5.-Study of effect of change of climate on rainfall over an urbanised coastal city

Abstract

Visakhapatnam located on the east coast of India has grown into a city in the last 35 years thanks to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. It is felt that the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation would have caused some change in the climate of the city and its environs. Towards this objective, a climatological study of the important climate indicators namely maximum and minimum temperature was undertaken. The results pointed towards warming of the environment around Visakhapatnam in the thirty nine years period (1961 - 1999). The effect of these changes on the rainfall regime was studied by considering the time series of rainfall and rainy days for the period 1901 to 1999. The results indicated that (i)Rainfall during the last thirty four years has increased in the months June, July and August while it has decreased during September and October (ii) There is some change in the mean number of rainy days in the months of August and October.