mosler in Global environmental change in Alpine regions: impact, recognition, adaptation, and mitigation. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 93–112, ) to analyse the susceptibility with respect to the protection capacity of agents. The protection capacity is determined by the agents’ subjective assessment of the situation, which consists of the appraisal of threat, on the one hand, and the coping appraisal, on the other hand. Additionally, the protection-capacity model specifies several factors which influence the two central appraisal processes. Empirical data were collected in interviews with experts and with a total of 65 exemplarily selected households which are typical for the respective case study regions (Andhra Pradesh, India; Algarve and Alentejo, Portugal; Volgograd and Saratov, Russia). The data were analysed with the help of fuzzy set methodology. Results show that the households of the Indian region are the most susceptible when compared to those of the Russian region with ‘low’ and to households of the Portuguese region with a ‘very low’ degree of susceptibility. Moreover, we identified subgroups within the regions which are characterized by different degrees of susceptibility and a different profile of factors influencing susceptibility. Altogether, the agent-based perspective allows identifying relevant factors that need to be addressed to minimize susceptibility of the population and special subgroups. However, the results are not representative for the case study regions because of the small database. Additionally, more effort is needed to validate the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency and intensity of extreme thermal stress conditions during summer are expected to increase due to climate change. This study examines sixteen models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) that have been bias-adjusted using the quantile delta mapping method. These models provide Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) for summer seasons between 1979 and 2010, which are regridded to a similar spatial grid as ERA5-HEAT (available at 0.25° × 0.25° spatial resolution) using bilinear interpolation. The evaluation compares the summertime climatology and trends of the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble (MME) mean UTCI with ERA5 data, focusing on a regional hotspot in northwest India (NWI). The Pattern Correlation Coefficient (between CMIP6 models and ERA5) values exceeding 0.9 were employed to derive the MME mean of UTCI, which was subsequently used to analyze the climatology and trends of UTCI in the CMIP6 models.The spatial climatological mean of CMIP6 MME UTCI demonstrates significant thermal stress over the NWI region, similar to ERA5. Both ERA5 and CMIP6 MME UTCI show a rising trend in thermal stress conditions over NWI. The temporal variation analysis reveals that NWI experiences higher thermal stress during the summer compared to the rest of India. The number of thermal stress days is also increasing in NWI and major Indian cities according to ERA5 and CMIP6 MME. Future climate projections under different scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5) indicate an increasing trend in thermal discomfort conditions throughout the twenty-first century. The projected rates of increase are approximately 0.09 °C per decade, 0.26 °C per decade, and 0.56 °C per decade, respectively. Assessing the near (2022–2059) and far (2060–2100) future, all three scenarios suggest a rise in intense heat stress days (UTCI > 38 °C) in NWI. Notably, the CMIP6 models predict that NWI could reach deadly levels of heat stress under the high-emission (SSP5-8.5) scenario. The findings underscore the urgency of addressing climate change and its potential impacts on human well-being and socio-economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought complexity may not be accurately characterized by univariate meteorological or hydrological drought indices under the intensification of hydrological cycle due to climate change and human activities. In particular, such drought indices require long series of hydro-meteorological data, which are unavailable over ungauged and data-scarce catchments. In this study, a multivariate drought index, Standardized Precipitation Actual Evapotranspiration Index-Agro (SPAEI-Agro), is proposed, which combines meteorological and hydrological variables as precipitation (P), actual evapotranspiration (AET), runoff and groundwater (GW) of ungauged catchments and sub-catchment scales with diverse climatology. SPAEI-Agro was able to characterize severe drought events more accurately in humid and dry sub-humid sub-catchments compared to Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Streamflow Drought Index (SSDI) for Tunga-Bhadra River, India. SPEI (based upon potential evapotranspiration) and SSDI (based on streamflow) showed intensified drought characteristics compared to the new P, AET and GW-based drought indicator SPAEI-Agro in semi-arid and dry sub-humid climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we identify changes in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) intensity during the late Holocene as revealed by palaeohydrological proxies in the fluvial archives of western India. Proxy indices, including the geomorphological, sedimentological, geochemical and biological evidence along