A country-wide drought atlas for India using an integrated, multivariate approach

originally published in Sept 24th, 2020 on GROW's website.

For a country like India whose economy is primarily dependent on agriculture and experiencing frequent drought episodes, is it enough to assess those drought conditions based on precipitation alone? That being the case, we used Multivariate Standardized Drought Index to analyze the historical drought conditions caused by simultaneous deficits in precipitation and soil moisture for 30 meteorological sub-divisions in India. Further, we present a country-wide multivariate drought atlas for India based on the severity-duration-frequency relationships.  
The 2015 drought event in India had affected multiple sectors including reservoir levels, crop yields, and well-being of people. This drought event was deficient in both precipitation and soil moisture. Therefore, we used the developed multivariate drought atlas to analyze the rarity, spatial extent, and the historical context of the impactful 2015 drought. The 2015 drought atlas reveals that many regions in India experienced a rare drought with return periods greater than 100 years.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What (Not) To Do as an Early Career Researcher and Academic in India

Image
  Speaker: Prof. Arpita Mondal Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and IDP in Climate Studies, IIT Bombay In this insightful seminar, Prof. Arpita Mondal shares candid reflections and practical guidance on the journey of becoming a professor at premier institutes like the IITs. From navigating the early-career academic landscape to understanding expectations in research and teaching, this talk is a must-watch for anyone aspiring to build a career in academia in India. Watch the full talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGvao2KS8Eg    
Read more

The Pleasure of Being an Academic: A Journey with Prof. B.S. Murty

Image
The Pleasure of Being an Academic:  A Journey with Prof. B.S. Murty                                                                                                                                                 - Amit Kantode In a world increasingly chasing immediate rewards and fast success, listening to Professor B.S. Murty talk about his academic journey feels like a refreshing walk through a forest of patience, passion, and purpose. Speaking at the inaugural event of GROW-N, a collaborative initiative to foster academic interaction, Prof. Murty's heartf...
Read more

GROW-N: A Small Attempt to Fill a Big Gap

Image
In this blog article, we will underline the need for a new networking platform for people working in areas related to remote sensing, ocean engineering, and water resources engineering, and highlight how GROW-N aims to address this need. Why We Need an Effective Networking Platform in India Science is inherently a social activity. People learn from each other, ensuring the passage of knowledge from one generation to the next. While reading books and research papers is considered as the primary mode of learning, the importance of personal interaction should not be ignored at all. It is often far easier to learn from someone through personal interaction than by reading journal articles written by the person. That is why we attend conferences, sometimes travelling thousands of miles. The importance of shared learning has been realized in recent years, prompting funding agencies to encourage multi-institutional research projects. In essence, everyone in a scientific community is part of t...
Read more