4-Assessing risks of climate variability on water availability of the Upper Bhopal Lake ( M.P) India

Abstract

Climate change is the long term shift in the climate of a specific location and it can be measured by the changes in features associated with average weather, such as temperature, wind patterns, runoff and precipitation. The climate change has lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle and has a major impact on regional water resources. In many parts of the world, variability in climate conditions, next to many socio-economic and environmental developments, is already having major impacts and that such variability is increasing. Climate change occurs when the climate of a specific area is altered between two different periods of time. Lakes are badly hit by climate change by the increased incidences of weather related disaster. Both present variability and long-term climate change impacts on lakes would be most severe it the developing world. The Upper Lake, also known as Bada Talaab ("Big Lake") is a large artificial lake which lies on the western side of the capital city of Madhya Pradesh Bhopal. It is an only source of potable water to the residents of the city, supplying nearly 30 million gallons per day. The average annual rainfall in the catchment area of the lake is about 1050 mm with about 45 rainy days starting from mid of June. The lake receives runoff only from the monsoon rainfall. The rainfall has not been able to generate sufficient runoff to the lake to meet the demand from the lake over couple of decades. But during recent years, extreme rainfall events over catchment of the Upper Bhopal Lake lead to catastrophic flood in the catchment area. Therefore, due to changed climatic conditions, water balance analysis of the lake has been conducted to account for the hydro-meteorological variables due to climate change.