with chronology have been employed to highlight the trend in ISM intensity over the late Holocene. It is inferred that on a longer timescale, the Indian Summer Monsoon weakened during the late Holocene however; short pulses of ameliorated monsoon occurred around 3, 1.6 and 0.3 cal ka BP. Clustering of flood events is seen to occur at 3–2.8, 2.2–1.6, 1.3–1.1 and 0.65–0.2 cal ka BP not necessarily coinciding with strengthening of the ISM. Palaeoflood data with regard to the ISM variability shows that the two most prevalent flood events at 0.5 and 1.7 cal ka BP coincide with the weak monsoon period/climatic transition in this region. The occurrence of high magnitude flood events during weak monsoon periods is also reflected in the modern flood and rainfall data. It is surmised that high magnitude flood events may represent peak monsoon periods however, cannot be singularly considered as indicators for enhanced monsoon conditions in a region. Only a more robust database of palaeohydrological proxies can further validate their implications on the monsoonal changes over western India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is divided into five major bioclimatic zones, out of which the composite zone covers more than 30% of the geographic area. The current bioclimatic classification and thermal comfort criteria delineated in the National Building Code do not adequately address the climatic diversity of the country. Moreover, existing climate analysis software tools fail to predict comfort potential for Indian conditions accurately. Henceforth, the main aim of this paper is to develop a bioclimatic analysis tool to investigate the comfort potential of different passive heating and cooling strategies for locations with a composite climate in India. Three sites, namely New Delhi, Bhopal, and Hyderabad, are taken up as case study cities. A modified comfort zone is proposed on the bioclimatic chart based on Tropical Summer Index (TSI). The comfort zone of the chart was extended to define the passive design zones based on the calculations of the effects of passive heating and cooling strategies. The effectiveness of three passive strategies, namely natural ventilation, direct evaporative cooling and passive solar heating is demonstrated through the tool. Results derived from the tool show that natural comfort potential can vary between 25 and 46% of the total time of a year depending on the location. Further predictions by the tool show natural ventilation to be an effective strategy for all three areas. The tool can also be used to provide passive design recommendations for different cities. The findings of the tool can have significant implications for the development of energy-efficient buildings by Architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What drives the development of climate policy? Brazil, China, and India have all changed their climate policies since 2000, and single-case analyses of climate policymaking have found that all three countries have had climate coalitions working to promote climate policies. To what extent have such advocacy coalitions been able to influence national policies for climate-change mitigation, and what can explain this? Employing a new approach that combines the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) with insights from comparative environmental politics and the literature on policy windows, this paper identifies why external parameters like political economy and institutional structures are crucial for explaining the climate advocacy coalitions’ ability to seize policy windows and influence policy development. We find that the coalitions adjust their policy strategies to the influence-opportunity structures in each political context—resulting in confrontation in Brazil, cooperation in China, and a complementary role in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short communication reports suspected technical errors in a widely–referred paper by Arvind Tiwari et al. [1], on the subject of performance of a photovoltaic thermal solar air collector. The suspected errors begin at the equations for calculating the temperature of the air and the temperature of the outlet air. These errors may have a significant effect on the collector efficiency. The corrected equations are suggested. • The paper comments on "Performance evaluation of photovoltaic thermal solar air collector for composite climate of India". • Suspected technical errors were found that will affect the obtained results. • The corrected analysis was given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrated the influence of downscaling using the regional climate model (RCM) driven by Era-Interim reanalysis (EIN) in simulating different aspects of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). It is also examined, whether increasing the horizontal resolution of RCM will inevitably be capable of adding more information to ISM characteristics and its spatio-temporal variability. In this regard, two RCM (at 50 km: Reg50 and 25 km: Reg25) simulations were conducted for six years from 2000 to 2005 for the South Asia Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domain. The added value (AV) is found to be strongly dependent on region and considered metrics. A slight improvement towards increasing spatial resolution is observed in the simulation of the mean ISM characteristics, while