Rajesh Kumar Mall

Banaras Hindu University | BHU · DST-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development

During the recent decade, with the growing recognition of the possibility of climate change and clear evidence of observed changes in climate during 20th century, an increasing emphasis on food security and its regional impacts has come to forefront of the scientific community. In recent times, the crop simulation models have been used extensively...

In recent times, several studies around the globe show that climatic change is likely to impact significantly upon freshwater resources availability. In India, demand for water has already increased manifold over the years due to urbanization, agriculture expansion, increasing population, rapid industrialization and economic development. At present...

Estimates of impact of climate change on crop production could be biased depending upon the uncertainties in climate change scenarios, region of study, crop models used for impact assessment and the level of management. This study reports the results of a study where the impact of various climate change scenarios has been assessed on grain yields o...

Effective adaptation is crucial for building climate resilience in agriculture. This study attempted to understand the perception of farmers about changing climate and its impact on agriculture, its consistency with observed trends. It further assessed the major adaptation strategies opted-in by the farmers along with the identification of the moti...

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), the source of grains for around 40% Indian population, is known as the breadbasket of India. The Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) plays a vital role in the agricultural activities in this region. The rapid urbanization, land use and land cover change have significantly impacted the region’s agriculture, water res...

The changing frequency of extreme rain events in the past few decades over the Indian river basins (IRBs) contributed to floods and drought and resulted in economic losses and gross domestic product. In this study, we evaluated the performance of 12 Global Circulation Models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6‐ experiment with In...

A modeling effort is considered to understand the effect of dust aerosol storms in the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) onset propagation over the Indian subcontinent. The study found how the dust aerosol loading during the pre-monsoon period over the Indian subcontinent positively impacts the advancing ISM onset. The heavy loading of dust aerosol from...

Lightning Cashes (LF) and their association with meteorological variables that can influence the occurrence of lightning have been assessed in detail over the Indian domain, i.e., the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Relative Humidity (RH), Total Column Water Vapour (TCWV), Surface Temperature (ST) and Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR)...

Highlighting the need of encouraging the voices of girls and women in leadership roles and decision mak- ing, the training programme is set to mark a new dawn of emerging women leaders in Asia–Pacific region in the field of DRR and climate change. The participants committed to taking back the lessons learnt from the trainings and building cross-cou...

Forests play an essential role towards net primary productivity, biological cycles and provide habitat to flora & fauna. To monitor key physiological activities in forest canopies such as photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, spatially-explicit and precise information of the biochemical (biological) variables such as leaf chlorophyll content...

Multi-model climate projections are increasingly used to quantify the impacts of climate change on major staple crops under different climate change scenarios. Despite uncertainty associated with different climate projections, it helps in providing a direction and magnitude of change in crop production in future with different uncertainty levels. I...

This study investigates the relationship between Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) on a monthly and seasonal basis with respect to the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) during the period 1953–2016. The analysis is performed for full time series of monthly and seasonal ISM rainfall and AMO index data...

-Enhancing the productivity of rainfed crops, especially rice, while coping with climate adversities and saving critical natural resources is essential for ensuring the food and nutrition security of a growing population. With this context, the present study was undertaken to validate promising farm innovation and adaptation practices used by small...

This study focuses on determining significant controlling factors of chemical consequences, inverse geochemical modeling, water quality, and human health risk in the Varuna River basin of India. The study interprets that according to pH, total dissolved solids, and total hardness, the maximum number of groundwater samples are alkaline, fresh, and h...

Globally, changes in hydroclimate extremes such as extreme precipitation events influence water resources, natural environments, and human health and safety. During recent decades, India has observed an enormous increase in rainfall extremes during the summer monsoon (June to September) seasons. However, future extreme rainfall events have signific...

Diurnal temperature range (DTR) which reflects the difference between the daily maximum (Tmax) and minimum temperature (Tmin) is an important indication of changing climate and a critical thermal metric to assess the impact on agriculture, biodiversity, water resources, and human health. The major aim of this study is to assess the probable future...

The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) bears great agricultural importance and contributes to a major share of national GDP of India. In present study, a location-specific comprehensive analysis of rainfall extremes over IGP, using second generation CORDEX-CORE simulations in the present and future scenarios (under high emission RCP8.5 scenario) have been p...

Climate change is widely recognized as a major threat to public health. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6), assessing different Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (SSP1-1.9, SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5), projects that relative to 1850–1900, the global temperature is rising and would...

Climate modes like ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) and IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) produce an impact on the monsoon rainfall over India. Monsoon rainfall is extremely important for the agriculture of our country. The impact of these climate modes on monsoon rainfall thus in turn affects the rain-fed crops (kharif). In this study, four kharif seas...

Climate change (precipitation and temperature) has significantly affected the hydrological regimes and future climate projection. Integration of climate model with physical based model is crucial for quantitative measurement of changes in surface water regime. For accurate estimation, modelling framework need finer scale resolution of climate model...

