Professor, Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences, IIT Gandhinagar
Co-Coordinator, KPCSD, IIT Gandhinagar
Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI)
Fellow, American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Editor, Earth’s Future
Associate Editor, Journal of Hydrology
BTech: C. S. A. University, Kanpur, India, 2003
MTech: IIT Kharagpur, India, 2005
PhD: Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA, 2010
Email: vmishra -AT- iitgn.ac.in
Research Interests: Climate change, Climate variability, Hydrologic modelling, extreme climatic events, global food and water security
Prof Mishra’s research focuses on understanding impacts of climate variability and climate change on various aspects (eg. water resources, energy, infrastructure, and food security) related to humans and society. He integrates observed and remotely sensed datasets with large scale hydrologic modelling to answer important questions related to human-climate interactions. Current research focuses on three main areas: 1. Risks of extreme climatic events under the projected climate change; 2. Effects of changes and variability in extreme climate on energy and infrastructure demands; 3. Impacts of climate variability and climate change on food and water security.
Social media Handles
Twitter: @vmishraiit
LinkedIn: vimal-mishra-21162265
Lab
Water and Climate Lab: http://vmishra.people.iitgn.ac.in/water&climate/
Publications
Book/ book chapters:
Mishra, Vimal et al., “Droughts and floods”, in Assessment of climate change over the Indian region, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2_6, Singapore: Springer Nature, pp. 117-141, June 2020, ISBN: 9789811543265.
Journal papers:
Singh, Jitendra; Ashfaq, Moetasim; Skinner, Christopher B.; Anderson, Weston B.; Mishra, Vimal and Singh, Deepti, “Enhanced risk of concurrent regional droughts with increased ENSO variability and warming”, Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01276-3, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 163-170, Feb. 2022.
Tiwari, Amar Deep and Mishra, Vimal, “Sub-seasonal prediction of drought and streamflow anomalies for water management in India”, JGR Atmospheres, DOI: 10.1029/2021JD035737, Jan. 2022.
Bhardwaj, Kunal and Mishra, Vimal, “Drought detection and declaration in India”, Water Security, DOI: 10.1016/j. wasec.2021.100104, vol. 14, Dec. 2021.
Mishra, Vimal and Aadhar, Saran, “Famines and likelihood of consecutive megadroughts in India”, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, DOI: 10.1038/s41612-021-00219-1, vol. 4, no. 1, Dec. 2021.
Christian, Jordan I.; Basara, Jeffrey B.; Hunt, Eric D.; Otkin, Jason A.; Furtado, Jason C.; Mishra, Vimal; Xiao, Xiangming and Randall, Robb M., “Global distribution, trends, and drivers of flash drought occurrence”, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26692-z, vol. 12, no. 1, Dec. 2021.
Kushwaha, Anuj Prakash; Tiwari, Amar Deep; Dangar, Swarup; Shah, Harsh; Mahto, Shanti Shwarup and Mishra, Vimal, “Multimodel assessment of water budget in Indian sub-continental river basins”, Journal of Hydrology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126977, vol. 603, Dec. 2021.
Christian, Jordan I.; Basara, Jeffrey B.; Hunt, Eric D.; Otkin, Jason A.; Furtado, Jason C.; Mishra, Vimal; Xiao, Xiangming and Randall, Robb M., “Global distribution, trends, and drivers of flash drought occurrence”, Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26692-z, vol. 12, no. 1, Nov. 2021.
Dangar, Swarup and Mishra, Vimal, “Natural and anthropogenic drivers of the lost groundwater from the Ganga river basin”, Environmental Research Letters, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac2ceb, Oct. 2021.
Ossandón, Álvaro; Rajagopalan, Balaji; Lall, Upmanu; J. S. Nanditha and Mishra, Vimal, “A bayesian hierarchical network model for daily streamflow ensemble forecasting”, Water Resources Research, DOI: 10.1029/2021WR029920, Aug. 2021.
