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ABSTRACT

Climate change poses uncertainties to the supply and management of water resources. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the global mean surface
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temperature has increased 0.6 ± 0.2 C since 1861, and predicts an increase of 2 to 4 C over
the next 100 years. Temperature increases also affect the hydrologic cycle by directly
increasing evaporation of available surface water and vegetation transpiration. Consequently,
these changes can influence precipitation amounts, timings and intensity rates, and indirectly
impact the flux and storage of water in surface and subsurface reservoirs (i.e., lakes, soil
moisture, groundwater). In addition, there may be other associated impacts, such as sea water
intrusion, water quality deterioration, potable water shortage, etc.

While climate change affects surface water resources directly through changes in the major
long-term climate variables such as air temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration, the
relationship between the changing climate variables and groundwater is more complicated
and poorly understood. The greater variability in rainfall could mean more frequent and
prolonged periods of high or low groundwater levels, and saline intrusion in coastal aquifers
due to sea level rise and resource reduction. Groundwater resources are related to climate
change through the direct interaction with surface water resources, such as lakes and rivers,
and indirectly through the recharge process. The direct effect of climate change on
groundwater resources depends upon the change in the volume and distribution of
groundwater recharge. Therefore, quantifying the impact of climate change on groundwater
resources requires not only reliable forecasting of changes in the major climatic variables, but
also accurate estimation of groundwater recharge.

A number of Global Climate Models (GCM) are available for understanding climate and
projecting climate change. There is a need to downscale GCM on a basin scale and couple
them with relevant hydrological models considering all components of the hydrological
cycle. Output of these coupled models such as quantification of the groundwater recharge
will help in taking appropriate adaptation strategies due to the impact of climate change. This
paper presents the status of research studies carried out at national and international level to
quantify the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources and recommends direction
for carrying out the R&D studies to assess the impact of climate change on groundwater
resources in the context of Indian conditions.
Carbon capture:

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the
carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Furthermore, the use of CCS with renewable biomass is one of the few carbon abatement technologies that can
be used in a 'carbon-negative' mode – actually taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
The CCS chain consists of three parts; capturing the carbon dioxide, transporting the carbon dioxide, and
securely storing the carbon dioxide emissions, underground in depleted oil and gas fields or deep saline aquifer
formations.
First, capture technologies allow the separation of carbon dioxide from gases produced in electricity generation
and industrial processes by one of three methods: pre-combustion capture, post-combustion captureand oxyfuel
combustion.
Carbon dioxide is then transported by pipeline or by ship for safe storage. Millions of tonnes of carbon
dioxide are already transported annually for commercial purposes by road tanker, ship and pipelines. The U.S.
has four decades of experience of transporting carbon dioxide by pipeline for enhanced oil recovery projects.
The carbon dioxide is then stored in carefully selected geological rock formation that are typically located several
kilometres below the earth's surface.
At every point in the CCS chain, from production to storage, industry has at its disposal a number of process
technologies that are well understood and have excellent health and safety records. The commercial deployment
of CCS will involve the widespread adoption of these CCS techniques, combined with robust monitoring
techniques and Government regulation.

There are three main techniques: the post-combustion process involves


scrubbing the power plant's exhaust gas using chemicals. Pre-combustion
CCS takes place before the fuel is placed in the furnace by first converting
coal into a clean-burning gas and stripping out the CO2 released by the
process. The third method, oxyfuel, burns the coal in an atmosphere with a
higher concentration of pure oxygen, resulting in an exhaust gas that is
almost pure CO2. (See below for further details).

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