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Growth of Infrastructure and Climate Change in Guwahati City

Conference Paper · June 2010

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2771.0406

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 Growth of Infrastructure and Climate Change in Guwahati City

Mukul Chandra Bora1

Abstract

Guwahati is the gateway of North East India and is developing very fast and imposes

high growth of infrastructural activities in transportation, real estate industry, health

and education which involves substantial amount of civil engineering works and

materials. A major portion of the East-West corridor is falling in the city area in

which huge quantity of earthwork is involved. The climatic conditions of the area in

and around Guwahati are changing very rapidly and in the last year and this year too

dusty sky was witnessed in the month of Feb-March mainly due to huge amount of

earthwork of NHAI for construction and partly due to deficit in rainfall. The rainfall

data analysis of last 25 years does not shows any change in total rainfall and the

change in climatic conditions is mainly due to change in land cover and construction

work related to of Infrastructural activities. The analysis shows an alarming situation

in terms of climate change of Guwahati city in particular and the neighboring areas in

general. This paper will primarily investigate the impacts of growth of infrastructure

in and around Guwahati and its impact on climatic conditions of Guwahati city.

Keywords: Transportation, East-West, Climate change, rainfall

1: Lecturer (SG) in Civil Engineering, Dibrugarh Polytechnic, Pin: 786010,

Dibrugarh, Assam, India. E-mail: vora.m@mailcity.com

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I. Introduction

North East region was one of the wettest places in India and is full of greenery and

clean sky without much suspended particles in air but the situation is changing due to

deforestation and growth of Infrastructural activities like housing, transportation etc.

The construction work for a portion of the highway which falls in the state of Assam

of East-West corridor is also in full swing in which huge quantity of earthwork is

involved. The climatic conditions of the area in and around Guwahati is changing

very rapidly and in the last year and huge amount of dust was observed in the sky

which is mainly due to the earth work of National Highways Authority of India and

cutting of hills in nearby areas of Meghalaya adjoining to Guwahati city and

Construction work undertaken by Real Estate Industry.

The mechanisms of dust production and the source regions for the dust were also

reported by many researchers e.g. Pewe´, 1981; Prospero, 1981; Pye, 1987; Duce,

1995. The causes and consequences of dusty environment and other toxic volatile

chemicals were earlier studied by various researchers Clay and Dahl 1996, Kaumus

and Wolf, 1996, Simonic and Hites 1995 and reported that the dusty air has a very

adverse impact on the environment. Few researchers revealed that although dust

storms and particles may reduce harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation from the sun

(Bruce 1990), many organic dusts may account for most common exposure leading to

respiratory diseases that come from dusty roads, in mining of minerals, agriculture.

Results of a modeling study by Tegen and Fung 1995, suggest that the mineral dust

flux from disturbed soils disturbed by human activities and by shifts in the boundary

between the Sahara and the Sahel amounts to 30–50% of the total global dust

production.

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II. Causes of Dust in the Air

The construction activities and the rapid industrialisation in and around the Guwahati

city is the major causes for the dusty sky. The growth of population of Guwahati city

was 17.17% in 1941-51 and rose to 65.72% in 1981-1991 which indirectly indicates

the amount of population migrated to the city for better infrastructural facilities in

terms of education, health and employment. The increase in population causes

increase in need for housing which accelerates the real estate industry and reduces the

wetlands and land coverage. The construction of Industrial units in the boarder areas

of Assam and Meghalaya by the side of National Highway 37 by cutting the hill also

posed a great environmental impact on the climate of the Guwahati city as it increases

the amount of suspended dust particles in the air due to removal of land coverage.

The shortage of rainfall also partly contributes towards the increase in suspended dust

particles in the air of Guwahati City. As per Indian Meteorological Department record

shortage of rainfall is observed in Assam and its adjoining States. Northeast India,

which boasts of the world’s wettest place, has witnessed the highest rainfall deficit in

the last 30 years which meteorologists attribute to global warming. Official records

till 20 July say Manipur has been worst affected recording 67% deficient rainfall,

followed by Meghalaya (-55%), Nagaland (-62%), Assam (-34%), Mizoram (-31%),

Tripura (-30%) and Arunachal Pradesh (-29%) in the year 2009. The rainfall in Assam

and Meghalaya in 2009 for the season up to March 11 was only 2.2 mm against

normal figure of 21.3 mm, according to data posted on the website of the Regional

