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Climate Change Impacts pp 165–179Cite as

Study of Climate Change in Uttarakhand Himalayas: Changing Patterns of Historical Rainfall

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Part of the book series: Water Science and Technology Library ((WSTL,volume 82))

Abstract

The subject area of climate change is vast, but the changing pattern of rainfall is a topic within this field that deserves urgent and systematic attention since it affects the availability of freshwater, food production and the occurrence of water related disasters triggered by extreme events. The detection of trends in rainfall is essential for the assessment of the impacts of climate variability and change on the water resources of a region. In June 2013, several days of extremely heavy rain caused devastating floods in the region, resulting in more than 5000 people missing and presumed dead. The present study aims to determine trends in the annual, seasonal, and monthly rainfall over Uttarakhand State. Long-term (1901–2013) gridded daily rainfall data at 0.25° grid have been used. Daily rainfall data at ten grid center locations (five each in Garhwal and Kumaon divisions) in the vicinity of Haridwar, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Joshimath, Almora, Bageshwar, Munsiyari, Pithoragarh, and Rudrapur have been processed and analyzed for a period of 113 years (1901–2013). Historical trends in daily rainfall have been examined using parametric (regression analysis) and non-parametric (Mann–Kendall (MK) statistics). On the basis of regression and MK test, rising and falling trend in rainfall and anomalies at various stations have been analyzed. The result shows that many of these variables demonstrate statistically significant changes occurred in last eleven decades. Statistically significant increasing trends of annual as well as monsoon rainfall have been observed at Haridwar, Rudraprayag, Joshimath, Almora, and Munsiyari whereas statistically significant decreasing trends of monthly rainfall (August, September, and October) have been observed at Uttarkashi and Tehri stations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, 247667, Uttarakhand, India

    Archana Sarkar

  2. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Vaibhav Garg

Authors
  1. Archana Sarkar
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  2. Vaibhav Garg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Archana Sarkar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Vijay P Singh

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, AISECT University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India

    Shalini Yadav

  3. AISECT University, Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India

    Ram Narayan Yadava

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Sarkar, A., Garg, V. (2018). Study of Climate Change in Uttarakhand Himalayas: Changing Patterns of Historical Rainfall. In: Singh, V., Yadav, S., Yadava, R. (eds) Climate Change Impacts. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 82. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5714-4_14

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