scholarly journals Hydro-Climatic Variability in the Karnali River Basin of Nepal Himalaya

Climate ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kabi Khatiwada ◽  
Jeeban Panthi ◽  
Madan Shrestha ◽  
Santosh Nepal

Global climate change has local implications. Focusing on datasets from the topographically-challenging Karnali river basin in Western Nepal, this research provides an overview of hydro-climatic parameters that have been observed during 1981–2012. The spatial and temporal variability of temperature and precipitation were analyzed in the basin considering the seven available climate stations and 20 precipitation stations distributed in the basin. The non-parametric Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s method were used to study the trends in climate data. Results show that the average precipitation in the basin is heterogeneous, and more of the stations trend are decreasing. The precipitation shows decreasing trend by 4.91 mm/year, i.e., around 10% on average. Though the increasing trends were observed in both minimum and maximum temperature, maximum temperature trend is higher than the minimum temperature and the maximum temperature trend during the pre-monsoon season is significantly higher (0.08 °C/year). River discharge and precipitation observations were analyzed to understand the rainfall-runoff relationship. The peak discharge (August) is found to be a month late than the peak precipitation (July) over the basin. Although the annual precipitation in most of the stations shows a decreasing trend, there is constant river discharge during the period 1981–2010.

Sci ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohan Chand ◽  
Bikas Bhattarai ◽  
Prashant Baral ◽  
Niraj Pradhananga

Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin are analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m asl. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods are applied to fill in the missing data. Annual as well as seasonal trends are analyzed and Mann-Kendall test is employed for testing the statistical significance of detected trend. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028 ∘ C per year to 0.035 ∘ C per year with a mean increasing trend of 0.03 ∘ C per year after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons isn’t sufficiently large. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006 ∘ C per m with the steepest value (−0.0064 ∘ C per m) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052 ∘ C per m) in winter season is observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate data sets shows reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujeet Kumar ◽  
Shakti Suryavanshi

A trend analysis was performed for historic (1901-2002) climatic variables (Rainfall, Maximum Temperature and Minimum Temperature) of Uttarakhand State located in Northern India. In the serially independent climatic variables, Mann-Kendall test (MK test) was applied to the original sample data. However, in the serially correlated series, prewhitening is utilized before employing the MK test. The results of this study indicated a declining trend of rainfall in monsoon season for seven out of thirteen districts of Uttarakhand state. However, an increasing trend was observed in Haridwar and Udhamsingh Nagar districts for summer season rainfall. For maximum and minimum temperature, a few districts exhibited a declining trend in monsoon season whereas many districts exhibited an increasing trend in winter and summer season. Mountain dominated areas (as Uttarakhand state) are specific ecosystems, distinguished by their diversity, sensitivity and intricacy. Thus the variability of rainfall and temperature has a severe and rapid impact on mountainous ecosystems. Nevertheless, mountains have significant impacts on hydrology, which may further threaten populations living in the mountain areas as well as in adjacent, lowland regions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-158
Author(s):  
Rajedra Prasad Upadhayaya ◽  
Madhab Prasad Baral

Climate change is a global threat that has particularly strong impacts on countries whose economies are highly dependent on agriculture and still developing--like Nepal. The main objective of this study is to assess the trend of climate change in Gandaki Province, Nepal. This study is based on secondary data. It utilizes the data from the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology between 1970- 2018 based on eight districts with 10 different stations ranging from 110m. to 2680m. in Gandaki Province. Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope is used to find the trend. The analyses reveal that trend of maximum temperature is increasing and significant. The maximum temperature trend is 0.08°C/year in monsoon and post-monsoon which is greater than the global rate. The minimum temperature trend is positive and significant and is highest in the monsoon season (0.04°C/year). The trend of the average rainfall sum is insignificant and is positive only in pre-monsoon and negative in other seasons, which indicates erratic rainfall that causes floods and droughts.


