Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
(b)
70°E
75°E
80°E
85°E
90°
E
70°E
75°E
80°E
85°E
90°
E
35°N
35°N
35°N
35°N
30°N
30°N
30°N
30°N
25°N
25°N
25°N
25°N
20°N
20°N
20°N
20°N
15°N
15°N
15°N
15°N
10°N
10°N
10°N
10°N
70°E
75°E
80°E
85°E
70°E
75°E
80°E
85°E
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
1.0
-0.9
-0.8
-0.7
-0.6
-0.5
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.6
Fig. 7.3 Change of the monthly average temperature in the summer (a) and the winter (b) due to
the cultivated land reclamation in India
increase the surface sensible heat flux while decreasing the latent heat flux and
evapotranspiration. Consequently, the monthly average temperature increases.
Our simulation results indicate the temperature variability also varies at spatial
scales. In summer, the monthly average temperature in most regions of India
decreases to some degree, among which it decreases most significantly in Gangetic
Plain in the north part, with the decrement of 0.70 C. As this region has good
irrigation conditions, the newly reclaimed cultivated land can be irrigated and
consequently makes the temperature decrease. In contrast, the temperature has not
changed that much in some parts of the Eastern Ghats Mountain and the Western
Ghats Mountain where the altitude is relatively high. The temperature increases by
0.57 C in the regions along Himalayas Mountain and the west part of the Western
Ghats Mountain. In winter, the monthly average temperature increases to some
degree in most parts of India (approximately 64.52 % of the study area) due to the
reclamation of cultivated land. These regions are mainly located in the plateaus
and part of the plain, where there is very limited agricultural irrigation in the
winter and the reclamation of cultivated land has limited cooling effects. Con-
versely, the monthly average temperature keeps stable in the rest of the study area
(approximately 35.15 %) where mainly in the plain the agriculture industry is
originally well developed. In addition, the monthly average temperature shows a
decreasing trend in only 0.32 % of the whole region, which is sparsely distributed
