Professor TI Aldho from the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay has said that the negative effects of global change in climate will be worsened at the local level by widespread land use.
He was delivering a speech on ‘Hydroelectric impact of climate change and land use change on water resources of river basins in Kerala’ at a two-day national symposium organized by Center for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM). The seminar concluded on Friday.
He said that the land use change analysis has shown rapid growth in the urban area in the last few years. Other changes were an increase in plantations in all the river basins of Kerala and a reduction in agricultural land and forest. Expert in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Prof. Aldho said that due to land use change, the current was found to be flowing rapidly into the sea.
He called for the adoption of certain land use regulations to control the rapid expansion of the urban area and reduce the impact of floods to conserve and store water within the basin. The impact of predicted rainfall and temperature data by 2100 under emission scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 showed a decrease in monsoon flux and an increase in non-monsoon flows. This information can be used to adopt effective water management practices in an integrated manner, Prof. Aldho said.
PP Mujumdar, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc, Bangalore; A Mahesha, Professor, Department of Water Resources and Ocean Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Surathkal, Karnataka; Balaji Narasimham, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras; S Abhilash, Associate Professor, CUSAT; Roxy Mathew Cole, Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and TK Drisia, Scientist, CWRDM, participated in the panel discussion and presented the papers.
The panelists highlighted the need for an integrated monitoring system using automatic rain gauges and weather systems, the output of which was required to be easily disseminated to the public based on a GIS-based mobile app. He also recommended that management plans be drawn up by 2040, as a far from developed climate could lead to a different situation in the future.
Earlier, Ahmed Deverkovil, Minister of Ports, Museums and Archeology inaugurated the event.