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The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is considering a ₹79-crore proposal to study the impact of climate change on Kerala.
The project has been proposed by the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR) under the Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR).
“The project involves experts from various scientific institutions across the country. It consists of 25 work packages and covers all the aspects of climate change adaptations for Kerala,” J. Sundaresan Pillai, Head of Climate Change Informatics, CSIR-NISCAIR and Principal Investigator of the project, told The Hindu in a telephonic interview from New Delhi.
The ambitious project, spread over a period of three years, will assess the impact of climate change on agriculture (including plantation crops and spices); fisheries (marine and inland); industries; health; transport — vehicular and inland water transports; tourism; biodiversity; forestry; and landslips.
It assumes significance in the wake of devastating floods that ravaged many parts of the State as the research initiative will specifically assess the dynamics of riverine discharge and saline water incursion under the climate change scenario.
The experts will study the spatial and temporal changes in water resources (surface and groundwater — quantity and quality).
Dr. Sundaresan Pillai said that CSIR-NISCAIR was the nodal institute to develop climate change adaptation programmes for islands and coastal ecosystems as part of the 12th Five Year Plan programme approved by the CSIR.
“The Kerala project will analyse the trends in climatic elements, their spatial pattern and its relationship with extreme events such as El Nino, cyclones etc.
“It is part of the vulnerability assessment and development of adaptation strategies for climate change impact with special reference to coasts and island ecosystems of India project launched by CSIR-NISCAIR in 2015,” he said.
Researchers associated with the project will assess the monsoonal variations and its impact, besides looking at the climate change scenario on the islets of Kerala.
Dr. Sundaresan said that the objective of the project was to develop a framework and decision support tool to assess the climate change impact on livelihood and developmental processes.
“We have plans to evolve region-wise/localised specific adaptive measures for the State.
The study will look into suitable sectoral mitigation options under changing climate scenarios and assess the carbon sequestration potential of Kerala,” he said.
The project proposal stated that researchers will study the atmospheric chemistry related to climate change and monsoonal variations from Kerala’s perspective and develop large-scale forecasting and modelling of the various parameters using high-power computer simulation tools.
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