A presentation by Pavan Srinath, Public Affairs Centre, on Going Local with Climate Change Impact Assessments: The Case of Wayanad. The presentation was made at a colloquium on Citizen Voices in Environmental Governance on August 23, 2012 organised by the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, India.
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Going Local with Climate Change Impact Assessments: The Case of Wayanad
1. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Going Local with Climate Change Impact
Assessments:
The Case of Wayanad
Pavan Srinath and Danesh Kumar
Colloquium on
Citizen Voices in Environmental Governance
Presentation at Bangalore International Centre on 23rd August 2012
2. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Can’t we go local?
Source: IPCC FAR 2007, Executive Summary
5. In April 1983, Mr. Vimal Kumar, a coffee planter from Muttil in
Wayanad, set up a rain gauge next to his house, in an effort to
understand his local climate better.
Since then, he has painstakingly recorded daily rainfall amounts for
twenty seven years now.
When we approached him, he was magnanimous in giving us access to
all of his data, allowing us to digitize and analyse this treasure trove of
information.
8. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
The Daily Mean Rainfall Profile of Muttil, Wayanad (1984-2010)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
9. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Blossom & Backup showers
10. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Vishu
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Start of the traditional New Year
11. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Puthu mazha
Vishu
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Pre-monsoon showers
12. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Edavam paadhi
Puthu mazha
Vishu
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Traditional start of the SW monsoon: Jun 4-5
13. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Karkkidakam
Edavam paadhi
Puthu mazha
Vishu
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The peak rainfall month, which comes with a ‘break’
14. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Karkkidakam
Chinga masam
Edavam paadhi
Puthu mazha
Vishu Onam
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The SW monsoon weakens
15. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Karkkidakam
Chinga masam
Edavam paadhi
Tulavarsham
Puthu mazha
Vishu Onam
Kumbha mazha
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The NE Monsoon brings rain to Wayanad
16. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Karkkidakam
Chinga masam
Edavam paadhi
Tulavarsham
Puthu mazha
Vishu Onam
Kumbha mazha
Harvest
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The paddy harvest is usually completed by mid-December.
17. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Understanding Wayanad’s Climate using the Traditional Calendar
Karkkidakam
Chinga masam
Edavam paadhi
Tulavarsham
Puthu mazha
Vishu Onam
Kumbha mazha
Harvest
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
18. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Climate Trends and Impacts in Wayanad
#1 Weakening ‘Triggers of Growth’
• Traditionally, the SW
monsoon season is supposed
to begin during the Edavam
paadhi, with heavy and
continuous rains populating
the month after it.
• However, communities have
started feeling that this is
weakening, and many have
gone delayed the setting up
of their paddy nurseries from
June to July. Number of Rainy Days:
June: 8.9% decrease per decade**
• While no trends were July: 9.9% increase per decade*
observed in the rainfall
quantities in June & July, the
number of rainy days in
June are reducing and **At 98% confidence level
those in July are going up. **At 90% confidence level
19. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
The ‘Polarisation’ of Daily Rainfall in Wayanad
Increasing trend
Decreasing trend
None
Drizzle--------------------Light rain--------------------Moderate Showers--------------------Heavy Rain
+0.74 +3.40 +2.53 -- -- -1.67 -- -- +0.95 +1.15 -- --
Confidence levels: 99% 98% 95% 90% 80%
Annually, there is a strong increasing trend is observed in daily rainfall events in the 0-
5mm range, and in heavy rainfall events in the 50-80mm range.
20. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Climate Trends and Impacts in Wayanad
#2 More frequent high rainfall events
• On average, Wayanad (Muttil) receives about 140
days of rainfall.
• Out of these, on average about 7 days get more
than 50mm of rainfall. These ‘high’ rainfall days will
contribute greatly to adverse effects:
– Chronic effect: Soil erosion
– Acute effect: Landslides
• The number of high rainfall days (>=50mm) was
observed to be increasing at the rate of 26% per
decade!*
*At 90% confidence level
21. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Climate Trends in Wayanad
#3 Hastened maturation of crops
• In the past, coconut took ~300 days to
mature. (Compared to 180-200 days in the
plains.)
– Now it has come down to ~240 days.
• Increasing dry weight of Arecanuts.
• The traditional harvest festival –
mahkaram, is in mid-January. Nowadays, all
monsoon paddy harvests are complete
around ten days before Christmas.
22. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Climate Trends in Wayanad
#4 Observed changes in weather events
• Increasing instances of hail – with larger hailstones
being spotted, usually associated with pre-monsoon
afternoon showers.
