The Mandakini Valley of Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand witnessed unprecedented damage to life, property, infrastructure and landscape on 16 and 17 June 2013 due to torrential rains. Run-off discharge data indicate that antecedent rainfall exceeded the limit and the overflow of rivers led to landslide in the region and flash floods in the downstream areas. Fragile geology of the area, close to Main Central Thrust (MCT), degradation processes and torrential rains are responsible for triggering landslides and

Northern China is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. Agricultural activities have intensified since the 1980s to provide food security to the country. However, this intensification has likely contributed to an increasing scarcity in water resources, which may in turn be endangering food security. Based on in-situ measurements of soil moisture collected in agricultural plots during 1983–2012, we find that topsoil (0–50 cm) volumetric water content during the growing season has declined significantly (p 

The social and economic benefits of the coastal zone make it one of the most treasured environments on our planet. Yet it is vulnerable to increasing anthropogenic pressure and climate change. Coastal management aims to mitigate these pressures while augmenting the socio-economic benefits the coastal region has to offer. However, coastal management is challenged by inadequate sampling of key environmental indicators, partly due to issues relating to cost of data collection.

Tropical forests provide global climate regulation ecosystem services and their clearing is a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resultant radiative forcing of climate change. However, consensus on pan-tropical forest carbon dynamics is lacking. The researchers present a new estimate that employs recommended good practices to quantify gross tropical forest aboveground carbon (AGC) loss from 2000 to 2012 through the integration of Landsat-derived tree canopy cover, height, intactness and forest cover loss and GLAS-lidar derived forest biomass.

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the major source of variability in winter atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere, with large impacts on temperature, precipitation and storm tracks, and therefore also on strategic sectors such as insurance, renewable energy production, crop yields and water management. Recent developments in dynamical methods offer promise to improve seasonal NAO predictions, but assessing potential predictability on multi-annual timescales requires documentation of past low-frequency variability in the NAO.

During and shortly after a disaster data about the hazard and its consequences are scarce and not readily available. This research proposes a methodology that leverages social media content to support rapid inundation mapping, including inundation extent and water depth in case of floods. The use case in the city of Dresden for the June 2013 flood shows that social media may help to bridge the information gap when traditional data sources are lacking or are sparse.

Surface weather conditions are closely governed by the large-scale circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere. Recent increases in the occurrence of some extreme weather phenomena have led to multiple mechanistic hypotheses linking changes in atmospheric circulation to increasing probability of extreme events. However, observed evidence of long-term change in atmospheric circulation remains inconclusive.

Aerosol radiative effects and thermodynamic responses over South Asia are examined with a version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) for March 2012. Model results of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and extinction profiles are analyzed and compared to satellite retrievals and two ground-based lidars located in the northern India.

Environment determines the distribution of mosquito-borne diseases in that it influences the vector-host-pathogen transmission cycle, including vector distribution, abundance and diversity. In this study, we analyse the relationship between environmental variables estimated by remote sensing and the spatial distribution (presence, abundance and diversity) of seven mosquito species vectors of West Nile and other pathogens (Usutu, avian malaria and dirofilariasis) in the Doñana Natural Park, Spain.

This new study led by an Indian scientist Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, points out a significant decreasing trend in the summer monsoon rainfall over the central Indian subcontinent during the past century. It suggests an important role of the rapid warming in the Indian Ocean in weakening of monsoon circulation and rainfall.