Identification of climate changes in the lower indus basin, Sindh, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

There are several factors causing impact on the climatic sustainability. Human's intervention in the hydrodynamic cycle is one of them. The research studies, relevant to downstream areas of some world's major river systems like Huang He, Nile and Danube rivers, show drastic climatic changes in response to the large scale hydrological moderation due to the man-made water-flow diverting activities in the upstream areas. Similar climatic changes have been identified in the case of the Indus river. The results of present study show that the trends of 44-years' annual average temperatures, precipitations and humidity parameters are distinctly changing in the lower Indus river basin from 1961 to 2004 and expectedly onward particularly in and around the delta region. In general, the average annual temperatures show the rising trend and inversely the precipitation and humidity are decreasing causing substantial deterioration of the rainfall scenario in and around the study area. Considering the mass water divergence of the Indus River System in upstream areas causing acute depletion of Indus water-flow into the downstream Kotri barrage areas and the fast urban and industrial developments, it is inferred that the present climate changing trends are being more augmented due to the critical depletion of the Indus environmental-flow in the Badin area of the lower Indus basin as compared to the Hyderabad and the Karachi areas where ever-increasing faster urban and industrial growths are also contributing substantial inverse impact on the climatic parameters