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Sea Level Rise (SLR) is considered as one of the effects of climate change that leads to Salt Water Intrusion (SWI) into the coastal areas around the world, thereby contaminating the groundwater and making it unusable for household and irrigation purposes along the coastal areas. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to analyze the change in sea level and shoreline and the consequent changes on the quality of groundwater in lowland and midland areas of Ernakulam district, Kerala. The tidal gauge data were sourced from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSML) to assess the changes in sea level during 1971-2007. Remote sensing data was utilized for estimating the shoreline changes along the coast of the district using Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). The physical and chemical properties of groundwater were sourced for 27 locations from Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Ionic ratios were computed to assess the salinity levels in the sampling locations. Sodium percentage (Na %) and potential salinity were computed for determining SWI and the suitability of the groundwater usage for domestic and irrigation purpose. Spatial variation of pH, EC, TDS and ionic ratios were assessed in the GIS environment through IDW interpolation. Findings indicate a rising trend in sea level at the rate of 1.8 mm/yr along the coast of the study area. Shoreline accretion and erosion was also observed at different locations along the coast during 2002-2012, though the rate of change varied across the shoreline. In general, water has shown slight alkaline nature, with pH varying from 7.2 to 8.2 at some locations, particularly along the coast. Higher values of EC and TDS were also observed along the coastal aquifer and may be ascribed to SWI. Sodium percentage (Na %) and potential salinity suggest presence of salt water. However, groundwater in majority of the areas especially away from the coast is good for domestic and irrigation uses. This study showed the groundwater quality deterioration, mainly due to the intrusion of sea water, particularly along the coastal areas of the Ernakulam district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kerala, the southernmost state in India, much researched for its high standard of living and a model of development, largely dependent on international remittances, experienced one of its worst floods in 2018. The state also experiences a peculiar type of labor crisis; where the local population migrates internationally, attracting interstate migrants to compensate for the labor deficit. However, in times of calamities like floods, these unorganized laborers are the worst hit and still the last priority. The media widely reported their mass exodus, unhygienic living conditions, and mistreatment in relief camps during the floods, though the policy responses have been unsatisfactory to date. The paper tries to evaluate the role of inter-state migrants in the socio-economic profile of Kerala and comments on the necessity to include them as a priority in the migration policy discussions, particularly in light of the state’s extreme proneness to natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents detailed studies on the radiation levels and the seasonal variation and vertical profiles of activity of natural radio nuclei in sand samples of Chavara beach, a high background radiation area of Kerala on the south west coast of India. The elevated levels of Th and Ra activity were observed in the region with highest activity of 18,515 Bq kg for Th. The study on vertical profiles of radionuclides showed a significant variation of activity along with the depth. The higher activity of radionuclides was observed in postmonsoon season. The effective dose rate was evaluated and statistical analysis of the results was performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has the potential ability to alter the occurrence and severity of extreme events. Though predicting changes of such extreme events is difficult, understanding them is important to determine the impacts of climate change in various sectors. This paper presents the change in rainfall extremes in the monsoon season in south-west Indian peninsula. Daily rainfall data were analysed for the entire Kerala state in India to determine if the extreme rainfall had changed over the 50-year period. Several indices were derived from the data to identify the extreme rainfalls. The trends of all the extreme indices were assessed by parametric ordinary least square regression technique, which were tested for significance at 95% level. Results showed significant decrease in monsoon rainfall extremes in Kerala that would affect the tendency of change in seasonal total rainfall. This study provides a comprehensive knowledge on extreme monsoon precipitation in Kerala, which could also be employed to study changing climate at local scale in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal aspect of solar energy is widely used in the desalination plants. Experimental investigation and mathematical modeling of inverted V-type solar still integrated with drip system are presented in this paper. The experiment is performed in the Kerala climatic conditions (10.8439°N, 76.0328°E), March 2012 at M E S College of Engineering, Kuttippuram. A two segment still of 2 m² is constructed. Experimental investigations on productivity and internal heat transfer are analyzed. The results indicate that the mean standard deviations between theoretical and experimental values are less than 7% (temperature of rippled wick), 8% (temperature of glass in rippled system), 11% (temperature of flat wick), and 7% (temperature of glass in flat system), an average for the working hours of the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Recent news on the occurrence of off-seasonal natural disasters, such as pre-monsoon drought and post-monsoon flooding in India and particularly in the peninsular region, highlight the urgent need to look at the patterns of change in seasonal extremes at the local level. Kerala, the south-western state of the Indian peninsula, comprising of a total of six gridded areas, was chosen for this study focusing on the variability and changes in rainfall extremes in the different seasons. Since other studies by the authors have focused on the monsoon season, this paper considers the winter, spring and autumn seasons only. A set of indices derived from the daily rainfall time series is defined and used to examine the changes in extreme rainfall through assessing long-term trends by non-parametric Mann–Kendall technique. The trends are determined over the period of 1954–2003, which are also tested for significance. The results show that there are large intra-regional differences in the trends in different seasons. Local changes were found different from the large spatial scale averages in Kerala. Winter and autumn extreme rainfall were found having an increasing tendency with statistically significant changes in some regions indicating more occurrences of winter and autumn floods. On the other hand the spring seasonal extreme rainfall showed decreasing trends, which together with increasing frequency of the dry days is mainly affecting the total seasonal precipitation, which mainly point towards the vulnerability of Kerala to increasing probability of water scarcity in the pre-monsoon time and a delaying monsoon onset. Overall, the results of this study are good indicators of local climate changes over the five decades that will assist in seasonal forecasting and risk management. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Study on variability in area, production, and productivity of coffee in India during last decade indicates that area and production of coffee is increasing whereas yield of coffee is decreasing trend during the period 1990-1991 to 2015-2016. There was increasing trend of Robusta coffee and decreasing trend of Arabica coffee yields in India with three distinct periods due to climate change. Micro-level study was conducted on variability in yield of Arabica and Robusta coffee vis-à-vis climate change, variability of parameters like rainfall (RF), maximum temperature (Tmax), minimum temperature (Tmin), and mean relative humidity (RH) was undertaken with data recorded at Regional Coffee Research Station, Chundale, Wayanad, Kerala State. The yield data for 35 years (1980 to 2014) revealed that the yield of Robusta coffee was higher than that of Arabica coffee in most of the years due to favorable climate requirements in Kerala. There was increasing trend of yield of Robusta coffee in Kerala and decreasing trend of Arabica coffee. Blossom showers had significance influence in increasing the yield of coffee rather than total annual rainfall in Robusta coffee. El Niño events have little effect on coffee production in India in general, and out of 11 El Niño years, only 3 years coffee productivity was adversely affected. However, with respect to Kerala, Arabica yield was adversely affected in strong El Niño years, which was again confirmed with NDVI anomaly too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]