Trend analysis of rainfall in Bharathapuzha River basin, Kerala, India

Knowing the variations in the general rainfall pattern of a river basin is vital to understanding the hydrological cycle and water budget of the basin. The present study examined the general rainfall pattern in Bharathapuzha River basin of Malabar coast of Kerala, using monthly rainfall data for 34 years collected from 28 rain gauge stations. We used Mann-Kendal's rank correlation statistics and wavelet analysis to examine the trend of rainfall. The annual rainfall, southwest monsoon, and pre-monsoon rainfall of the basin shows a significant decrement towards the later years of the study. We assume that the global climate and the local environmental changes are the chief factors for the variation. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

[1]  O. Ogunkoya,et al.  On the prediction of rainfall onset and retreat dates in Nigeria , 2005 .

[2]  F. Murata,et al.  Relationship between atmospheric conditions at Dhaka, Bangladesh, and rainfall at Cherrapunjee, India , 2008 .

[3]  Anu Simon,et al.  Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (ISO) of south Kerala rainfall during the summer monsoons of 1901–1995 , 2004 .

[4]  P. Webster,et al.  A Hydrological Definition of Indian Monsoon Onset and Withdrawal , 2003 .

[5]  Sanjeev S. Tambe,et al.  Prediction of all India summer monsoon rainfall using error-back-propagation neural networks , 1997 .

[6]  N. Sontakke,et al.  On the variability and prediction of rainfall in the post‐monsoon season over India , 1999 .

[7]  Anu Simon,et al.  Spatial variability and rainfall characteristics of Kerala , 2004 .

[8]  Sulochana Gadgil,et al.  On breaks of the Indian monsoon , 2003 .

[9]  M. Rusticucci,et al.  Trends in Total and Extreme South American Rainfall in 1960–2000 and Links with Sea Surface Temperature , 2006 .

[10]  E. Eltahir.  Drought frequency analysis of annual rainfall series in central and western Sudan , 1992 .

[11]  G. B. Pant,et al.  Spatial and subseasonal patterns of the long‐term trends of Indian summer monsoon rainfall , 1992 .

[12]  S. Chattopadhyay.  Deforestation in parts of Western Ghats region (Kerala), India , 1985 .

[13]  X. Fettweis,et al.  30 and 43 months period cycles found in air temperature time series using the Morlet wavelet method , 2009 .

[14]  Relationships between rainy days, mean daily intensity and seasonal rainfall in normal, flood and drought years over india , 1998 .

[15]  U. C. Mohanty,et al.  Influence of different land-surface processes on Indian summer monsoon circulation , 2007 .

[16]  Pratap Singh,et al.  Spatial Distribution and Seasonal Variability of Rainfall in a Mountainous Basin in the Himalayan Region , 2006 .

[17]  K. Parameswaran.  Influence of micrometeorological features on coastal boundary layer aerosol characteristics at the tropical station, Trivandrum , 2001 .

[18]  V. M. Meher-Homji,et al.  Probable impact of deforestation on hydrological processes , 1991 .

[19]  Nick A. Chappell,et al.  Characteristics of rain events at an inland locality in northeastern Borneo, Malaysia , 2006 .

[20]  D. S. Pai,et al.  Empirical prediction of Indian summer monsoon rainfall with different lead periods based on global SST anomalies , 2006 .

[21]  Wei‐Chyung Wang,et al.  Characteristics of anomalous precipitation events over eastern China during the past five centuries , 2007 .

[22]  D. M. Sonechkin,et al.  Wavelet Analysis of Nonstationary and Chaotic Time Series with an Application to the Climate Change Problem , 2000 .

[23]  M. Rajeevan,et al.  High resolution daily gridded rainfall data for the Indian region: Analysis of break and active monsoon spells , 2006 .

[24]  Changing rainfall in the Palakkad plains of South India , 2010 .

[25]  M. Soman,et al.  Decreasing trend in the rainfall of Kerala , 1988 .

[26]  Minhe Ji,et al.  Wavelet analysis and nonparametric test for climate change in Tarim River Basin of Xinjiang during 1959–2006 , 2009 .

[27]  K. Krishnakumar,et al.  Rainfall trends in twentieth century over Kerala, India , 2009 .

[28]  D. Sikka,et al.  Experimental Seasonal Forecast of Monsoon 2005 Using T170L42 AGCM on PARAM Padma , 2007 .

[29]  U. C. Mohanty,et al.  Inter-annual variability of summer monsoon rainfall over Orissa (India) in relation to cyclonic disturbances , 2007 .

[30]  Monthly and annual statistical distributions of daily rainfall at the Fabra Observatory (Barcelona, NE Spain) for the years 1917–1999 , 2004 .

[31]  U. C. Mohanty,et al.  Interannual variability of onset of the summer monsoon over India and its prediction , 2007 .

[32]  Walker S. Ashley,et al.  Distribution of Mesoscale Convective Complex Rainfall in the United States , 2003 .

[33]  M. Rajeevan,et al.  Trends in the rainfall pattern over India , 2008 .

[34]  P. P. Mujumdar,et al.  Future rainfall scenario over Orissa with GCM projections by statistical downscaling , 2006 .

[35]  P. Xavier,et al.  Increasing Trend of Extreme Rain Events Over India in a Warming Environment , 2006, Science.

[36]  S. K. Dash,et al.  Some evidence of climate change in twentieth-century India , 2007 .