1. Dr. Jyoti Parikh Executive Director
GIS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Dr. Jyoti Parikh
Executive Director
B-44, Shivalik, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi

2. 6 Major Climate Risks Temperature and precipitation variability
Drought
Flooding and extreme rainfall
Cyclone and storm surge
Sea-level rise
Environmental health risks

3. Applications of GIS for Development1
Environment 
Inventory of species,
Measure environmental impact,
Trace pollutants
Environment management and planning
Topographical information 2
Agriculture 
Managing crop yields,
Monitoring crop rotation techniques,
Projecting soil loss for individual farms or entire agricultural regions. 3
Hydrology 
Assess groundwater,
Visualize watersheds,
Lakes and Wetlands

4. Applications of GIS for Development4 
Land use
Visualize and plan the land use needs of cities, regions, or even national governments
Helps in decision making for future growth development 5
Geology 
Analyze soils and strata,
Assess seismic information,
Create 3-dimensional displays of geographic features. 6
Forestry 
Managing and planning of forests
To assess conditions through historical analysis, stand inventory, soil types, changing weather patterns, and land-use practices
Forest fire mapping
Monitor and analyze the temporal and spatial change in forest ecosystem sue to natural and man-made disturbances.

5. Applications of GIS for Development7
Risk management 
To locate areas prone to natural or man-made disasters.
Generate a flood forecasting model to identify affected parcels to prioritize for remediation or damage assessment.
To prepare for future assessment of risks
Identification of critical prone areas to Landslides and other disasters 8
Water/wastewater industry 
Planning, engineering, operations, maintenance, finance, and administration functions
Assessing water quality
Assess relationships such as runoff and groundwater purity
To monitor water quality changes within a water body such as a river or bay

6. Extreme events: Risk assessment

7. Flood prone areas of India Wind and Cyclone prone areas of India
Source:
Wind and Cyclone prone areas of India
Source:

8. Urbanization
From 1975 to 2015 the number of people in urban areas is projected to more than double.
By 2030, nearly two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas
Population growth and in-migration of poor people, industrial growth, inefficient and inadequate traffic corridors, poor environmental infrastructure, etc. are the main factors that have deteriorated the overall quality of the city environment.
Urbanization negatively impacts the environment mainly by the fabrication of pollution, the alteration of the physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, and the covering of the soil surface and it represent the quality of climate over city.
(Sources: Food and Agriculture Organization statistical databases (FAOSTAT); Country income to world Bank 2007)
Ratio of Urban and Rural Population, 2007

9. Significant Urban floods in India in recent years
2005 ‐ Severe urban floods were reported from 10 cities and Mumbai was worst affected.
2006 ‐ Number of affected cities rose to 22. Surat was worst affected. Vishakhapattanam airport was inundated for more than 10 days.
2007 – Number of affected cities rose to 35. Kolkata was worst affected.
2008 ‐ Jamshedpur, Mumbai, Hyderabad were worst affected
Source: National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM)

10. Surat Floods: Flood level During 1998 floods 1998 Source:- Surat CDP
Flood Above 6 feet
Flood 4’-6’
Flood 2’-4’
Source:- Surat CDP
Flood 0’-2’

11. Surat Floods: Flood level During 2006 floods 2006 Source:- Surat CDP
More than 10’ Depth
5’-10’ Depth
Source:- Surat CDP
4’-6’ Depth

12. Urban heat island
Cause of the urban heat island:
Modification of the land surface by urban development which uses materials which effectively retain heat;
Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor.
The urban canopy layer (UCL) is the layer of air closest to the surface in cities, extending upwards to approximately the mean building height.
Above the urban canopy layer lies the urban boundary layer (UBL), which is 1km in thickness.
Source: Research paper by Swarnima Singh
On GIS APPLICATION IN URBAN HEAT ISLAND: A CRUSADING ANTHROPOGENIC DRIVER TO CLIMATE CHANGE

13. Urban Heat Island
Remote sensing instrument used for UHI: ASTER: Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
Advanced along Track Scanning Radiometer (AASTAR) and PALSAR are used for estimating surface temperature and land cover change
By utilizing remote sensing data and implementing GIS mapping techniques, change detection over a period of time of the urban areas can be monitored and mapped.
Spatial Pattern of Urban Heat Island (an overlay of AASTER AND PALSAR data analysis)
Source: Research paper by Swarnima Singh On GIS APPLICATION IN URBAN HEAT ISLAND: A CRUSADING ANTHROPOGENIC DRIVER TO CLIMATE CHANGE

14. Land Use / Land Cover
Space-borne remote sensing data can be used for estimation of biomass and biodiversity,
Geo-spatial modeling techniques can be employed to estimate carbon sequestration patterns
Project of Centre for Development of Advanced computing (C-DAC); on Landscape Dynamics with Emphasis on Landuse / Landcover Changes vis-a-vis Carbon Sequestration and Habitat Loss.
Source: C-DAC website

15. Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP)
Measurements from all rain gauge stations to map/link to entire basin
Preparation of seasonal and annual rainfall maps
Severe rainstorm map
Digital drainage map
Isohyetal patterns (line joining points of equal precipitation) of all historical rainstorms
Development of interactive software for estimation of storm parameters for any given study area and tool for storm transposition on the digital map.

16. Water
GIS for Flood control, Soil conservation, Water conservancy, Salinity ingress, Watershed management, Groundwater assessment and management
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data are layered with hydrographic data so that the boundaries of a watershed may be determined.
Groundwater modeling simulation devised to fully capture the contaminants in water
Mapping of flood-affected and snow cover using satellite images
Lakes and Wetlands classification and modeling

17. Snow cover monitoring
GIS based Avalanche Information System can be used for making maps, updated with satellite imagery and ancillary data
Multi-temporal optical and microwave remote sensing data
Development of Near Real Time Snow Cover Monitoring; Project of C-DAC
Source: C-DAC website

18. Biodiversity GIS helps in Forest Management for following purpose:
Location: location of forest resource
Trends: changes happened over time
Patterns: spatial patterns existing
Modeling: what if case? If road network added etc
Remote sensing & GIS based modeling to develop spatial indices depicting the status of forest ecosystem
Preparation of biological maps
Biodiversity characterization at landscape level
Biological richness map of the proposed Rajmachi Wildlife Sanctuary near Khandala
C-DAC project on Biodiversity Characterization
Source: C-DAC website

19. Landslide GIS helps in landslide zonation in:-
Helps in identifying strategic points
Geographically critical areas prone to landslides.
Thematic mapping using Optical and microwave RS data
Landslide inventory mapping using GPS
Landslide hazard zonation using GIS techniques
Micro-zonation & risk assessment of landslide affected areas in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
Source: C-DAC website

20. Risk Assessment
GIS and RS to hazard, vulnerability and risk (HVR) assessment Important for better disaster preparedness. 
Includes early warning systems
GIS in conjunction with remote sensing and photogrammetry, can be used to identify hazards.
Seismic Hazard Assessment: Active Fault Study, Geology Study, Seismic Hazard Mapping
Vulnerability Mapping: Building Stock, Essential Facility, Population, transportation System, Utility System

21. Concluding Comments Climate change has increased the relevance of GIS
With increasing risk and impacts, GIS - an inevitable tool to be used regularly
Increase effectiveness in conjunction with remote sensing to monitor impacts
GIS is a sophisticated technology tool already in widespread use by planners, engineers, and scientists to display and analyze all forms of location-referenced data related to climate change and its impacts.
GIS can saves lives

22. THANK YOU…