Climate and Weather

Last week’s strategically timed declaration by India’s Jairam Ramesh, to set numerical targets for emissions, is a coup of sorts. Coming on the heels of U.S. administration’s shelving of the much hyped Climate and Energy Bill, this not only proves that India’s commitments on the climate front are more than honourable, but also places pressure on U.S. to perform on its climate commitments.

The BALWOIS 2010 Conference on Water Observation and Information Systems for Decision Support will be organised from 25 to 29 May in Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia. We are sending you short information, all information you can find on the website

We foresee that this data can be useful in making rainwater harvesting and water balance estimates, in various research areas, climate change adaptation studies and more. We also believe in the democratising effect of having this kind of data freely available to the general public.

In addition to controlling gully erosion, check dams also serve to slow the movement of water, allowing increased percolation into the soil. Just above a check dam is a good place to put in a percolation structure. Silt that builds up behind the dam creates good farmland, which can be planted after the rains while it retains moisture. The following series of pictures show one farmer’s success with building a percolation tank just upstream of a series of check-dams.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Preeti Gupta, WES-Net

The Greenpeace have undertaken a lot of commendable work in the field of climate change. This link takes you through their climate change campaigns involving the masses.

This presentation by Arghyam deals with filters used in a rainwater harvesting system as also in other sources to remove suspended pollutants from rainwater collected. In a rainwater harvesting system, the water comes in contact with several surfaces, such as the roof or gutters. Water sources too are contaminated by various minerals and chemicals. These affect the colour, odour, taste and composition of water.Its flow becomes possibly mixed with leaves or dust.

Forwarded to the Portal by: WinrockWater Yahoo Group Image and Content Courtesy: IWA Congress The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition is a high-profile international event attracting thousands of water professionals and organizations from across the globe. It is a biennial event organised by the International Water Association and previously hosted by Vienna, Beijing, Marrakech, Melbourne, Berlin and Paris. Montreal will be hosting the upcoming session from the 19^th to 24^th of September 2010. The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, the Associations main biennial event, is a valuable and unique opportunity for the community of world-leading water professionals to meet, exchange ideas, explore the state of the art and debate the key issues underlying the science and practice of water. It is also where the entire water community congregates and in particular IWA specialist groups showcase their work and plan for future activities.

This document describes the drought situation in India over the years, the earlier perspective at drought management and the gradual change in perspective at managing droughts that evolved over the years.

Climate Change is a significant change in temperature, wind patterns and precipitation that occurs over a long period of time. Some of these changes occur in cycles over decades, hundreds, thousands and millions of years; some could be random occurrences.