Impact of AWiFS derived land use land cover on simulation of heavy rainfall

Abstract

Land use/land cover (LU/LC) changes are considered to be one of the most important factors affecting regional climate and are thus an area of public concern. The land surface plays a crucial role in boundary layer evolution and precipitation patterns thereby establishing the need for LU/LC inputs as a critical part of modeling systems. Inaccurate LU/LC information often leads to very large errors in surface energy fluxes thus leading to errors in boundary layer state. We have investigated an incident of heavy rainfall during August 2015 over West Bengal, India using Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model by incorporating different LU/LC datasets, IRS P6 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) LU/LC data for 2012-13 and the default Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) derived USGS LU/LC data for 2001. In the present study, we have made a comparative assessment between AWiFS derived LU/LC and USGS LU/LC by incorporating these datasets as one of the lower boundary conditions over Indian region in WRF model version 3.5.1 to simulate, at 10km resolution, a heavy rainfall event associated with landfall of a cyclonic system over West Bengal. The results of the study suggested influence of LU/LC in occurrence of heavy rainfall with WRF model using AWiFS LU/LC showing more realistic simulation as AWiFS LU/LC is more up-to-date and features recent changes in LU/LC over India.