Sci ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Mohan Bahadur Chand ◽  
Bikas Chandra Bhattarai ◽  
Prashant Baral ◽  
Niraj Shankar Pradhananga

Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier ice. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin were analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m a.s.l. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods were applied to fill in missing data and to detect trends. Annual as well as seasonal trends were analyzed and a Mann-Kendall test was employed to test the statistical significance of detected trends. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028 °C year−1 to 0.035 °C year−1 with a mean increasing trend of 0.03 °C year−1 after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in the monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and the post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons was not significant. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006 °C m−1 with the steepest value (−0.0064 °C m−1) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052 °C m−1) in winter season was observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate datasets shows reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1782 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maochuan Hu ◽  
Takahiro Sayama ◽  
Sophal TRY ◽  
Kaoru Takara ◽  
Kenji Tanaka

Understanding long-term trends in hydrological and climatic variables is of high significance for sustainable water resource management. This study focuses on the annual and seasonal trends in precipitation, temperature, potential evapotranspiration, and river discharge over the Kamo River basin from the hydrological years 1962 to 2017. Homogeneity was examined by Levene’s test. The Mann–Kendall and a modified Mann–Kendall test as well as Sen’s slope estimator were used to analyze significant trends (p < 0.05) in a time series with and without serial correlation and their magnitudes. The results indicate that potential evapotranspiration calculated by the Penman–Monteith equation was highly related to temperature, and significantly increased in the annual and summer series. Annual river discharge significantly decreased by 0.09 m3/s. No significant trend was found at the seasonal scale. Annual, autumn, and winter precipitation at Kumogahata station significantly increased, while no significant trend was found at Kyoto station. Precipitation was least affected by the modified Mann–Kendall test. Other variables were relatively highly autocorrelated. The modified Mann–Kendall test with a full autocorrelation structure improved the accuracy of trend analysis. Furthermore, this study provides information for decision makers to take proactive measures for sustainable water management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1339-1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. E. Adeyeri ◽  
P. Laux ◽  
A. E. Lawin ◽  
S. O. Ige ◽  
H. Kunstmann

Abstract Spatiotemporal trends in daily observed precipitation, river discharge, maximum and minimum temperature data were investigated between 1971 and 2013 in the Komadugu-Yobe basin. Significant change points in time series are corrected using Adapted Caussinus-Mestre Algorithm for homogenizing Networks of Temperature series algorithm. Mann–Kendall test and Sen's slope are used to estimate the trend and its magnitude at dry, wet and annual season time scales, respectively. Preliminary results show an increasing trend of the observed variables. There is a latitudinal increase (decrease) in the basin temperature (precipitation) from lower to higher latitudes. The minimum temperature (0.05 °C/year) increases faster than the maximum temperature (0.03 °C/year). Overall, the percentage changes in minimum temperature range between 3 and 10% while that of maximum temperature ranges between 1 and 3%. Due to precipitation dependence on regional characteristics, the highest percentage change was recorded in precipitation with values between −5 and 97%. In all time scales, river discharge and precipitation have strong positive correlations while the correlation between river discharge and temperature is negative. It is imperative to advocate and support positive developmental practices as well as establishing necessary mitigation measures to cope with the effects of climate in the basin.


Sci ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Mohan Bahadur Chand ◽  
Bikas Chandra Bhattarai ◽  
Niraj Shankar Pradhananga ◽  
Prashant Baral

Study of spatiotemporal dynamics of temperature is vital to assess changes in climate, especially in the Himalayan region where livelihoods of billions of people living downstream depends on water coming from the melting of snow and glacier ice. To this end, temperature trend analysis is carried out in Narayani river basin, a major river basin of Nepal characterized by three climatic regions: tropical, subtropical and alpine. Temperature data from six stations located within the basin were analyzed. The elevation of these stations ranges from 460 to 3800 m a.s.l. and the time period of available temperature data ranges from 1960–2015. Multiple regression and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) methods were applied to fill in missing data and to detect trends. Annual as well as seasonal trends were analyzed and a Mann-Kendall test was employed to test the statistical significance of detected trends. Results indicate significant cooling trends before 1970s, and warming trends after 1970s in the majority of the stations. The warming trends range from 0.028 ∘C year−1 to 0.035 ∘C year−1 with a mean increasing trend of 0.03 ∘C year−1 after 1971. Seasonal trends show highest warming trends in the monsoon season followed by winter, pre-monsoon, and the post-monsoon season. However, difference in warming rates between different seasons was not significant. An average temperature lapse rate of −0.006 ∘C m−1 with the steepest value (−0.0064 ∘C m−1) in pre-monsoon season and least negative (−0.0052 ∘C m−1) in winter season was observed for this basin. A comparative analysis of the gap-filled data with freely available global climate datasets show reasonable correlation thus confirming the suitability of the gap filling methods.


