Global Environmental Changes in South Asia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvviii

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2. Human Dimensions of Changing Environment

   • A. P. Mitra

   Pages 1-13

3. Development Pathway

   • Joyashree Roy, Chhonda Bose, Ranjan Bose, Sarmistha Das, Shobhankar Dhakal, Mitali Dasgupta et al.

   Pages 14-53

4. Instrumental, Terrestrial and Marine Records of the Climate of South Asia during the Holocene:

   • A. K. Singhvi, K. Rupakumar, M. Thamban, A. K. Gupta, V. S. Kale, R. R. Yadav et al.

   Pages 54-124

5. Land Transformation and Its Consequences in South Asia

   • V. K. Dadhwal, V. K. Dadhwal

   Pages 125-170

6. Atmospheric Composition Change and Air Quality

   • A. Jayaraman, G. Beig, U. C. Kulshrestha, T. Lahiri, M. R. Ray, S. K. Satheesh et al.

   Pages 171-221

7. Global Warming, Changes in Hydrological Cycle and Availability of Water in South Asia

   • M. Monirul Qader Mirza, Ahsan Uddin Ahmed

   Pages 222-232

8. A Review on Current Status of Flood and Drought Forecasting in South Asia

   • M. Monirul Qader Mirza

   Pages 233-243

9. Hydrometeorology of Floods and Droughts in South Asia – A Brief Appraisal

   • S. Nandargi, O. N. Dhar, M. M. Sheikh, Brenna Enright, M. Monirul Qader Mirza

   Pages 244-257

10. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Stream-flows in the Greater Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Basins – A Climate Outlook

    • Md. Rashed Chowdhury

    Pages 258-270

11. Changes in the Coastal and Marine Environments

    • S. N. de Sousa, Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, M. D. Kumar, T. G. Jagtap, S. Sardessai, A. Hassan

    Pages 271-326

12. Key Vulnerabilities of Human Society in South Asia to Climate Change and Adaptation Issues and Strategies

    • Sumana Bhattacharya

    Pages 327-349

13. Back Matter

    Pages 351-356

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The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC having clinched in 2007 the evidence of global warming on account of anthropogenic activities, backed with scientific data gathered and analyzed globally, has made it mandatory world over to focus efforts on delineation of the anticipated adverse impacts of global warming on regional temperature and moisture regimes and the linked hydrologic, climatic and biospheric processes. First and foremost is the requirement to understand vulnerability to food and livelihood security in various ecosystems—on mainland, mid-range and high mountains as well as coastal areas including CEZs. The projected global temperature rise of the order of about two degrees or more and further rise at a decadal rate of o around 0. 2 C is sufficient to make grievous changes in sea surface level and submerge many low lying coastal areas around the world thereby possibly causing unprecedented losses to human habitat and livelihood in the coming years. A rise in climate variability is also becoming increasingly evident with potential direct impact on agricultural performance, on water accessibility and on weather extremes. Developing countries due to their poor infrastructure, limited resources and large impoverished population are likely to face more intense and wi- spread adverse impact of climate change than the developed world and also have limited adaptation capacity.

• Global change
• Global warming
• Greenhouse gases
• Southern Oscillation
• Vulnerability
• adaptation
• climate change
• environmental change
• climate change impacts

• National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India

  C. Sharma

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