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Environmental Management of River Basin Ecosystems pp 111–125Cite as

Factors Influencing the Runoff Trend in a Medium Sized River Basin in the Western Ghats, India

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Abstract

The present study examines the trends in the annual runoff of a tropical river basin Bharathapuzha, a medium sized river in southern India under the influences of anthropogenic pressures and climate change. The examination of the temporal trends in the rainfall, temperature and river runoff was done using historical datasets. It was supplemented with the data on the land use/land cover (LU/LC) change in the basin based on the LANDSAT TM data. By using a multiple regression model, the influential factors determining the river discharge were identified. The results show that while the rainfall influences the runoff positively, new water bodies, dams and other diversions in the fluvial setup in the basin influence the river runoff negatively.

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Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the IMD, Government of India, Pune, Irrigation Department, Government of Kerala, and the Central Water Commission (Coimbatore and Cochin offices) for providing various data sets on meteorology and river runoff. We thank the Global Land Cover Facility for the RS data. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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  1. P. P. Nikhil Raj

    Present address: Centre for Sustainable Future, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritanagar (PO), Coimbatore, 641112, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Impact Assessment Division, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, 641108, India

    P. P. Nikhil Raj & P. A. Azeez

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  1. P. P. Nikhil Raj
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Correspondence to P. P. Nikhil Raj .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. and South East Asia Carbonate Laboratory (SeaCarl), Universiti Teknologi Petronas,, Periyar University,Depatment of Geology,Salem,India, Tronoh, Malaysia

    Mu. Ramkumar

  2. Department of Geography, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India

    K Kumaraswamy

  3. Department of Environmental Management, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India

    R. Mohanraj

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Raj, P.P.N., Azeez, P.A. (2015). Factors Influencing the Runoff Trend in a Medium Sized River Basin in the Western Ghats, India. In: Ramkumar, M., Kumaraswamy, K., Mohanraj, R. (eds) Environmental Management of River Basin Ecosystems. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13425-3_6

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