2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Genz ◽  
C. A. S. Tanajura

There is an ongoing effort by the scientific community to regionalize climate studies to support local development plans. The area of interest is the Costa das Baleias on the east coast of northeast Brazil. It is located in a transition region of precipitation trends, and so assessing the local signal and magnitude is necessary. A series of annual anomalies of surface air temperature, precipitation and river discharge were analyzed from 1946 to 2010. The modified Mann–Kendall test was applied to detect trends. Temperature anomalies showed a consistent positive trend since 1950. Precipitation anomalies tended to decrease, though not significantly. River discharge rates showed a consistent positive trend. However, from the 1980s onwards, both the precipitation and the river discharge anomalies had the same decreasing tendency. The precipitation and discharge behavior are likely due to the combined effect of human interventions in the river basins including local, synoptic and global climate effects. The inter-annual variability was characterized by spectral analysis. Cycles were identified for the precipitation and the river discharge with periods of 2–3 years, 3–4 years, 7–8 years and 11–12 years. The decadal frequency is consistent with the South Atlantic and El Niño indices. This work strongly indicates that climate is changing in Costa das Baleias and further work is needed to investigate the mechanisms that link local to large-scale variability.


Author(s):  
S. Sridhara ◽  
Pradeep Gopakkali ◽  
R. Nandini

Aims: To know the rainfall and temperature trend for all the districts of Karnataka state to develop suitable coping mechanisms for changing weather conditions during the cropping season. Study Design: The available daily data of rainfall (1971-2011) and minimum and maximum temperature (1971-2007) for each district was collected from NICRA-ICAR website. A non-parametric model such as the Mann-Kendall (MK) test complemented with Sen’s slope estimator was used to determine the magnitude of the trend. Place and Duration of Study: The rainfall data of 41 years (1971-2011) and temperature data of 37 years (1971-2007) was collected for all 27 districts of Karnataka. Methodology: Basic statistics related to rainfall like mean, standard deviation (SD), the coefficient of variation (CV) and the percentage contribution to annual rainfall were computed for monthly and season-wise. Mann-Kendall test was used to detect trend for rainfall as well as temperature. Results: An increasing trend in rainfall during winter, monsoon and annual basis for all most all the districts of Karnataka and decreasing trend of rainfall during pre and post-monsoon season was noticed. An early cessation of rainfall during September month in all most all the districts of Karnataka was observed. Similarly, monthly mean, maximum and the minimum temperature had shown an increasing trend over the past 37 years for all the districts of Karnataka. Conclusion: The more variation in rainfall during the pre-monsoon season was observed, which is more important for land preparation and other operations. The increasing trend of maximum and minimum temperature throughout the year may often cause a reduction in crop yield. It is necessary to change crops with its short duration varieties in order to avoid late season drought.


Author(s):  
Sandeep Kumar ◽  
Santosh

Testing the significance of observed trends in hydrological time series has received a great attention recently, especially in connection with climate change. The changing pattern of runoff deserves urgent and systematic attention over a basin for planning, development, utilisation and management of water resources. Therefore, one large catchment i.e. Indian part of Satluj River Basin is selected for the present study. The daily data of runoff were converted to monthly and then computed to seasonal and annual series. The missing values in the data were computed by using average method. For better understanding of the observed trends, data were computed into standardised runoff indices (SDI). These standardised data series were plotted against time and the linear trends observed were represented graphically. The records of runoff were subjected to trend analysis by using both non-parametric (Mann-Kendall test) and parametric (linear regression analysis) procedures.Trend analysis results of runoff show that out of 8 annual trends 2 (25%) are statistically insignificant increasing and 6 (75%) are decreasing in nature where 2 (25%) are statistically significant at 95% confidence level. Apart from annual, the changes were investigated for the four seasons: winter (December-March), pre-monsoon (April-June), monsoon (July-September) and post-monsoon (October-November). The analysis of annual as well as seasonal runoff for the Satluj River Basin indicates significant changes from 1984 to 2010. There is a clear contrast in the runoff pattern of river between the high altitude mountainous region and the lower reaches where it changes as a result of contribution from rainfall, especially during monsoon season. Although the runoff at majority of stations showed decreasing trend, but very few are statistically significant. Such studies help us to resolve potential issues associated with availability of water for agriculture, industry, hydropower, domestic use etc.


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