It has now been well established that the rise in global mercury has driven climate change phenomena that have led to extreme temperature events, sea level rise, change in the hydrological cycle, frequent droughts and floods, and cyclones and forest fires and caused a myriad of adverse impacts on vital worldwide sectors such as agriculture, water a...

The high dimensional hyperspectral data due to its narrow bands ranging between 250-3500 nm, becomes a serious issue for data processing and analysis. Selection of optimal absorbance spectral bands from original spectra brings great possibility in removing the redundancy, quantifying pigments such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin and the re...

Climate change impact on crop production using different climate model projections varies considerably and it is challenging to choose a suitable climate scenario for risk assessment. This study aims to assess the climate change impact on the wheat crop in nine agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in Northern India using the CERES-Wheat...

This study estimates the ground-level PM10 concentration by effectively combining the Aerosols Optical Depth (AOD) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite retrievals and Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). The model simulates typical dust storm events 17th-22nd April 2010 and 05th–1...

The present study aims to analyse future changes in mean maximum and extreme temperature over India using 17 regional climate simulations from CORDEX-SA experiment RCM ensembles at a spatial resolution of 0.5° x 0.5° for mid-term (2041-2060) and long-term (2081-2099) future under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. The regional climate simulations of th...

Hyperspectral Remote Sensing (HRS) data is vital for crop growth monitoring due to availability of contiguous bands. This research work provides a new novel crop estimator model given the name “Crop Stage estimator” developed using the HRS data on an open-source R platform. The generic model structure provides an easy way to test and modify the imp...

India experienced more flood situations due to the increasing extreme rainfall events over the different Indian River Basins (IRBs) during the last few decades. An Extreme Value Theory (EVT) is used to examine trends of rainfall extremes over the IRBs using long-term observed high- resolution grid-based rainfall (1901-2019) of the India Meteorologi...

In this paper, daily modulating behaviors of Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) has been evaluated over eight important sub-zones of India viz Northwest India (NWI); Northcentral India (NCI); West Peninsular India (WPI); Eastern Peninsular India (EPI); Southern Peninsular India (SoPI); Central India (CI), Northeast India (NEI) and Western Ghat (...

Verification of Block wise rainfall forecast for Nalanda, Supaul and East Champaran district of Bihar

Droughts inflict significant loss on agricultural economies. Gomati River basin, the area of the present study, is located within the Ganga River floodplains, which approximately coincide with the north central temperature homogeneous region (NCTHR) of India. Gomati basin is a non‐perennial one supporting water intensive agricultural crops. To asce...

During recent decades, India experienced more frequent and severe floods due to increasing extreme rainfall events over different Indian River Basins (IRBs). The present study uses Generalized Extreme Value distribution, Expert Team on Climate Change and Detection Indices, and Standardized Precipitation Index to examine the trend in extreme rainfal...

Regional climate models (RCMs) are routinely applied for regional climate assessments. The RCM simulated rainfall typically overpredict the light rain/drizzle events. To correct the typical errors noted in RCM rainfall simulations, in this study, three bias‐correction methods: linear scaling (SCL), local intensity scaling (LOCI), and empirical quan...

An endeavour has been made to utilize the ICTP’s regional climate model RegCM for simulating one of the most catastrophic rainfall events recorded in the history of Mumbai, India on 26th July 2005. The recent version of the model i.e., RegCM4.6 has been used to dynamically downscale this extreme event at 25 km horizontal resolution over the South-A...

This study reports the role of field experimentation and system simulation in better quantifying the productivity of wheat crop, and examine how knowledge on potential productivity can improve the efficiency of the production system. When knowledge from field experimentation is utilised into crop weather simulation models, gap between actual, attai...

Actual evapotranspiration of wheat crop during different year from 1978-79 to 1992-93 was measured daily in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh using lysimeter. In this study three evapotranspiration computing models namely Doorenbos and Pruitt, Thornthwaite and Soil Plant Atmosphere Water (SPAW) have been used. Comparisons of these three methods show that the...

The Soil-Plant-Atmosphere- Water (SPA W) model has been calibrated and validated using field experiment data from 1991-92 to 1993-94 for wheat crop at Varanasi district. Long-term (1973-74 to 1995-96) daily weather data were combined with general observation of wheat growth and soils to provide daily water budgets for 23 years. The model was calibr...

An approach has been made in this study to delineate the groundwater potential zones of the Varuna river basin, Uttar Pradesh, India, using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and multi-influence factor (MIF) techniques. The present groundwater estimation exhibits an increase in the draft (10%) due to expansion in population, agricultural extent...

Climate modes like ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) and IOD (Indian Ocean Dipole) produce an impact on the monsoon rainfall over India. Monsoon rainfall is extremely important for the agriculture of our country. The impact of these climate modes on monsoon rainfall thus in turn affects the rain-fed crops (Kharif). In this study, four Kharif seas...

