Estimation and characterization of annual precipitation based on spatiotemporal kriging in the Huanghuaihai basin of China during 1956–2016

Abstract

Understanding the spatiotemporal (ST) characterization of precipitation is one key component in evaluating the climatic environment, which provides executable and effective suggestions for the implementers of climatic strategy. In this paper, the ST ordinary kriging method was used to obtain the ST distribution of annual precipitation (AP) based on the data collected from the 961 meteorological monitoring stations of the Huanghuaihai basin in China during 1956–2016. Then, stochastic site indicators were applied to quantitatively assess the ST uncertainties, and the results indicated the probability that higher precipitation (beyond 1000 mm) occurred simultaneously at any two regions was extremely low. In terms of the AP intensity analysis, the annual rainfall in 50% of the regions exceeded 500 mm, and the largest fragmentation of AP was calculated from this threshold. Furthermore, the ST characterization and the trend of AP were analyzed in different climatic environments, indicating that (1) the AP increased from west to east, exhibiting a significant gradient distribution; (2) overall, the temperature of the study area increased by approximately 0.027 °C per year, while the AP decreased by 0.2 mm per year; (3) the temperature in three subregions [high-altitude region (HAR), mid-altitude region (MAR), low-altitude region (LAR)] exhibited an increasing trend, and the significant increasing trend of temperature occurred primarily in the LAR; (4) the precipitation in the MAR and LAR exhibited a nonsignificant decreasing trend, while the precipitation in the HAR showed a significant increasing trend.