Interpolating climate data using wTICD: A web based tool

Climate plays a significant role in agriculture and environmental planning; it is usually a key to understand the interdependence between environmental and biological factors and is widely used in developing ecological zones, biodiversity assessments and agricultural management. Lack of accurate climate data is a problem that many developing countries including India are facing. Spatially distributed estimates of climatic variables are increasingly required for use in geographical information systems and models. Especially in developing countries, there is a need for accurate and inexpensive quantitative approaches to climate data interpolation. Climate data in India is acquired from the weather stations located at different locations in each state. In India, when required climate data for the locations where no weather stations are located, the average (mean) of the climate data from the surroundings locations is considered. Each state doesn't have enough weather stations to even cover each district. Interpolated climate data is a necessity for better planning, forecasting and research related to global climate change scenario. The present study was, therefore taken upon to design and develop a Web-based Tool to interpolate the climate data. In this proposed research work, the geostatistical method of local interpolation i.e. KRIGING has been used.