Towards an integrated approach for assessing the impact of climatic stresses on agriculture and the exchange of greenhouse gas on the Indo-Gangetic Plain
Instant Access to Earth Observation Satellites Covering the Indo-Gangetic Plain
Objectives
• To develop a better understanding of the sensitivity of agricultural productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) to climatic disturbances in environmental conditions.
• To facilitate a sustainable network between researchers from the University of Leicester, IIT Kanpur and further UK and Indian partners combining expertise from Earth observation, in-situ observations, land surface modelling.
• To facilitate the transfer of skills and training and create new links to key stakeholders associated with the farming communities placed in the IGP.
Approach
• The primary hypothesis is that climatic variations and anomalies (rainfall, temperature or extreme weather events) have a significant impact on crop productivity for the IGP and that such anomalies and changes will likely increase in the future.
• To achieve this goal we link Earth Observations data, especially from operational programmes such as the Copernicus Services and novel datasets, with ground-based and agricultural data.
• Specifically, we will first evaluate the quality of EO data and its consistency with ground-based data. We will then conduct statistical analysis for the climatic drivers of yield modulations and its relation to greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, we will assess the ability of land surface model to reproduce the observed responses of agricultural yield.
Collaboration
• The IGP is a region of large scientific and economic interest. The region plays a key role in the Indian and global food economy and it is of importance for the regional greenhouse gas budget.
• The proposed collaboration between UK and Indian institutions brings together the expertise and know-how necessary to develop novel approach to study this region which will help to develop not only a better understanding of regional vulnerabilities to climate variation and change but also develop longer term monitoring capabilities.