The State Environment, Climate Change and Forest Department has revived the Climate Studio set up at the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management (CCCDM) at Anna University.
Though the “Climate Studio” was set up in 2019 along with adequate accessories, it was not operationalised till now for various reasons. The department reviewed the functions of this studio and decided to revive its activities.
The main objective of the studio is to contribute to capacity building and knowledge management on climate science and research, said Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department.
The target groups will be government officials, scientists, young researchers and other stakeholders. It is one of its kind established with high performance computation facility cluster with storage and accessories for climate modelling.
The studio will provide updated high resolution and robust regional climate scenario for micro level policy planning covering the entire State. It will perform periodical assessment of climate change impact and vulnerability of natural resources viz., agriculture, water resources, forest, biodiversity and coastal area management based on continuous assessment reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It will also develop multi-sectoral cadastral level spatial information using renowned software to give clear idea of climate impact and damages already caused on ecosystem and its future vulnerability on natural resources. The other objective is to disseminate knowledge to stakeholders - planners, scientific workers, NGOs and community in the local language.
It will provide with district / block level climate snapshots, says Ms. Sahu. It will also enable easy access to climate information through a web portal and help in building climate expertise, especially among young people, she notes.
Anna University will furnish quarterly returns on works completed and research undertaken. A training module for government officials, students and NGOs will also be prepared. The department has allocated ₹3.45 crore for 2022-23 to revive the climate studio.
Facilities at the Climate Studio
* Models and tools to assess forestry, coastal, health and biodiversity
* Regional Climate Model - PRECIS.
* Coastal Area Management - SimCLIM - Sea Level Rise Predictions.
* Water Sector - MIKE SHE and SWAT
* Agriculture Model - DSSAT, InfoCrop
* Forestry sector - Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM).
* Statistical and mapping model - R, Python & ATcGIS
