Course

Unit 1

Introduction to climate and climate change: weather and climate, important meteorological variables, climate change and variability, natural reasons for climate change, global warming, possible reasons for global warming, human contributions, aerosols, black carbon, sources of GHGs and black carbon 

Unit 2

Evidence of climate change: climate since industrial revolution, climate modelling, models and future projections, representative concentration pathways, their importance. 

Tutorials: Trend analysis of climate data and its interpretation 

Assignment 1 : Hands-on training: Interpretation of global climate model output, QGIS 

Unit 3

Climate change and biodiversity: biodiversity, importance of biodiversity, pressure on biodiversity from human activities, possible impact, vulnerable species and ecosystems, adaptation and mitigation for sustainability. Case study using species distribution model/crop model

Unit 4

Climate change and agriculture: Introduction to agriculture, crop water requirement, irrigation, crop yield, impact of climate change on agriculture and crop models, carbon free farming concepts, agricultural policies in context of climate change, initiatives of Government of India for climate change adaptation and mitigation, climate resilient village. Case study using crop model 

Assignment 2 & Assignment 3 

Unit 5

Climate change and water resources: Introduction to hydrological processes, global and national water budget, outline of impact of climate change on water, climate change on drought & flood (extreme hydrological events), mitigation and adaptation measures for sustainability. 

Unit 6

Sustainable carbon neutral practices: Net zero emission & COP-26, carbon capturing concept, at what stage is CCS?, post-combustion capture, precombustion capture; carbon dioxide utilisation, carbon negative technologies, the transport of carbon dioxide, why geological storage?, rocks for geological carbon storage, reservoirs, seals and traps, storage in aquifers and depleted oil fields, trapping the carbon dioxide, leakage and monitoring 

Pre-requisites for the course: A system(laptop/Desktop) and Software-QGIS (open source) for tutorials & hands on training 

Course Outcomes: 

CO1: Relate climate and climate change effects to anthropogenic influences and global warming and the importance of global climate models, representative concentration pathways. 

CO2 : Analyse climate model projections using QGIS, future trends in climatic variables for their own regions/locations. 

CO3 : Discover the importance of biodiversity and the possible impacts of climate change on biodiversity 

CO4 : Evaluate the impact of climate change on water and agriculture, and government policies to mitigate the changing climate. 

CO5 : Compare and contrast sustainable carbon neutral practices and carbon capturing techniques to achieve net zero emission. 

1. IPCC, 2022: The Sixth Assessment Report
2. IPCC, 2005: IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Prepared by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Metz, B., O.  Davidson, H. C. de Coninck, M. Loos, and L. A. Meyer (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 442 pp. 
3. Jan C. Van Dam.Impactsof Climate Change and Climate Variability on Hydrological Regimes, 2003, Cambridge University Press. 
4. Bormann H and Pinter N, 2017: Trends in low flows of German rivers since 1950: Comparability of different low-flow indicators and their spatial patterns. River  Research and Applications 33, 1191-1204. 
5. ICAR-Policy paper, 2019. Climate Change and Indian Agriculture: Impacts, Coping Strategies,Programsand Policy. 
6. Guo Q et al., 2022: Impacts of climate and land use changes on water yields: similarities and differences among typical watersheds distributed throughout China. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 45, 101294
7. Andre FJ et al., 2022: Voluntary carbon neutral programs. Adoption andfirms Journal of Cleaner Production 381, 135191. 
8. OhbaM et al., 2022: Projected future changes in water availability and dry spells in Japan: Dynamic and thermodynamic climate impacts. Weather and Climate Extremes 38, 100523. 
9. OrkodjoTP et al., 2022: Impact of climate change on future availability of water for irrigation and hydropower generation in the Omo-Gibe basin of Ethiopia. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 44, 101254. 
10. Gessner C et al., 2022: Multi-year drought storylines for Europe and North America from an iteratively perturbed global climate model. Weather and Climate Extremes 38, 100512.
11. Ghaffari A et al., 2022: Assessing the economic effects of drought using Positive Mathematical Planning model under climate change scenarios.Heliyon8, e11941