Meteorological Centre, Guwahati. Residents in most localities of Guwahati have been

facing an acute water shortage. The groundwater level has gone down. The paddy

crop in most parts of the State has been affected. As fallout, summer temperatures

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have shot up by almost 5° C on an average over the last two decades in Northeast

India, a region nestled in hills and full of rivers. The analysis shows an alarming

situation in terms of climate change of Guwahati city in particular and the

neighboring areas in general. Also large scale industrialisation of neighboring district

of Guwahati also causes increase in dust and shortage in rainfall of the city due to

cutting of hills in the Meghalaya. Although the rainfall data shows certain amount of

deficit in rainfall but the total rainfall is found to be within the normal range of

variation which may not be due to climatic change. The rainfall data collected from

1985 to 2009 was analysed and presented in the next sections of results and

discussion. The result indicates that the rainfall pattern is the least responsible factors

for the dusty environment of Guwahati City. The dusty weather of Guwahati City in

the Month of February-March 2009 is shown in the Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.

III. Results and discussion

The analysis of total rainfall data with respect to different years is presented in Fig. 3.

The trend of the average rainfall with respect to years shows that the minimum total

rainfall recorded in the Guwahati City is 1650 mm and maximum is 1850mm

respectively. It is observed that minimum rainfall was observed during the years 1996

to 1999 and may be due large scale deforestation taking place in the North Eastern

region. The total rainfall analysis of the period of February-March in 2009 shows a

28% shortage of average rainfall of 85.636mm. But it was observed in the year that in

1996 there was shortfall of 89% of total rainfall but no dusty sky was observed in

Guwahati. Also the population of the city was also very low as compared to the

today’s population. The parabolic distribution of rainfall as shown in Fig.4 does not

show any remarkable changes in the period of rainfall i.e. shifting of monsoon season

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except some variations in total rainfall pattern. So from the above discussion the

following conclusions can be drawn:

IV. Conclusions:

From the above discussion, following conclusions can be drawn:

1. Migration of population from rural areas to the cities is the causes for increase

of suspended particles in the Guwahati Sky.

2. Rapid construction and Industrialisation of the Guwahati causes increase in

suspended particles in Air.

3. Destruction of hills and other land use coverage causes the increase in

suspended particles.

4. The construction of National Highways and Apartments in which huge amount

of earthwork is involved are the major concerns for the dusty air of the

Guwahati City.

5. It can be concluded that the Guwahati City is nearly free from climate change

and subsequent rainfall but the air is contaminant with dust particles due to

constructional activities which can be prevented with certain precautions if

adopted properly.

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References

Bora, M. C., 2010. Climate changes, - Its effect on Ground Water, In Proceedings

National Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management and Impact of

Climate Change, March 5-6, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, pp: 140-150

Bora, M. C., 2010. Changes in land Use - Its effect on climate Change, In

Proceedings of Abstracts of National Seminar on Climate Change and Sustainable

Development, April, 1-3, Tezpur University, Assam, pp: 38

Duce, R.A., 1995. Sources, distributions, and fluxes of mineral aerosols and their

relationship to climate. In: Charlson, R.J., Heintzenberg, J. ŽEds.., Aerosol Forcing of

Climate. Wiley, New York, pp. 43–72.

Pewe, T.L., 1981. Desert dust: an overview. Geol. Soc. Am., Spec. Pap. 186, 71–86.

Prospero, J.M., 1981. Arid regions as sources of mineral aerosols in the marine

atmosphere. Geol. Soc. Am., Spec. Pap. 186, 71–86.

Pye, K., 1987. Aeolian Dust and Dust Deposits. Academic Press, London, 334 pp.

Tegen, I., Lacis, A.A., Fung, I., 1996. The influence on climate forcing of mineral

aerosols from disturbed soils. Nature 380, 419–422.

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Fig. 1: Photograph of Chandmari fly over taken at 2.30PM on 27.2.2009

Fig. 2: Photograph of Guwahati - Shillong Road at 2.30PM on 27.2.2009

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 2600

2400

2200
Total Rainfall (mm)

2000

1800

1600

1400

1200

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Years

Fig. 3: Plot of Total rainfall Versus Number of Years

1000 1985
1987
1989
800
1991
1993
1995
600
Rainfall(mm)

1997
1999
2001
400
2003
2005
2007
200

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month (in numbers)

Fig.4: Parabolic distribution of rainfall of Guwahati city over a period of 23 years

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