Water footprint (WF), a comprehensive indicator of water resources appropriation, has evolved as an efficient tool to improve the management and sustainability of water resources. This study quantifies the blue and green WF of major cereals crops in India using high resolution soil and climatic datasets. A comprehensive modelling framework, consisting of Evapotranspiration based Irrigation Requirement (ETIR) tool, was developed for WF assessment. For assessing climate change impact on WF, multi-model ensemble climate change scenarios were generated using the hybrid-delta ensemble method for RCP4.5 and RCP6.0 and future period of 2030s and 2050s. The total WF of the cereal crops are projected to change in the range of - 3.2 to 6.3% under different RCPs in future periods. Although, the national level green and blue WF is projected to change marginally, distinct trends were observed for Kharif (rainy season-June to September) and rabi (winter season-October to February) crops. The blue WF of paddy is likely to decrease by 9.6%, while for wheat it may increase by 4.4% under RCP4.5 during 2050s. The green WF of rabi crops viz. wheat and maize is likely to increase in the range of 20.0 to 24.1% and 9.9 to 16.2%, respectively. This study provides insights into the influences of climate change on future water footprints of crop production and puts forth regional strategies for future water resource management. In view of future variability in the WFs, a water footprint-based optimization for relocation of crop cultivation areas with the aim of minimising the blue water use would be possible management alternative.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88223-6 | DOI Listing |
Environ Sci Technol
January 2025
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1C 1A4.
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Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309.
Amid global challenges like climate change, extinctions, and disease epidemics, science and society require nuanced, international solutions that are grounded in robust, interdisciplinary perspectives and datasets that span deep time. Natural history collections, from modern biological specimens to the archaeological and fossil records, are crucial tools for understanding cultural and biological processes that shape our modern world. At the same time, natural history collections in low and middle-income countries are at-risk and underresourced, imperiling efforts to build the infrastructure and scientific capacity necessary to tackle critical challenges.
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Department of Geoinformatics, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India.
On 3 October 2023, a multihazard cascade in the Sikkim Himalaya, India, was triggered by 14.7 million m of frozen lateral moraine collapsing into South Lhonak Lake, generating an ~20 m tsunami-like impact wave, breaching the moraine, and draining ~50 million m of water. The ensuing Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) eroded ~270 million m of sediment, which overwhelmed infrastructure, including hydropower installations along the Teesta River.
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Global Health Program, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, United States of America.
Climate change is having unprecedented impacts on human health, including increasing infectious disease risk. Despite this, health systems across the world are currently not prepared for novel disease scenarios anticipated with climate change. While the need for health systems to develop climate change adaptation strategies has been stressed in the past, there is no clear consensus on how this can be achieved, especially in rural areas in low- and middle-income countries that experience high disease burdens and climate change impacts simultaneously.
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January 2025
Laboratory of Quantitative Global Change Ecology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Human-driven Arctic warming and resulting sea ice loss have been associated with declines in several polar bear populations. However, quantifying how individual responses to environmental change integrate and scale to influence population dynamics in polar bears has yet to be achieved. We developed an individual-based bioenergetic model and hindcast population dynamics across 42 years of observed sea ice conditions in Western Hudson Bay, a region undergoing rapid environmental change.
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