Annual, seasonal and monthly rainfall trend analysis in the Tafna watershed, Algeria

Abstract

Scientists, since a long time, have paid attention on climate change and, in particular, rainfall decrease. These changes have resulted in modifications of the rainfall regime in many Mediterranean regions. This work is based on monthly rainfall data from 17 stations located in the Tafna catchment (North West of Algeria). The study aim is to identify long-term (1970–2016) spatial and temporal trends in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation, using the innovative trend analysis (ITA) method. The approach is used to classify trends into “low”, “medium”, “high”, which should be taken in consideration in future studies on floods (“high”) and drought (“low”). The monthly rainfall shows a decreasing trend in all studied stations (100% of stations) during February, March, April, and May, the same phenomenon observed in the majority of stations for June, July (82% of stations), and December (58% of stations). Seasonal analysis indicates a downward trend in winter and spring. Using annual rainfall, the stations located in the north, west and central part of the Tafna show a decrease in rainfall (59% of stations).