The increase in GHG gases in the atmosphere due to expansions in industrial and vehicular concentration is attributed to warming of the climate world wide. The resultant change in climatic pattern can induce abnormalities in the hydrological cycle. As a result, the regular functionality of river watersheds will also be affected. This Brief highlights a new methodology to rank the watersheds in terms of its vulnerability to change in climate. This Brief introduces a Vulnerability Index which will be directly proportional to the climatic impacts of the watersheds. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Artificial Neural Networks are used in a cascading manner to develop the model for prediction of the vulnerability index.
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1.1.1 Signs of Climate Change |
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1.1.2 Climate Change and Its Impacts |
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1.1.3 Watershed Vulnerabilities |
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1.1.4 Indices Representing Watershed Vulnerability |
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1.1.5 Objective of the Present Investigation |
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2 Climate Change and Its Impacts |
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2.1 Climate Change: Cause and Effects |
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2.2 Impacts on Hydrological Cycle |
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2.3 Impacts on Watersheds |
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3 Watershed Vulnerabilities |
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3.2 Functions of Watersheds |
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3.3 Factors of Vulnerability |
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3.4 Indices Representing Vulnerability |
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4.1 Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process |
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4.1.1 Selection of Criteria |
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4.1.2 Selection of Alternatives |
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4.1.3 Determination of Weights by AHP |
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4.2 Development of Vulnerability Index |
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4.3 Development of the Artificial Neural Network Model |
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4.4 Ranking of Selected Watersheds |
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4.4.1 Data Collection from Climatic Model |
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4.4.2 Prediction from ANN Model |
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5 Results and Discussions |
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5.1.1 Result from AHP Application |
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5.1.3 Performance Metrics of ANN Model |
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5.1.4 Development of the Climate Model |
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5.2 Comparison with Other Similar Studies |
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5.3 Scientific Implications |
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5.4 Assumptions/Limitations |
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Mr. Uttam Roy is a Senior Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Bengal Institute of Technology and Management, India and a Part time Research Scholar in School of Hydro-Informatics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Agartala, India. He is a Master of Mechanical Engineering and has published seven papers in international journals. Dr. Mrinmoy Majumder is presently working as Assistant Professor in School of Hydro-Informatics Engineering of National Institute of Technology, Agartala, Tripura, India from the year of 2010. He has completed his PhD from Jadhavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India in the year of 2010. He has published more than 25 research papers in national and international journals and has published five books from reputed international publishers.