Climate change and water resources in India: Impact assessment and adaptation strategies

Abstract

Climate change and climate variability has received considerable attention from the scientific community and has been the focus of a multitude of scientific investigation over past two decades (e.g., Gleick, 1986; Lettenmaierand Gan, 1990; Arnell, 1992; Xu, 1999; Nijssen etal., 2001; Rosenzweig et al., 2004; Brumbelow and Georgakakos, 2007; Akhtar et al., 2008). The Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have clearly shown that the earth's climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the pre-industrial era. Thus, the earth's climate system is experiencing a warmer phase. Changes in temperature and precipitation under climate variation have serious impacts on hydrologie processes and water resources availability. Improved understanding of climatic causes of hydrological variability is of paramount importance for developing strategies for the sustainable development and management of vital water resources. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.