&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Historical observations suggest that severe drought frequency has been increasing in the recent decades over India. In the future climate, significant variability and change in monsoon rainfall and temperature would further affect the future drought conditions. Here, we analysed data from five Global Climate Models (GCMs) that participated in the coupled model intercomparison project-5 (CMIP5) to estimate the changes in drought conditions under the warming climate in India. Our analysis show more frequent droughts in the warming climate in near (2011-2040), mid (2041-2070) and end (2071-2100) period using standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) whereas the drought projections based on just precipitation (Standardized Precipitation Index: SPI) show a decrease in the drought frequency in the 21st century. The change in drought frequency is projected to increase by more than two-three severe droughts per decade over the majority of India using SPEI in the end period. The increased warming resulted in an increased atmospheric water demand (potential evapotranspiration: PET) in the region, which is reflected in the increased drought frequency. The change in area under severe drought is projected to increase by 150% at the end of the 21st century using SPEI against the reference period 1971-2000. Overall, we conclude that the drought frequency of severe drought is projected to increase in warmer and wetter future climate in India and the increased frequency of droughts can largely attributed to increased PET due to anthropogenic warming. This chapter highlights that despite the projected increase in the monsoon season precipitation, the risk of frequent droughts in India is higher under the warming climate, which will have implications to water management in the future.

Department of Civil & Infrastructure Engineering

World University root node

Impact of Climate Change on Drought Frequency over India

Hydropower is a valuable renewable energy resource in India, which can help in climate change mitigation and meet the increasing energy demands. However, the crucial role of climate change on hydropower production in India remains unexplored. Here using the observations and model simulations, we show that seven large hydropower projects experienced a significant (p-value < 0.05) warming and a decline in precipitation and streamflow during the observed period of 1951–2007. However, all the hydropower projects are projected to experience a warmer and wetter climate in the future. Multimodel ensemble mean annual average temperature (precipitation) is projected to rise up to 6.3 ± 1.6 °C (18 ± 14.6%) in the catchments upstream of the other reservoirs by the end of the 21st century under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5. Due to the projected increase in precipitation, mean annual streamflow (up to +45%) and hydropower (up to +25%) production are projected to rise under the future climate. However, significant warming (6.25 ± 1.62 °C) is projected to result in a decline in streamflow and hydropower production in May- June for snow-dominated Nathpa Jhakri and Bhakra Nangal hydropower projects. Our results provide insights into the development and planning of hydropower projects in India under the current projected future climate.

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Scientific Reports

Projected Increase in Hydropower Production in India under Climate Change

Drought in South Asia affect food and water security and pose challenges for millions of people. For policy-making, planning and management of water resources at sub-basin or administrative levels, high-resolution datasets of precipitation and air temperature are required in near-real time. We develop a high-resolution (0.05°) bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data that can be used to monitor near real-time drought conditions over South Asia. Moreover, the dataset can be used to monitor climatic extremes (heat and cold waves, dry and wet anomalies) in South Asia. A distribution mapping method was applied to correct bias in precipitation and air temperature, which performed well compared to the other bias correction method based on linear scaling. Bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data were used to estimate Standardized precipitation index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) to assess the historical and current drought conditions in South Asia. We evaluated drought severity and extent against the satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) anomalies and satellite-driven Drought Severity Index (DSI) at 0.05°. The bias-corrected high-resolution data can effectively capture observed drought conditions as shown by the satellite-based drought estimates. High resolution near real-time dataset can provide valuable information for decision-making at district and sub-basin levels.

Scientific Data

Data Descriptor: High-resolution near real-time drought monitoring in South Asia

The 2015 drought in the Indo-Gangetic Plain posed new challenges related to food and water security and affected the lives of millions. All-India monsoon rainfall in 2015 was the tenth driest year on record (1906–2015) with a deficit of 14.5% and the Indo-Gangetic Plain witnessed a rainfall deficit of 25.8% (third rank event). Drought severity was amplified by deficits from the previous years in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and other parts of India. The Indo-Gangetic Plain faced a 2 year cumulative deficit of 51% and the drought of 2014–2015 was unprecedented with a return period of 542 years. The GRACE data showed the occurrence of consecutive negative terrestrial water storage and groundwater anomalies in 2014 and 2015, mainly centered over the Indo-Gangetic Plain region. Notwithstanding uncertainty in future projections, the multiyear droughts in the same regions can pose challenges for water resources and agriculture.