**2. Extreme climatic events in India**

Recent studies in India, indicate increasing trends in the occurrence of hydrometeorological extreme climatic events across the country. A systematic analysis of these events pan-India over the last five decades provides insights into the spatial and temporal patterns of these extreme events [15]. This same study indicates, that about 100 million people were affected by floods each year, similarly, 140 million people were affected by droughts each year, about 40 million people were affected by tropical storms and cyclones. Thereby a substantial number of people across the country were affected by these hydro-meteorological events each, almost a quarter of the population in India each year. An analysis of floods, droughts, and cyclones over the last five decades, at the district scale, reveals an increasing trend, especially during the last two decades. For example, the number of annual extreme flood events across India has increased from 2 to 16 during the last five decades (1970– 2020). Likewise, the number of districts affected by floods has also increased from 10 to 150 districts. The number of districts affected by tropical storms and cyclones has increased from 5 to 90. Overall, there is an acceleration in the frequency of floods, increasing at the rate of 25%/decade, likewise, tropical cyclones are increasing at the rate of 6.5%/decade.

While the decadal number of droughts has not revealed any substantial changes, the number of districts affected by droughts has increased from 10 to 250. Prolonged droughts have occurred in different regions of India, for example in the early 2000s, the Western Ghats entered a period of drought, possibly as

a result of global climatic change [16]. Also, the Indian sub-continent and the Western Ghats receive a significant proportion of their annual rainfall from the south-west monsoon. Rainfall data from long-term (1951–2003) observations suggest decreasing trends in both early-monsoon and late-monsoon rainfall and the number of rainy days [17]. Frequent droughts has been a recurrent feature of climate variability in India, between 1901 and 2015, India has experienced 23 drought events [18].

### **2.1 Climatic extremes in AP and Telangana**

Climatic extremes such as cyclone/storms, droughts, floods, and heatwaves are prevalent in the two Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. An analysis of cyclones on the western and eastern coasts of India, over a 100 year period, indicated that close to 92 of the 262 cyclones occurred in a 50 km stretch on the east coast of India [19]. Andhra Pradesh is particularly vulnerable to cyclones formed in the Bay of Bengal. About four cyclones have occurred per decade in Andhra Pradesh since the 1980s, with one out of the four classified as severe.

Precipitation in AP and Telangana are largely due to the Indian monsoon system. The south-west monsoon is the main source of rainfall for the two states [20]. The monsoon advances from the southern tip of peninsular India at the end of May and spreads across the entire country within 10 to 15 days [21]. The monsoon gradually withdraws at the end of September commencing from northern India and reaching the tip of southern peninsular India by early December. Thus the advancing phase (South-West Monsoon) and, the withdrawal phase (North-East Monsoon) contributes to the rainfall pattern in the two states. Apart from the seasonality of rainfall, the distribution is variable, for example, the coastal areas of AP receive higher annual rainfall (750–1500 mm), whereas in the interior areas of AP and Telangana rainfall is much lower (300–500 mm), thus rainfall variability is high, 20 to 30%, particularly high in coastal areas. Thus, heavy rainfall occurs in cyclone prone areas along the coast in AP, besides, the two major river systems in AP and Telangana, the Krishna and Godavari rivers, which originate in the Western Ghats, can cause flooding due to the accumulated discharges of water from upstream areas. The flooding in delta flood plains is exacerbated by the combination of cyclonic rainfall and storm surges.

Droughts are a recurrent feature of the two states, 12.5 million ha in the two states are drought prone [22], defined here as areas that receive annual rainfall less than 75% of the normal (30 year average) in 20% of the years examined and where less than 30% of the cultivated area is irrigated.

Heat waves are another climatic extreme prevalent in the two states, during the months of April and May, maximum temperatures of about 49°C can be recorded. Not only are maximum temperatures high, the duration of maximum temperatures has increased from 7 days during the 1980s to 19 days during the 2000s.

### **3. Climate Change adaptation (CCA)**

Adaptation has been defined by the IPCC as the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities. Increasingly, there has been an emphasis on mechanisms that can anticipate and prepare communities to effectively deal with both gradual climate change and also extreme climatic events, commonly referred to as climate change adaptation strategies. The annual

*Adapting to Climatic Extremes through Climate Resilient Industrial Landscapes: Building… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98732*

average adaptation costs for India in 2100 under various C-C scenarios can range from 0.36% of GDP to 1.32% of GDP [23]. CCA can result in win-win outcomes, by moderating the impacts of climate change, enable sustainable development, and also useful for disaster risk reduction [23]. Hence it will be important to understand how management actions can be developed, refined, and employed in the context of well-developed and flexible management systems in order to enhance our ability to cope with climate change [24].

## **3.1 CCA and Industries in India**

India has embarked on an ambitious industrial program, wherein it plans to increase industrial growth rate from 10 to 14%, increasing the contribution of the industrial sector to 25% of GDP, adding 100 million jobs, by 2022. However, these milestones could be impacted, if industries are not resilient to emergent climate change threats, such as extreme weather. Industries are vulnerable to losses, stemming from extreme climate, due to flooding, tropical storms, and heatwaves. Adaptation, to these emerging threats need to be incorporated into master planning while setting up industrial parks, industrial estates, and special economic zones. There is an urgent need to enhance climate resilient industrial parks throughout the country, resilience could be incorporated at the planning stage for extreme climatic events, it could be made mandatory to include CCA in the EIA. For example adaptation measures such as, managing drainage for run-off of excess water; mitigation of heat islands; increase provision of intermediate water storage facilities; provision for water recycling; creation of green spaces/blue spaces; storm reduction measures; separate storm water/sewage; maintenance of drainage networks. It is important to locate critical infrastructure at higher elevations to prevent flooding. Industries could shift to renewable energy, and also have provision for sustainable backup of power. With increase in the frequency of heat waves, there is need for cooling for ICT facilities; develop shade and cool storage facilities; design green buildings and enhance thermal regulation within elevated buildings; design roofs of industry to cope with tropical storms/hurricanes. There is also need to improve circularity and resource efficiency, through increased water efficiency in production, reuse of water, including recycled materials into the production process, and also reduce dependency on climate impacted raw materials [25].

The efforts to decarbonise and adopt climate resilient development would require substantial knowledge up grading, skill development, and awareness among various stakeholders of the industrial areas in these two states. Capacity development for all stakeholders connected with industrial development in the two states will be critical to meet the needs of a climate resilient industrial development future. Decision makers in departments such as the environment, industries, planning, will have to integrate climate resilience into planning processes. Capacity of technicians and engineers to develop and design novel and innovative technologies, for example the ability to install technologies in renewal energy, will be important. Currently, organizational structures and management skills are lacking to make decisions under climate uncertainty.

Capacity development is central to the improvement of societies, organizations, and individuals and is essential to strengthen and maintain the abilities of these structures at all levels of management. In fact development can encompass a wide variety of measures ranging from, the creation of enabling policies that accelerate the capacity development of organizations/individuals, to changes in individual behaviors through knowledge and skills.
