Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation

For millennia, India has been using surface storages and gravity flow to irrigate its crops. During the last 40 years, however, India has witnessed a decline in gravity flow irrigation and the rise of a booming ?water-scavenging? irrigation economy through millions of small, private tube wells. For...

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Main Author: Shah, Tushaar
Format: Conference Paper
Language:Inglés
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/38196
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author Shah, Tushaar
author_browse Shah, Tushaar
author_facet Shah, Tushaar
author_sort Shah, Tushaar
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description For millennia, India has been using surface storages and gravity flow to irrigate its crops. During the last 40 years, however, India has witnessed a decline in gravity flow irrigation and the rise of a booming ?water-scavenging? irrigation economy through millions of small, private tube wells. For India, groundwater has become at once critical and threatened. Climatic change will act as a force-multiplier; it will enhance the criticality of groundwater for drought-proofing agriculture and simultaneously multiply the threat to the resource. Groundwater pumping with electricity and diesel also accounts for an estimated 16-25 million tonnes of carbon emission, 4-6% of the country?s total emission. From the point of view of climatic change, India?s groundwater hot spots are western and Peninsular India. These are critical for mitigation of, and adaptation to, climatic change. To achieve both, India needs to make a transition from surface storages to ?managed aquifer storage? as the comerstone of its water strategy with proactive demand and supply-side management components. In doing this, India needs to learn intelligently from the experience of countries like Australia and the USA that have long experience in managed aquifer recharge.
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spelling CGSpace381962025-11-07T08:37:32Z Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation Shah, Tushaar irrigation canals groundwater management climate hydrology water storage pumps groundwater recharge For millennia, India has been using surface storages and gravity flow to irrigate its crops. During the last 40 years, however, India has witnessed a decline in gravity flow irrigation and the rise of a booming ?water-scavenging? irrigation economy through millions of small, private tube wells. For India, groundwater has become at once critical and threatened. Climatic change will act as a force-multiplier; it will enhance the criticality of groundwater for drought-proofing agriculture and simultaneously multiply the threat to the resource. Groundwater pumping with electricity and diesel also accounts for an estimated 16-25 million tonnes of carbon emission, 4-6% of the country?s total emission. From the point of view of climatic change, India?s groundwater hot spots are western and Peninsular India. These are critical for mitigation of, and adaptation to, climatic change. To achieve both, India needs to make a transition from surface storages to ?managed aquifer storage? as the comerstone of its water strategy with proactive demand and supply-side management components. In doing this, India needs to learn intelligently from the experience of countries like Australia and the USA that have long experience in managed aquifer recharge. 2009 2014-06-13T11:40:54Z 2014-06-13T11:40:54Z Conference Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/38196 en Open Access application/pdf Shah, Tushaar. 2009. Climatic Change and Groundwater: Indias Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation. In International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India Series 5. Proceedings of the Second National Workshop on Strategic Issues in Indian Irrigation, New Delhi, India, 8-9 April 2009. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). pp.175-195.
spellingShingle irrigation canals
groundwater management
climate
hydrology
water storage
pumps
groundwater recharge
Shah, Tushaar
Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title_full Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title_fullStr Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title_full_unstemmed Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title_short Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
title_sort climatic change and groundwater india s opportunities for mitigation and adaptation
topic irrigation canals
groundwater management
climate
hydrology
water storage
pumps
groundwater recharge
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/38196
work_keys_str_mv AT shahtushaar climaticchangeandgroundwaterindiasopportunitiesformitigationandadaptation