considerable improvements are noticed for the frequency distribution of extremes. The notable improvement in the daily climatology of precipitation is observed over the region of northeast India (~ 35%) and the Hilly region (~ 32%) and the lowest improvement over north-central India (~ 8%). The reduction of anomalously strong northeasterly flow over the southeastern Arabian Sea and strengthening of the moisture leaden southeasterly wind flow from the Bay of Bengal in Reg25 compared to Reg50 is consistent with the reduction of dry bias over India in Reg25. The robust improvements are noticed for the heavy precipitation events (probability density function: PDF tails) and mean precipitation due to extreme precipitation events, particularly over the areas characterized by complex topographical features (e.g., the Western Ghats, Indo-Gangetic plains, and northeast India and Hilly regions) as well as over the areas having substantial bias (e.g., central India), indicating its strong sensitivity towards model resolution. The increasing latent heat flux in Reg25 contributes to increasing the moisture and hence rainfall over India. Both simulations apparently simulate many of the ISM characteristics better than the EIN, thereby emphasizing the usefulness of finer resolutions in the better simulation of the Indian monsoon, especially for heavy rainfall. However, the RegCM bias is comparable to or even greater in some places than the EIN bias. This suggests that high-resolution models are important for improving performance; however, it does not necessarily mean that they can have AV for every aspect and all places. Apart from this, the substantial difference in the AV over different regions or aspects highlights the importance of carefully selecting AV matrices for the different areas and characteristics being investigated. RegCM exhibits some systematic biases in precipitation despite substantial improvement due to misrepresentation of dynamical and thermodynamical processes, including northward and eastward propagating convective bands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytical assessment of 5.05 kWp grid tied photovoltaic plant performance on the system level has been carried out in this study. The solar PV plant has been installed on the roof of the block-A of the Darshan Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajkot. India. The Darshan Institute of Engineering and Technology has been monitoring and recording all the parameters of 5.05 kWp grid tied solar PV power plant for 3 years. This paper helps in study of the performance and consistency of this system. The final yield, reference yield and performance ratio are observed to vary from 2.96 h/d to 5.43 h/d, 4.22 h/d to 7.29 h/d and 68%–83% respectively. The global in-plane solar radiation at the city of Rajkot is 2212 kWh/m 2 /annum. The average annual measured energy yield of the plant is found to be 1636 kWh/kWp. The total estimated system losses due to irradiance angle, temperature, module quality, array and cell mismatch, AC/DC wiring, MPPT, soiling and dirt, and inverter are found to be 26%. As a whole, the location, soiling pattern, design of PV and maintenance of solar PV system are the primary reasons of energy variability and system energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Training is essential for accomplishing complete human potential, growing an equitable and society, and promoting country wide improvement. imparting standard get entry to quality education is the important thing to economic boom, social justice and exceptional, scientific advancement, country wide integration and cultural protection; and for India’s endured ascent, progress, and management on the worldwide degree. India will have the best youth populace within the global over the next decade, and our potential to offer instructional possibilities to them will shape the destiny of our country. the arena is undergoing rapid adjustments within the expertise panorama. With the upward push of big information, system mastering, and artificial intelligence, many unskilled jobs international can be taken over by machines, while the want for skilled labour, in particular regarding mathematics, laptop technological know-how and facts technology, alongside multi-disciplinary capabilities throughout the sciences, social sciences and arts, might be in rapidly growing call for. With climate trade and fast depletion of natural assets, there may be a giant shift in how we meet the sector’s energy, water, and sanitation needs, once more ensuing in the want for brand spanking new skilled labour, particularly in biology, chemistry, physics, and climate science. There may be a growing call for humanities and artwork, as India movements in the direction of turning into evolved united states and many of the three largest economies in the global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind climate along the southwest coast of India (Kerala coast) has been analysed using 41 years of Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) winds to delineate long‐term trends and variability. The study reveals significant decreasing trends in annual mean wind speeds, of the order of −2.0 to −2.5 cm·s−1·year−1, for the period 1979–2019. Southwest monsoon has contributed the highest weakening trends (−3.0 to −4.0 cm·s−1·year−1) due to significant decrease