Shah, Arpit; Garg, Amit and Mishra, Vimal, “Quantifying the local cooling effects of urban green spaces: evidence from Bengaluru, India”, Landscape and Urban Planning, DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104043, vol. 209, May 202
S., Nanditha and Mishra, Vimal, “On the need of ensemble flood forecast in India”, Water Security, DOI: 10.1016/j.wasec.2021.100086, vol. 12, Apr. 2021.
Mishra, V.; Thirumalai, K.; Jain, S. and Aadhar, S., “Unprecedented drought in South India and recent water scarcity”, Environmental Research Letters, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abf289, Mar. 2021.
Asoka, Akarsh; Wardlow, Brian; Tsegaye, Tadesse; Huber, Matthew and Mishra, Vimal, “A satellite-based assessment of the relative contribution of hydroclimatic variables on vegetation growth in global agricultural and non-agricultural regions”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, DOI: 10.1029/2020JD033228, Feb. 2021.
Dangar, Swarup; Asoka, Akarsh and Mishra, Vimal, “Causes and implications of groundwater depletion in India: A review”, Journal of Hydrology, DOI: 10.1016/j. jhydrol.2021.126103, Feb. 2021.
Shah, Deep; Shah, Harsh Lovekumar; Dave, Hari Manish and Mishra, Vimal, “Contrasting influence of human activities on agricultural and hydrological droughts in India”, Science of The Total Environment, DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.144959, Feb. 2021.
Mishra, Vimal; Aadhar, Saran and Mahto, Shanti Shwarup, “Anthropogenic warming and intraseasonal summer monsoon variability amplify the risk of future flash droughts in India”, npj climate and atmospheric science, DOI: 10.1038/s41612- 020-00158-3, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 2021.
Aadhar, S. and Mishra, V., “On the occurrence of the worst drought in South Asia in the observed and future climate”, Environmental Research Letters, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abd6a6, Dec. 2020.
Shah, D. and Mishra, V., “Strong influence of changes in terrestrial water storage on flood potential in India”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, DOI: 10.1029/2020JD033566, Dec. 2020.
Kumar, R. and Mishra, V., “Increase in population exposure due to dry and wet extremes in India under a warming climate”, Earth’s Future, DOI: 10.1029/2020EF001731, Nov. 2020.
Ambika, Anukesh Krishnankutty and Mishra, Vimal, “Substantial decline in atmospheric aridity due to irrigation in India”, Environmental Research Letters, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abc8bc, Nov. 2020.
Mishra, V.; Bhatia, U. and Tiwari, A.D., “Bias-corrected climate projections for South Asia from coupled model intercomparison project-6”, Scientific Data, DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-00681-1, vol. 7, no. 1, Oct. 2020.
Mishra, Vimal; Ambika, Anukesh Krishnankutty; Asoka, Akarsh; Aadhar, Saran; Buzan, Jonathan; Kumar, Rohini and Huber, Matthew, “Moist heat stress extremes in India enhanced by irrigation”, Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/s41561-020-00650-8, vol. 13, no. 11, pp. 722-728, Oct. 2020.
Asoka, A. and Mishra, V., “A strong linkage between seasonal crop growth and groundwater storage variability in India”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-20-0085.1, Sep. 2020.
Mishra, Vimal; Shah, Harsh; López, M. Rocío Rivas; Lobanova, Anastasia and Krysanova, Valentina, “Does comprehensive evaluation of hydrological models influence projected changes of mean and high flows in the Godavari River basin?”, Climatic Change, DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02847-7, Sep. 2020.
Mishra, Vimal et al., “Droughts and floods”, in Assessment of climate change over the Indian region, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2_6, Singapore: Springer Nature, pp. 117-141, June 2020, ISBN: 9789811543265. (please delete)
S., Nanditha, Weil, K., Bhatia, U., Stone, D., Selten, F. M., Mishra, V., “A seven-fold rise in the probability of exceeding the observed hottest summer in India in a 2°C warmer world”, Environmental Research Letters, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab7555, Apr. 2020.
