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Relative impact of recent climate and land cover changes in the Godavari river basin, India

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Abstract

The Godavari river basin (GRB), the second largest river basin (312,800 \(\hbox {km}^{2}\)) in India, was considered in this study to quantify the relative hydrological impact of recent land cover (LC) changes and rainfall trends using the variable infiltration capacity hydrologic model. Three scenarios, namely, (i) LC change, (ii) climate change and (iii) LC and climate changes, were considered to isolate the hydrological implications of the LC changes from those of climate change. Results revealed that evapotranspiration is predominantly governed by LC change and that small changes in rainfall cause greater changes in the runoff. Although the spatial extent of LC change is higher, the climate change is the dominant driver of hydrological changes within the GRB. Thus, climate projections are the key inputs to study the impact on the river basin hydrology. The results provide insights into the impacts of the climate and LC changes on the basin. The methodology and results of the present study can be further considered for water resource planning within the river basin in view of the changing environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely acknowledge the Central Water Commission (CWC) for providing streamflow data at various locations in the Godavari river basin. The first author is thankful to Prof. Subimal Ghosh for his suggestions, help and valuable guidance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400 076, India

    Narendra Hengade & T I Eldho

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  1. Narendra Hengade
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  2. T I Eldho
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Correspondence to T I Eldho.

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Corresponding editor: Rajib Maity

Supplementary material pertaining to this article is available on the Journal of Earth System Science website (http://www.ias.ac.in/Journals/Journal_of_Earth_System_Science).

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Hengade, N., Eldho, T.I. Relative impact of recent climate and land cover changes in the Godavari river basin, India. J Earth Syst Sci 128, 94 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1135-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-019-1135-4

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