in the southwesterly/westerly wind speeds. The wind climate and trends during the northeast monsoon and premonsoon seasons have been characterized largely by the prevalence of sea breeze and shamal–makran wind systems. We find that the intensity of both sea breeze and shamal–makran wind systems reduces from north to south along the Kerala coast, which is in consistent with the earlier studies. Decadal oscillations in wind speeds, driven by the decadal variability in large‐scale atmosphere–ocean circulations, are evident. Recent changes in the frequency of occurrence of Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indian Ocean have determined the overturning trends since 2010, and resulted in increasing trends in the current decade along the central and northern coasts of Kerala. Furthermore, interannual variability in wind speeds has been linked to the El Niño–Southern Oscillations (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensification of hydrologic cycle, and consequence rise of intense short-term precipitation, are considered as the manifestations of climate change. This may lead to an alteration in Intensity–Duration–Frequency (IDF) relationship that may change other hydrological processes as well. The IDF relationship also serves as a crucial information for the design of any water infrastructure. This study investigates the spatiotemporal changes in IDF relationship involving hourly precipitation events between past and future climate at various return periods across India that spans over a wide range of climatology. Contrast between historical (1979–2014), using two reanalysis data, and future periods (immediate future: 2015–2039, near-future: 2040–2059 and far-future: 2060–2100) is explored along with its spatial (re-) distribution. The future simulations of precipitation are derived from three climate models, participating in 6th phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), for three shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs), i.e., SSP126, SSP245 and SSP585. The results show that almost entire Indian mainland will experience an increase (~41–44%) in the hourly precipitation intensity under the worst climate change scenario (SSP585) with a return period as low as 2 years (almost a regular incidence). Furthermore, even under a moderate climate change scenario (SSP245), almost entire Indian mainland (~82–99% of spatial extent) will be affected from a significant increase (on an average 19%) in the hourly precipitation intensity. It is true for higher return periods as well. Findings of the study are alarming for many water infrastructures. This study develops new set of IDF curves across India considering a changing climate that will be useful to set a revised design criteria for water infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vernacular architecture of Kashmir represents a traditional knowledge base that has evolved in response to the climatic conditions, the traditional lifestyle of the residents, and various natural threats in the form of earthquake, flood etc., affecting the region. Yet, our advance into the ‘modern scientific age’ has witnessed an eroding of this rich heritage. The paper examines the salient features of Kashmir’s vernacular architecture, the challenges facing it and the steps that have been taken to protect it, including how to adapt it to contemporary life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mud huts with 450/500 mm thick mud walls, clay-tiled roofs and often having courtyards are a common form of vernacular architecture in areas around Ranchi in Jharkhand. They have been vernacular solutions to the then prevailing climate of Ranchi. The climate has changed to some extent over the last three decades. The paper discusses the design features of the existing mud huts of Jharkhand with reference to the climate. There is an attempt to identify the changes and to relate them to desirable adaptations in response. The focus is the temperature and humidity measurements, studied with respect to the general conditions of thermal comfort for naturally ventilated spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to understand the regional climate implications of aerosols over Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), a major Indo-US field experiment, Ganges Valley Aerosol Experiment (GVAX) was conducted during 2011-12. Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) mobile facility (AMF) was deployed at the northern Indo-Gangetic Plain over the high-altitude site, Manora Peak, Nainital (29°21'33.84"N, 79°27'29.27"E, 1980 m amsl) in Central Himalayas, for an year-round meas- urement of aerosols, clouds and other climate-relevant atmospheric parameters. One of the objectives of GVAX was examining the ability of models to simulate aerosols over Indian region and validate the simulations. In part-1 of this two-part paper, we examine use of the chemical transport model 'CHIMERE' to simulate aerosol fields over Indian region (4-37.5°N; 67-88.5°E) for multiple years (2006, 2007 and 2008) by simulating the spatial and temporal distribution of PM10, BC mass concentrations and OC/BC ratios. It is seen that the model successfully captures the broad features of the regional distribution of aerosols, including the most conspicuous IGP hotspot and its seasonality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]