Abstract

Bhubaneswar is the first designed 'smart city' in India and has experienced rapid urbanization since 2000. the question undertaken in this study is to assess if there is a change in the rainfall over this rapidly urbanizing region, and if so, what are the characteristics of the change? the broader intent is to understand if the change in urbanization and rainfall are interlinked? the India Meteorological Department (hourly station and daily gridded) and Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (3-hourly) datasets are analyzed for the 1980–2018 period (39 years) for different seasons separately. Wavelet and trend analysis reveal that precipitation intensity has increased over the study period. the assessments of the hourly rainfall data show an interesting feature. There is a decrease in the midnight to early-morning rain, with a corresponding increase in the late-afternoon to midnight rainfall. the increase in the rainfall is preferentially downwind and on the east side of the city. a supervised classified land use land cover map of the Bhubaneswar region is developed for 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2019 using Landsat imagery to compute the urban sprawl. the urban area and population density over Bhubaneswar is increasing with time. Analysis of the LULC and rainfall data indicates that the rainfall over urban regions and the shift in the timing of rains to evenings is highly correlated with the urban sprawl.

Department(s)

Biological Sciences

Publication Status

Open Access

Comments

National Science Foundation, Grant AGS 1522494

Keywords and Phrases

Heavy rains; Indian monsoon; Land use land cover change; Pre-monsoon rains; Rainfall modification; Urban climate; Urban sprawl; Wavelet analysis

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2730-6852

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Dec 2023

Included in

Biology Commons

Share

 
COinS