Water Vapor Estimates from Forests and Croplands to Study the Hydrological Balance and Generation of Ecosystem Services: a Case Study of National Capital Region, India

摘要

The critical biophysical water challenge in future will be whether the available freshwater is sufficient to support the food production as well as to generate ecosystem services, because of the pressure on ecosystems due to an increasing population and extensive land use changes. A recent interest in the fresh water assessments is to distinguish between green water (water vapor) and blue water (liquid water) for the integrated management of ecosystems. In the present study, we have attempted a generalized estimation of the mean water vapor from different biomes viz. forests and croplands of the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. The water vapor estimation was done based on previous studies on NCR and following the methodology of Rockstrom et al. (1999). From the values of mean water vapor estimates from forests and croplands for each zone within the NCR, we have derived a ratio between the vapor estimates from forests and croplands and termed it as local ratio (LF/LC). The ratio of the same for the total NCR is also calculated and termed as regional ratio (RF/RC). The results showed that when comparing with the global ratio (GF/GC) which we derived from Rockstrom et al. (1999), LF/LC and RF/RC can be used as a new tool for assessing the impact of land use pattern on the hydrological balance and ecosystem service generation in the region.