Assessment and adaptation strategies for communities in Andhra Pradesh
Projected climatic changes are likely to put additional burden on an already stressed agriculture production system in India. There is a general agreement among the climate models that both temperature and precipitation extremes are likely to change dramatically in the future over the sub-continent. Such changes are likely to increase the frequency of floods, droughts and heat waves over Andhra Pradesh. The farmers and policy makers need to understand the nature of these changes and prepare to minimize the potential damage.
Here we proposed to use the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS, a data-modelling system designed to integrate satellite, surface weather data, weather/climate forecasts with simulation models to assess ecosystem condition and function) to
Characterize the nature of climatic variability and extremes using data from 1969-2005 over two districts (East Godavari which is prone to floods, and Prakasam which is prone to droughts) in Andhra Pradesh.
Characterize ecosystem responses to interannual variability in climate using high-resolution satellite observations collected from 1999 onwards,
Create an early warning system that utilizes TOPS system and expert knowledge to produce weather information tailored to farmers at the block-level instead of routinely available forecast information at the district-level from IMD, and assess its value to the farmers through daily communications and workshops
Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS)
Satellite data analysis
Surface weather analysis
TOPS implementation for producing block-level weather advisories