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Introducing an indicator-based novel approach for exploring the degree of rainfall alteration

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Abstract

The present study majorly focused on the degree of rainfall alteration (DIRA) using an indicator-based novel approach. Most of the previous works majorly focused on only magnitude parameters for measuring monthly rainfall change; however, alteration may also come from other relevant aspects like frequency, timing, rate of change, and duration of rainfall. The present paper considered 33 indicators to assess alterations in rainfall, encompassing various such aspects. Subsequently, it computed the degrees of rainfall alteration categorized as low, moderate, and high range of variability (RVA). This computation was based on the gridded rainfall data endorsed by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Getis-ord was applied to compute the significance of rainfall patterns. The study revealed that middle RVA-based DIRA is low (< 0.33) in the case of magnitude indicators across IMD-defined meteorological sub-divisions, but moderate DIRA (0.33–0.67) was detected in some parts in the case of rate of change, frequency, duration, and timing indicators. This change was detected rather high (moderate to high) over wider parts of India (six and sixteen sub-divisions ) in the case of low and high DIRA. In monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, north-eastern hilly hot spots (95–99% level) were weakened, while it was found enhanced in north-western India. A new rainfall hot spot (95%) was identified in Odisha, Telangana, and Vidarbha transition in 1991–2021. Taking into account the notable success achieved through the IRA approach, the study strongly recommends its application across various related domains.

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Acknowledgements

For this study, we would like to extend our gratitude to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for providing grid-level rainfall data.

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga, Malda, India

    Swades Pal, Gargi Ghosh & Rajesh Sarda

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All the authors contributed to the study's conception and design. Conceptualization; Methodology designing; Supervision; Editing and reviewing and writing of original draft performed by Swades Pal and Rajesh Sarda. Data curation; investigation; formal analysis were performed by Rajesh Sarda and Gargi Ghosh. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rajesh Sarda.

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Pal, S., Ghosh, G. & Sarda, R. Introducing an indicator-based novel approach for exploring the degree of rainfall alteration. Theor Appl Climatol 155, 2801–2817 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04777-7

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