Global Warming and Its Effect on Flow in Ganga River

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sharan, Anand M. | Pathak, Manabendra

Affiliations: Faculty of Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Patna – 800013, India

Note: [] Corresponding author: E-mail: mpathak@iitp.ac.in

Abstract: In this work, water flow in the Ganga River has been analyzed based on the available data starting from the year 1850 to the average of years 2002 to 2006 at Farakka in West Bengal. The flow has been related with rainfall data in the Ganga basin starting in the year 1980, and the average rainfall data in the years 2002 to 2006. The year 1980 has been chosen based on the fact that after this year the global warming trend has increased (Adhikari and Huybrechts, 2009). The location at Farakka has been chosen to incorporate the contributions of entire Himalayan glaciers in enhancing the flow of Ganga upstream of Farakka. This way, the results have been presented to include the effects of glaciers melting at the source of Ganga and also the contributions of other rivers which are tributaries of Ganga. The result shows that there is significant effect of global warming on melting of Himalayan glaciers and the flow rate of Ganga.

Keywords: Global warming, melting of glaciers, flow in Ganga, glacier fed rivers

Journal: Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 117-122, 2013