• Disappearing mists – in both density and frequency.
• Historically, the local communities claim that Wayanad
received thin, thread-like rain. This has completely
disappeared.
• More pronounced variation observed between places in
Wayanad.
23. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Climate Change Impacts
Go local with analyses – required for actionable insights
Climate change or variability – both have very real
impacts.
Anthropogenic or not is not always a relevant question
Use traditional frameworks to parse community
information
Look for proxies to fill gaps in data
Know what you don’t know
Real changes and perceptions are both important
24. Public Affairs Centre RASTA
Thank You
pavan.srinath@gmail.com
www.rastaindia.org | www.pacindia.org
25. Wayanad: Rainfall distribution
Annual Rainfall: 2249.9 413.3 mm
Maximum: 2994.2 mm in 1994
Minimum: 1588 mm in 2003
All mean numbers used in graphs in this presentation
are based on average values from the years 1984-
2010, a total of 27 years.
26. Wayanad: Trends in Rainy Days
-8.9% +9.9%
per per +15.5%
decade decade per
decade
+5.0% per decade
Monsoon season:
Jun-Jul-Aug-Sep
While there are no trends in monthly or seasonal rainfall, the number of rainy days seem
increasing in number during the monsoon months, especially in July and September.
However, curiously, the number of rainy days in June appear to be decreasing. All trends
are mentioned at a 90% confidence level, and July’s increase is ascertained with a 98%
confidence level.
27. Wayanad: Extreme Rainfall Events
Thus far, we’ve looked at monthly rainfall values and rainy days. But how much rain does
Wayanad get on a rainy day?
The above graph shows the number of rainy days that occur in a year, classified
into the amount of rain received on that day. Thus, one can say that on average
Wayanad receives between 10-20 mm of rainfall for 34.4 days in a year.
28. Wayanad: Trends in Extreme Events
Increasing trend
Decreasing trend
None
Drizzle--------------------Light rain--------------------Moderate Showers--------------------Heavy Rain
+0.74 +3.40 +2.53 -- -- -1.67 -- -- +0.95 +1.15 -- --
Confidence levels: 99% 98% 95% 90% 80%
Annually, there is a strong increasing trend is observed in daily rainfall events in the 0-
5mm range, and in heavy rainfall events in the 50-80mm range.
30. The two graphs illustrate
yearly ‘anomalies’ or
deviations from the
average rainfall amounts
annually and for the SW
Monsoon months (June-
September).
How do these overlap
with livelihood
changes, crop
failures, bumper harvests
and other events of
importance in the
region?
32. Exactly as expected: Our Muttil data set lies nicely in between the
Chundale and Ambalayaval sets. Dotted lines are for missing years in the
Chundale set
Editor's Notes
This I found to be really interesting: the # of heavy rain days and # of light rain days are going up: but moderate rainfall days are going down! Call it the “Polarisation of daily rainfall events”. This is analysed for the whole year: Can you think of potential impacts of something like this. The # of heavy rain events obviously has a huge effect on soil erosion.
Notes: It’s curious how little average rainfall there is in Jan-Mar, but that is the period when some of the most critical daily-showers occur, vital for a good coffee yield. So in spite of a great deal of rain during the monsoon, an inch of rainfall in Feb can make-or-break a year. -- Thought that this might be an interesting nugget of information that we could share.
Questions to ponder on: If the # of rainy days in the monsoon months (especially July and Sep) are going up, what kind of implications would that have? Can it mean anything for any of the crops? Positive or negative. Remember, the overal amount of rain varies, but has no significant trend.
Check out the left-hand side of that graph. Like I said, I strongly feel that Vimal’s rain gauge underestimates rainfall values <5mm.
This I found to be really interesting: the # of heavy rain days and # of light rain days are going up: but moderate rainfall days are going down! Call it the “Polarisation of daily rainfall events”. This is analysed for the whole year: Can you think of potential impacts of something like this. The # of heavy rain events obviously has a huge effect on soil erosion.
It’ll be really interesting to map the whole Wayanad timeline in reference to this. One thing that I could note was that the years 2001-2004 are all consecutives deficient in rainfall: do you think that might have been a contributing factor in the farmer suicides? Note that 1984-1990 period is also quite similar: maybe we can compare and contrast the two periods and say that socio-economic factors between the two periods changed so drastically that the people of Wayanad were far LESS climate resilient in the 2000s compared to before. Bit of a stretch, I know, but I would love your thoughts on the matter.