Exploring Trends in Climatological Time Series of Orissa, India Using Nonparametric Trend Tests - Hydrologic Time Series Analysis: Theory and Practice - page 242

change significantly. The homogeneity test indicates that the monsoon rainfall
of recent years experiences an overall drying trend. Furthermore, the mean
monthly maximum temperature and mean monthly minimum temperature
exhibited pronounced warming and cooling trends, respectively. The monthly
temperature range showed an increasing trend. The monthly mean relative
humidity showed higher percentage of increasing trends indicating an enhanced
moisture load in the atmosphere. The pronounced warming with consequent
increase in rainfall intensity and decrease in rainfall frequency may have led
to a drying monsoon trend of the study area. Although the present study has
not explored the trend attribution of the hydroclimatic variables, we speculate
that the observed trends and variability are primarily due to the local
anthropogenic activities. Future research is needed to estimate the local
greenhouse gas and aerosol forcings for precise characterization of trends of
hydroclimatic variables. The economic development and ecological security
need to go hand in hand as the local anthropogenic activities can even cause
global climate change. Therefore, policy should be formulated to establish the
tradeoff between the two. There is a need to reduce aerosol and greenhouse
gas emission by exploring the alternate energy sources.
Acknowledgements
We are very thankful to Prof. Madan Kumar Jha and Dr. Deepesh Machiwal
for their helpful comments and suggestions to improve this chapter as well as
for painstaking editing of this chapter.
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