Climate Change Analysis in India : Exploring a Regional Picture

Climate change is a major threat to the human society because of its adverse impacts on the ecosystems, water resources, agriculture, forests, economy, etc. India has a large growing population, which is tied to its natural resource base, hence it is more vulnerable to climate change. The increasing or decreasing rainfall trends and temperature profiles prevailing over different areas in the country get masked when averaging is done over the nation which implies that a regional and local analysis of the country holds great importance for the scientific community and the policy makers for efficient water resource management and for addressing climate change issues. This book, therefore, attempts to bring out patterns of trend over all the subdivisions of India through analysis of long (1901-2002) annual rainfall and temperature records. With this bottom-up approach, policy-makers and researchers can easily assess the distribution and magnitude of impacts of climate change at a local level and develop appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies for that area.