Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 7.3 Projected differences of monthly and annual heat fluxes (W/m
2
) between 2010 and
2050 in India
Latent heat flux
Sensible heat flux
Jan
0.14
-0.42
Feb
0.54
-0.78
Mar
0.68
-0.95
Apr
1.80
-2.00
May
1.06
-1.17
Jun
1.40
-1.54
Jul
1.99
-2.18
Aug
0.47
-0.64
Sep
1.50
-1.61
Oct
0.23
-0.45
Nov
0.18
-0.33
Dec
0.11
-0.29
Average
0.84
-1.03
season (roughly August to October) increases by 0.73 W/m
2
, while the sensible
heat flux decreases by 0.90 W/m
2
. By comparison, on average, the latent heat flux
before the monsoon season (roughly April to July) increases by 1.56 W/m
2
, while
the sensible heat flux decreases by 1.72 W/m
2
. This indicates that the changes on
heat fluxes before the monsoon season are larger than that in the monsoon season.
7.1.2.4 Possible Impacts of the Cultivated land Reclamation on Air
Temperature
(i)
Overall conditions of the near-surface temperature
Since the near-surface temperature is extreme in the summer and winter, we
have mainly focused on the forecast of the monthly average temperature in the
summer and winter for the study area of India. The spatial heterogeneity of the
monthly average temperature in the summer and winter from 2010 to 2050 is
shown in Fig.
7.3
. The result indicates that the future reclamation of cultivated
land in India will have some impacts on the monthly average temperature in the
summer and winter. In comparison to the base year 2010, the land reclamation will
drive the monthly average temperature decrease and increase by 0.22 C and
0.11 C in the summer and winter, respectively, for 2050 in India. It has a cooling
effect on the temperature in India on the whole and it is consistent with the
conclusion of Feddema et al. (Feddema et al.
2005
) that agriculture expansion can
contribute to the decrease of the daytime temperature at the low or middle lati-
tudes. This may be caused by the conversion from some other land use types into
the irrigated cropland during the reclamation of cultivated land in India, and the
increased irrigation plays an important role in decreasing the temperature. Besides,
the conversion from grasslands and forest land into the dryland cropland can
