Intensification of Extreme Rainfall in Indian River Basin: Using Bias Corrected CMIP6 Climate Data

Abstract

AbstractThe changing frequency of extreme rain events in the past few decades over the Indian river basins (IRBs) contributed to floods and drought and resulted in economic losses and gross domestic product. In this study, we evaluated the performance of 12 Global Circulation Models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6‐ experiment with India Meteorological Department observed data sets to reproduce the extreme rainfall events as well as project the changes in frequency and intensity of the hydroclimate extremes in future. We found that under low emission scenarios (SSP1‐2.6), the frequency of extreme rainfall is going to increase over the western ghat and northeast IRBs, while an increase in heavy rainfall intensity (14.3%) noticed under SSP2‐4.5 in the upper Ganga and Indus basin. Also, approximately 4%–10% of the heavy rainfall is projected to increase over the western part of IRBs during the Near (2021–2040) and Mid (2041–2060) future. The study explored the new hotspot regions for future urban flooding due to increasing pattern of heavy rainfall in future. Moreover, the lower Ganga basin will experience agricultural drought in near future due to decreasing areal mean rainfall, which needs to be seen by policymakers for managing the excess (less) water. Also, India's northern, central, and western river basins may experience more extremes under high‐emission (SSP5‐8.5) scenarios that indicate challenges to mitigation. The findings of this study highlight the importance of developing long‐term adaptation and mitigation strategies aimed at reducing hydroclimate vulnerability. It emphasizes the need to implement measures that enhance resilience and minimize risks associated with hydroclimate extremes at the basin level.