Assessment of climatic variability in the catchments of Himalayan Lake, Jammu & Kashmir

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to analyse the trends in hydrometeorological data to addresses how these trends impacted on the water extent of Wular Lake, Kashmir. Temporal changes in the lake surface area have been analysed, using the Landsat satellite data. The nonparametric Mann–Kendall and Sen’s methods were used to determine trends in hydrometeorological data. In addition, trends in extreme indices of frost days (FD), summer days, days with rainfall > 10 mm (R10), days with rainfall > 20 mm (R20) and dry spell for temperature and precipitation were also analysed. The results suggest an overall decrease in extreme rainfall events, R10 and R20, and annual precipitation pattern with increase in maximum and minimum annual average temperatures. Furthermore, the analysis of extreme temperature events suggests warming trend with increased number of warm days and decreased number of FD. With regard to water extent of the lake, an intense decreasing trend was observed.