Impacts of Global Climate Change on Temperature and Precipitation in Basra City, Iraq

Abstract

Climate change affects countries’ economies and households through a variety of channels. Rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns affect agricultural yields of both rain fed and irrigated crops, and will change hydropower production, increased frequencies and magnitudes of floods and droughts can significantly increase the need for public investment in physical infrastructure. An investigation was carried out to identify trends in temperature and precipitation time series covering a period from (1970-2019) in the province of Basra south of Iraq, northwest of Arabian Gulf. The two variables were considered for analysis on both monthly and annual basis. The percentages of significant trends obtained for each parameter for 12 months and annually were presented. Temperature anomalies were plotted, the relationship between annual mean temperature and precipitation have been determined by Pearson’s Correlation coefficients, and were statistically measured. It was observed that the monthly and annually mean temperatures have increased, while precipitation trends have decreased; moreover, there is a negative weak relationship between temperature and precipitation, while a strong negative relationship was observed between the monthly average for the whole period of minimum and maximum temperature and rainfall