Asoka, Akarsh and Mishra, Vimal, “Anthropogenic and climate contributions on the changes in terrestrial water storage in India”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, DOI: 10.1029/2020JD032470, Apr. 2020.
Mishra, V.; Thirumalai, K.; Singh, D. and Aadhar, S., “Future exacerbation of hot and dry summer monsoon extremes in India”, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, vol. 3, DOI: 10.1038/ s41612-020-0113-5, Mar. 2020.
Aadhar, S. and Mishra, V., “Increased drought risk in South Asia under warming climate: implications of uncertainty in potential evapotranspiration estimates”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-19-0224.1, Mar. 2020.
Mishra, V., “Long-term (1870–2018) drought reconstruction in context of surface water security in India”, Journal of Hydrology, vol. 580, DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124228, Jan. 2020.
Shah, D. and Mishra, V., “Integrated Drought Index (IDI) for drought monitoring and assessment in India”, Water Resources Research, vol. 56, no. 2, DOI: 10.1029/2019WR026284, Dec. 2019.
Meghwal, R., Shah, D., Mishra, V., “On the changes in groundwater storage variability in Western India using GRACE and well observations”, Remote Sensing in Earth Systems Sciences, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 260-272, DOI: 10.1007/s41976-019-00026-6, Dec. 2019.
Shah, H. L., Zhou, T., Huang, M., Mishra, V., “Roles of irrigation and reservoir operations in modulating terrestrial water and energy budgets in the Indian sub‐continental river basins”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, vol. 124, no. 23, pp. 12915-12936, DOI: 10.1029/2019JD031059, Dec. 2019.
Aadhar, S. and Mishra, V., “A substantial rise in the area and population affected by dryness in South Asia under 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5C warmer worlds”, Environmental Research Letters, vol. 14, no. 11, DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab4862, Nov. 2019.
Bhatia, U. and Ganguly, A.R., “Precipitation extremes and depth-duration-frequency under internal climate variability”, Scientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45673-3, June 2019.
Ali, H., Modi, P. and Mishra, V., “Increased flood risk in Indian sub-continent under the warming climate”, Weather and Climate Extremes, vol. 25, DOI: 10.1016/j.wace.2019.100212, May 2019.
Shah, H.L., Zhou, T., Huang, M., Mishra, V., Strong influence of irrigation on water budget and land surface temperature in Indian sub‐continental river basins”, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 1449-1462, DOI: 10.1029/2018JD029132, Feb. 2019.
Papers presented at conference:
Shah, Harsh Lovekumar and Mishra, Vimal et al., “Similarities and differences among ten global water models in modelling water use”, in the JpGU – AGU Virtual Meeting, Tokyo, JP, July 12-16, 2020.
Shah, Harsh Lovekumar and Mishra, Vimal et al., “Similarities and differences among fifteen global water models in simulating the vertical water balance”, in the EGU Online Meeting, Munich, DE, May 4-8, 2020.
Tiwari, Amar Deep; Sahai, A. K.; Wood, Andy and Mishra, Vimal, “Short to sub-seasonal streamflow forecasts for reservoir operations in India”, in the AGU Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, US, Dec. 9-13, 2019.
Projects
An experimental operational hydrologic modelling and forecasting system for river basin hydrology and extremes for India; Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM)
Water Resources and Climate Change; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Impacts of climate variability and climate change on water resources in the Sabarmati river basin; Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR)
Implications of Covid-19 on Gujarat State from Climate Change Perspective; Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA)
Risk and uncertainty assessment for critical railway infrastructure due to impacts of climate change; Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)
Integrated real time hydroclimatic framework and forecasting system for Gujarat; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Revision of Gujarat’s State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC), GEDA
Collaborations
Prof Mishra majorly collaborates with the MoEFCC, Government of Gujarat, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
