The impact of water infrastructure and climate change on the hydrology of the Upper Ganges River Basin

Bharati Luna, Guillaume Lacombe, Pabitra Gurung, Priyantha Jayakody, Chu Thai Hoanh and Vladimir U. Smakhtin

No 137493, IWMI Research Reports from International Water Management Institute

Abstract: This study assessed the variability of flows under present and 'naturalized' basin conditions in the Upper Ganges Basin (UGB). Furthermore, the PRECIS regional climate model (RCM) was used to generate climate projections for the UGB, with subsequent simulations of future river flows. Results show that the annual average precipitation, actual evapotranspiration (ET) and net water yields of the whole basin were 1,192 mm, 416 mm and 615 mm, respectively. Precipitation, ET and water yields were found to be higher in the forested and mountainous upper areas of the UGB. On an annual average, present-day flows throughout UGB are about 2-8% lower than under naturalized conditions. Dry and wet season flows under climate change (CC) scenario A2 are lower than that under present climate conditions at upstream locations, but higher at downstream locations of UGB. Flows under CC scenario B2 are systematically higher and lower than that under CC scenario A2 during dry and wet seasons, respectively.

Keywords: Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource/Energy Economics and Policy; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28p.
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/137493/files/RR142.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iwmirr:137493

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.137493

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IWMI Research Reports from International Water Management Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().