Dr.  Abhishek  Banerjee
Chinese Academy of Sciences,  China

Title: Quantifying climate variability and regional anthropogenic influence on long-term environemtal sustainability in northwest India

Abstract:

To explore the spatio-temporal dynamics and mechanisms underlying vegetation cover in northwest India, and implications thereof, we obtained MODIS EVI imagery together with CHIRPS rainfall and MODIS LST at annual, seasonal and monthly scales for the period spanning 2000 to 2022. Additionally, MODIS Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), Ground Water Storage (GWS), Soil Moisture (SM) and nighttime light datasets were compiled to explore their spatial relationships with vegetation and other selected environmental parameters. Non-parametric statistics were applied to estimate the magnitude of trends, along with correlation and residual trend analysis to quantify the relative influence of Climate Change (CC) and Human Activities (HA) on vegetation dynamics using Google Earth Engine algorithms. The study reveals regional contrasts in trends that are evidently related to elevation. An annual increasing trend in rainfall (21.3 mm/decade, p<0.05), together with augmented vegetation cover and slightly cooler (-0.07°C/decade) LST is revealed in the high-elevation areas. Meanwhile, temperatures in the plain regions exhibit a warming trend (0.02°C/decade) and decreased in vegetation and rainfall, accompanied by substantial reductions in GWS and SM related to increased PET. Linear regression demonstrates a strongly significant relationship between rainfall and EVI (R2 = 0.92), although a negative relationship is apparent between temperature and vegetation (R2 = -0.83). Additionally, increased temperatures in the low-elevation parts of the study area impacted PET (R2 = 0.87), which triggered EVI loss (R2 = 0.93). Moreover, increased HA resulted in losses of 25.5mm GSW and 1.5mm SM annually. The relative contributions of CC and HA are shown to vary with elevation. At higher elevations, CC and HA contribute respectively 85% and 15% to the increase in EVI. However, at lower elevations, reduced EVI is largely (79%) due to human activities. This needs to be considered in managing the future of vulnerable socio-ecological systems in the state of Haryana.  

Biography:

Dr. Abhishek Banerjee, is working as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Northwest Institute of Eco-environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China. He is also a Steering Committee member of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Climatology (2022 - 2024). Dr. Banerjee received a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India. He completed his MPhil from the University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. He did his Ph.D. at East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. His research interest lies broadly in the field of  Climate change, Environmental change and challenges, Human-induced air pollution concentration in high mountains, and Elevation-dependent warming together with improper anthropogenic activities and associated environmental variations in developing countries like China and India. Dr. Banerjee has authored or co-authored several peer-reviewed research articles in international journals.