Climate change study for the meteorological variables in the Barak River basin in North-East India

Abstract

In this study, trend analysis is done for the meteorological variables such as minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET) in and around of the Barak River Basin in India. A total of ten number of meteorological stations with hundred years of observed data are considered for trend analysis. Two non-parametric methods, Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen's Slope (SS) estimator, are applied for detection of direction and magnitude of the trend. From the trend analysis, it is found that both the annual as well as seasonal temperature (Tmax and Tmin) are increasing since a couple of decades. Also, it is observed that the average rate of increase in temperature is more in Tmin as compared to Tmax. The decreasing trend of annual and seasonal precipitation pattern is found where negative trends are significant in the monsoon P series with a confidence interval of 95%. The potential evapotranspiration showed increasing trend significantly in monsoon season. Change point analysis is also done to know the shift of trend of meteorological variables. This study gives a fair idea about the variation of meteorological parameters which may be used for climate change analysis as well as sustainable watershed management.