Hydrometeorological feedback and changes in water storage

Background to the project

The confluence of the Alaknanda and the Bhagirathi rivers, and the start of the Ganges, at Devprayag, Uttarakhand

Land use is fundamentally changing water resources. Water extraction is drawing down water tables and lowering river levels; land use change affects the partitioning of water fluxes; changes in surface runoff and aquifer recharge will affect surface water and groundwater resources; while changes in evapotranspiration may feed back to precipitation regimes. Given the interactions between different hydrometeorological processes, a systems approach is needed. This project is the first to combine both climate impacts on the hydrological regime and hydrological feedbacks on the climate.

This is accomplished by using a state-of-the-art suite of data assimilation, new process understanding, and integrated modelling of the atmosphere surface groundwater system. The set-up will be used to evaluate anthropogenic and natural changes in major water fluxes and resources for the Gangetic Plain. The northern Indian plains have experienced land use changes and water exploitation at an unprecedented scale, posing extraordinary scientific challenges to understand, quantify and predict availability of water resources.

Objectives

Growing vegetables, mostly cucumbers and melons, on sand bars in the Ganges

We are focussing on the following questions:

1. To what extent do the large-scale, human-induced land use changes and groundwater depletion that have taken place in India feed back to the hydrological and climate system at a basin scale?
2. How should climate model outputs be disaggregated to provide the boundary conditions needed for hydrological and water resource systems modelling, and do the results of such modelling provide suitable reductions in the uncertainty of projections?
3. Can large-scale modelling studies inform localised, ecosystem-based management decisions to improve water availability and security? The Ganga River is not only crucial for the socio-economic development of the country; it also provides a unique case of large-scale river systems dominated by groundwater resources. The project specifically addresses the scope of the call, especially the themes on interactions between the surface and subsurface, water cycle drivers and mechanisms, and the water cycle-anthropogenic interface.

Key project members

Principal Investigator: Wouter Buytaert, Imperial College London

Neil McIntyre, Imperial College London

Andrew Turner, University of Reading

Andrew McKenzie, British Geological Survey

Christopher Jackson, British Geological Survey

John Bloomfield, British Geological Survey

Pradeep Mujumdar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Muddu Sekhar, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Rajiv Sinha, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

CSP Ojha, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee

Bhanu Neupane, UNESCO

• ATREE
• BGS
• CEH
• Cranfield University
• Durham University
• FERAL
• Heriot-Watt University
• Imperial College London
• India Met Dept
• ICCSIR
• IISc
• IIT Delhi
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Kharagpur
• IIT Roorkee
• IITM
• Lancaster University
• Hadley Centre
• NCBS, India
• NCMRWF
• NIT Hamirpur
• NIT Kurukshetra
• Newcastle University
• UNESCO
• UCL
• University of Dundee
• UEA
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Exeter
• University of Leicester
• University of Oxford
• University of Reading
• University of Southampton