Research Projects

In the context of climate change, the frequency and intensity of regional extreme hydrological events, such as droughts and floods have increased in recent times, imposing stress on the ecosystem and bringing new challenges in the management of water resources. Assessment of the terrestrial water balance is the key to improved water resources management which is crucial in achieving United Nations (UN) - Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #2 (zero hunger), #6 (clean water and sanitation), and #13 (climate action) as well as the Government of India’s development missions such as Smart cities and Smart villages. Currently, the greater availability and reliability of remote sensing climate products along with GRACE terrestrial water storage observations, provides an opportunity to investigate the terrestrial water balance even in remote catchments where in-situ observations are scarce. However, closing the water balance is challenging because of uncertainties in the estimated quantities. The proposed study will be the first attempt in the Indian hydroclimatological context to evaluate the basin scale terrestrial water balance using multiple climate products and to quantify the uncertainties involved therein using a Hierarchical Bayesian Model (HBM). The HBM structure will be used to quantify the uncertainty introduced by each water balance component – Precipitation, Evapotranspiration and Terrestrial storage and summarize the overall uncertainty in the closure of the water budget. Further, the closure of water balance will be evaluated across basins of varied sizes and climatic types and across seasons. It is expected that the scientific understanding from this work would benefit water resources planning and may contribute to greater water security in future.