WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A Purdue University scientist says he has determined urbanization and other man-made landscape changes increases monsoon rainfall amounts.
Associate Professor Dev Niyogi said his study's results suggest India's land-use decisions play an important role in climate change.
Niyogi said monsoon rainfall has decreased during the last 50 years in rural areas where irrigation has been used to increase agriculture production in northern India. But, at the same time, urban areas are seeing an increase in heavy rainfall.
"In the rural areas, we're seeing pre-monsoon greening occurring two weeks earlier than what it did 20 years back as the demand for agricultural intensification to feed India's people increases," Niyogi said. "The landscape has also moved in some places from what was once a traditionally rural setting to large urban sprawls. Both of these phenomena have affected monsoon rains."
Satellite data shows northern India is greening sooner than it had in the past. That greening, he said, is creating a barrier for monsoons, which provide much-needed rain to replenish groundwater reserves being used for irrigation. Urban areas, on the other hand, are being pounded with rain when it comes. Niyogi said there have been storms in some urban areas that drop as much as 37 inches of rainfall in a single day.
The research was published in the International Journal of Climatology.
