Abstract
Three major river basins of India which include the Indus , the Ganges and the Brahmaputra contribute more than 50 % of the river discharge of the country. Widely varying average annual precipitations have been reported for these basins. The average annual precipitation is a basic input data for any developmental planning. Low density of rain gauge stations especially in mountainous area, extreme variation in altitudes and large size of these basins forces adaption of remote sensed data for estimation of average annual precipitation. In the present study, 11-years (2000–2010) Tropical Rain Measurement Mission (TRMM) generated radar precipitation raw data has been used for estimating the annual precipitation. The results indicate 434, 1,094 and 2,143 mm annual precipitation for the Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra basins respectively. The contoured distribution of precipitation indicates the orographic control as the primary factor on the summer monsoon precipitation in the Ganges and the Brahmaputra basins. Indus basin behaves independent of the Indian summer monsoon.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anders AM, Roe GH, Hallet B, Montgomery DR, Finnegan NJ, Putkonen J (2006) Spatial patterns of precipitation and topography in the Himalaya. In: Willett SD, Hovius N, Brandon MT, Fisher D (eds) Tectonics, climate, and landscape evolution. Geological Society of America Special Paper 398, pp 39–53
Bajracharya SM, Shrestha B (2011) The status of glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. ICIMOD, Kathmandu
Barros AP, Lang TJ (2003) Monitoring the monsoon in the Himalayas: observations in the Central Nepal, June 2001. Monthly Weather Review 131(7):1408–1427
Barros AP, Joshi M, Putkonen J, Burbank DW (2000) A study of the 1999 monsoon rainfall in a mountainous region in central Nepal using TRMM products and rain gauge observations. Geophys Res Lett 27(22):3683–3686
Bookhagen B, Thiede RC, Strecker MR (2005) Late quaternary intensified monsoon phases control landscape evolution in the northwest Himalaya. Geology 33(2):149–152. doi:10.1130/G20982.1
Bookhagen B, Burbank DW (2006) Topography, relief, and TRMM derived rainfall variations along the Himalaya. Geophys Res Lett 33:L08405. doi:10.1029/2006GL026037
Bookhagen B, Burbank DW (2010) Towards a complete Himalayan hydrological budget: spatiotemporal distribution of snowmelt and rainfall and their impact on river discharge. J Geophys Res 115:F03019. doi: 10.1029/2009JF001426
Boss RW, Kuang Z (2010) Dominant control of the South Asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating. Nature 463(7278):218–222. doi:10.1038/nature08707
Chalise SR, Khanal NR (2001) An introduction to climate, hydrology and landslide hazards in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region. In: Tianchi L, Chalise SR, Upreti BN (eds). Landslide hazard mitigation in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas. ICIMOD, Kathmandu
Gadgil S (2003) The Indian monsoon and its variability. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 31:429–467. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.31.100901.141251
Immerzeel WW, van Beek LPH, Bierkens MFP (2010) Climate change will affect the asian water towers. Science 328:1382. doi:10.1126/science.1183188
IUCN/IWMI, Ramsar Convention Bureau, WRI (2002) Watersheds of the world. World Resources Institute, Washington
Jain SK, Kumar V (2012) Trend analysis of rainfall and temperature data for India. Curr Sci 102(1):37–49
Jianchu X, Shrestha A, Eriksson M (2009) IHP/HWRP report on climate change and its impacts on glaciers and water resource management in the Himalayan region
Lang TJ, Barros AP (2002) An investigation of the onset of the 1999 and 2000 monsoon in Central Nepal. Monthly Weather Review 130:1299–1316. doi:10.1175/1520-0493
Lang TJ, Barros AP (2004) Winter storms in the Central Himalayas. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 80(3):829–844
Maurya AS, Shah M, Deshpande RD, Bhardwaj RM, Prasad A, Gupta SK (2011) Hydrograph separation and precipitation source identification using stable water isotopes and conductivity: River Ganga at Himalayan foothills. Hydrol Process 25:1530–1531
Merz J (2004) Water balances, floods and sediment transport in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas. University of Bern, Bern, pp 51–62
Mi D, Xie Z (2002) Glacier Inventory of China. Xi’an Cartographic Publishing House, Xi’an
Shrestha AB, Wake CP, Dibb JE, Mayewski PA (2000) Precipitation fluctuations in the Nepal himalaya and its vicinity and relationship with some large scale climatological parameters. Int J Climatol 20:317–327
Singh P, Kumar N (1995) Effect of orography on precipitation in the western Himalayan region. J Hydrol 199:183–206
Webster PJ (1987) The elementary monsoon. Wiley, New York, p 32
Webster PJ, Magana VO, Palmer TN, Shukla J, Tomas RA, Yanai M, Yasunari T (1998) Monsoons: processes, predictability, and the prospects for prediction. J Geophys Res 103(C7):14451–510. doi:10.1029/97JC02719
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Khan, A.A., Pant, N.C., Goswami, A., Lal, R., Joshi, R. (2015). Critical Evaluation and Assessment of Average Annual Precipitation in The Indus, The Ganges and The Brahmaputra Basins, Northern India. In: Joshi, R., Kumar, K., Palni, L. (eds) Dynamics of Climate Change and Water Resources of Northwestern Himalaya. Society of Earth Scientists Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13743-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13743-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13742-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13743-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)