Climate change in India: regional variances, trends, and implications with a focus on Delhi

Abstract

This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of India’s climatic trends, emphasizing Delhi’s climate specifics by analyzing extensive datasets encompassing diverse Indian landscapes. It reveals temporal and spatial variations in temperature and precipitation, utilizing statistical tools and innovative methodologies to scrutinize annual and seasonal rainfall variability and temperature patterns. The insights drawn provide crucial inputs for regional planning, adaptive strategies, and informed decision-making amid climate change impacts. Climate change, a global concern with diverse regional nuances across geographical landscapes, is examined within India’s heterogeneous terrain that has witnessed notable climatic shifts. Numerous studies have outlined climate variability and changes in precipitation and temperature trends across the country, yet uncertainties persist regarding regional impacts due to India’s diverse topography and varied climatic zones. This research amalgamates comprehensive Indian climate data and focuses on Delhi, the nation’s capital, to unravel temporal and spatial climate variations, employing statistical tools and methodologies to elucidate specific climatic trends within Delhi. The study’s objectives encompass scrutinizing annual and seasonal rainfall variability, temperature patterns, and identifying trends through innovative methodologies, signifying the importance of understanding local-scale climate trends for sustainable development, resource allocation, and region-specific adaptation strategies. Employing statistical tools, the research aims to bridge the gap between global climate models and localized climate dynamics, offering crucial data-driven insights for policymakers, environmentalists, and local communities. Integrating diverse datasets and analytical methods enables a comprehensive examination of climate trends, facilitating a deeper understanding of temporal and spatial variability in Indian and Delhi-specific climates. The study concludes with significant findings highlighting temperature shifts across Indian regions, emphasizing vulnerability in coastal areas and islands, and establishing a continuous rise in India’s temperatures from 1901 to 2020, signaling irregular spikes in recent decades. It reinforces the need for tailored climate adaptation strategies, especially for vulnerable coastal and island areas, and emphasizes the efficacy of non-parametric tests in detecting substantial trends in non-normally distributed data, while suggesting future research directions focusing on urbanization’s impact on climate and monitoring evolving climate patterns for informed decision-making and sustainable planning.