department highlights
G eolog y and ge ogr ap hy
Mark Steltenpohl, Department Chairman
Chandana Mitra joins the Auburn Family
Chandana Mitra joined the Auburn University family this fall
as an assistant professor of Geology and Geography. Mitra holds a
doctorate in urban climate studies from the University of Georgia and
will continue her studies from her graduate research and dissertation
at Auburn.
As a graduate student, Mitra
collaborated with her advisor to complete
a study on urban precipitation in her
hometown of Kolkata, India.
Mitra’s study analyzed historical rainfall
data and explored the potential association
between the trends in rainfall and urban
land cover change, such as buildings and
roads. Such a study will facilitate better
planning and understanding of the changes
in the water budget in cities with great
expansion, like Kolkata.
“There have been fewer studies on the
developing part of the world than areas like Atlanta, (Ga.) Houston
(Texas) and Phoenix (Ariz.),” Mitra said of the importance of choosing
an area like Kolkata.
Projections by the United Nations further solidified Mitra’s
determination to direct this study toward Kolkata. The U.N. predicts
70 to 75 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas in 20
years, and of this percent, 90 percent of the urban residents will live in
China and India.
Kolkata has experienced a population boom in its nearly
300 years of existence. In 1735, the initial city population was
100,000. According to Mitra, Kolkata experienced a period of rapid
urbanization over
the past 60 years; the
population today stands
at approximately 14.8
million and growing.
Through the
use of Geographic
Information System
techniques on historical
data and remotely
sensed images, Mitra
quantified the growth
of Kolkata over 300
years. She was able to
use the CA-Markov
urban growth model
to predict how the
city would look in
both 2010 and 2025
and found that her
results aligned with
the future urban
growth predictions
of the U.N. With
coinciding numbers
recorded, Mitra used
the WRF-Noah model,
a mesoscale weather
prediction model, to
20
Journey/2012
observe the differences in precipitation in two different scenarios.
Her first scenario left Kolkata as is and included specific
parameters, including precipitation, moisture levels, the planetary
boundary layer and fluxes in climate, such as heat. In the second
scenario, Mitra removed Kolkata from the equation and applied the
parameters to a non-urban setting.
After concluding her analyses, Mitra found that the precipitation
levels were greater in an urban setting as compared to those of a nonurban setting.
“I was not surprised by the results as this is what I had
hypothesized,” Mitra said. “Just like the studies on the cities in the
United States, which had a consensus that urban areas do have an
effect on precipitation levels over a city, my study similarly echoed the
results.”
Mitra plans to continue to broaden her research to include the
Eastern Gangetic Plains and Southern Asia, both of which are
developing areas with projected population booms in the foreseeable
future.
Currently, she has submitted grant proposals to NASA that
will allow her to continue her study in Kolkata as well as Dhaka,
Bangladesh.
Mitra says her research is more than just an academic study, it is
also of practical use to the everyday man or woman. She hopes to get
engaged in outreach programs through Auburn that would educate
others on climate change.
“Climate is a part of life,” Mitra said. “We don’t do anything
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