The present study examines the efficacy of the regional climate model RegCM4 in depicting the onset, active, and break phases of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The model is driven by National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/NCAR Reanalysis 1 project (NNRP1) data of 28 years (1981–2008) for each monsoon separately. High-resolution grid...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected severely the economic structure and health care system, among others, of India and the rest of the world. The magnitude of its aftermath is exceptionally devastating in India, with the first case reported in January 2020, and the number has risen to ~31.3 million as of July 23, 2021. India imposed a complete lockd...

Inevitable issues concerning the sustainability of groundwater resources are crucial under the present climatic situation. Therefore, the prevision of groundwater environments may able to reinforce the management system. In this respect present study considered a new method to predict long-term groundwater level framework as an alternative option o...

The present chapter discusses the changes in moisture recycling over the monsoon core region (MCR) of India using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multimodel mean datasets during the southwest monsoon season for the present and future climate, in particular during the El Niño years. Our results show that the contribution of adv...

The effects of climate on infectious-diseases could influence the health impacts, particularly in children in countries with unfair socioeconomic condition. In a prospective cohort of 461 children under 16-years-of-age in Varanasi-city, India, the association of maximum-temperature (Tmax), relative-humidity (RH), absolute-humidity (AH), rainfall (R...

The accurate estimation of soil moisture (SM) using microwave remote sensing depends mostly on careful selection of retrieval parameters among which the soil dielectric mixing model is the most important one. These models are often categorized into empirical, semi-empirical or volumetric based on their methodologies and input data requirements. To...

Analysis of spatial and temporal changes of long-term precipitation and extreme precipitation distribution at a local scale is very important for the prevention and mitigation of water-related disasters. In the present study, we have analyzed the long-term trend of 116 years (1901–2016) of precipitation and distribution of extreme precipitation ind...

Changes in climate cause significant alterations in morphometric parameters and may lead to hydro-meteorological hazards. In this study, an attempt has been made to identify drainage morphometric characteristics through topographic, geologic and hydrological information to assess the extreme weather events (flood) over the Gandak River Basin (GRB)....

Mean monthly Atmospheric Residence Times (ART), deduced from the global climate models of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emission scenarios over Indian landmass, show a perceptible increase by the end of the 21st century. India, being a tropical country, faces prolonged ART, particularly during the June mont...

This paper provides an overview on the spatiotemporal distribution and evolution mechanism of lightning. The predominant mechanism of ozone formation in the upper troposphere is lightning-induced precursors such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbons (HC). Lightning-induced NOx (LNOx) is one of the major ordinary source...

In this study, a dynamically downscaled regional climate model (RegCM4.3) is used to study the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) surface air temperature over the South‐Asia CORDEX domain using six convection schemes during 1986‐2010. The spatial and temporal variability of mean surface air temperature has been analysed with reference to the India Meteoro...

Annexure III. Species coefficients of cultivars of different maturity groups of pigeonpea used in simulation

Annexure IV. Soil data used in simulation of cultivars of different maturity groups of pigeonpea

Annexure V. Experimental data used in simulation of cultivars of different maturity groups of pigeonpea

Annexure II. Genotype coefficients of cultivars of different maturity groups of pigeonpea used in simulation

Annexure I. Ecotype coefficients of cultivars of different maturity groups of pigeonpea used in simulation

The CROPGRO-pigeonpea model embedded in DSSAT v4.7.5 was used to assess the impact of climate change on phenology and grain yield of reference genotype of different pigeonpea maturity groups. The impact of climate change delayed reproductive stages (anthesis, maturity) and decreased grain yield of reference genotype of different pigeonpea maturity...

Aerosol climatology during typical haze dominating period over South and Southeast Asia was explored using several Earth‐Observing A‐Train satellite products retrieved in between 2010 and 2020. Comparatively high aerosol optical depth (AOD) with dominance of fine and UV‐absorbing aerosols are noted across the Indo‐Gangetic plain, South Asia (IGP; A...

Rainfall and land use/land cover changes are significant factors that impact the soil erosion processes. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the impact of rainfall and land use/land cover changes in the current and future scenarios to deduce the soil erosion losses using the state-of-the-art Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)...

Diurnal temperature range (DTR) is an important indicator of climatic change and a critical thermal metric to assess the impact on agriculture and human health. This study investigates the seasonal, annual and decadal changes in the spatio‐temporal trend in DTR and air temperatures (maximum: Tmax and minimum: Tmin) during 1951‐2016 and solar radiat...

The short term effect of multiple air pollutants e.g. aerosols (black carbon, BC; PM2.5 and PM10) and trace gases (NO2, SO2, and O3) on all-cause mortality was systematically investigated in a typical urban pollution hotspot over central Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). To our knowledge, this would be the first report of mortality estimates for exposure...

Uttar Pradesh is well known for its rice–wheat cropping system whenever it comes to agricultural sector. Being one of the highest producers of wheat and the second highest in terms of rice production, the state needs to be cautious about the usage of both of the quantity and quality of water as irrigation. The adversity of variability in climate ha...