Spatial and temporal variations of precipitation during 1979–2015 in Jinan City, China

Abstract

AbstractThe spatiotemporal variation of precipitation significantly affects regional hydrological processes and the management of water resources worldwide, indirectly contributing to an aggravation in the frequency and intensity of extreme events, especially in urban areas. To analyze the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of precipitation during 1979–2015 in Jinan City, the China Meteorological Forcing Dataset and 12 precipitation-related indices are adopted and analyzed by using Mann–Kendall trend test, Sen's slope estimator and Pettitt test in this study. The results show that: (1) the annual mean precipitation (AMP) shows a gradual increasing trend from the northern plain area to the southern mountainous area; (2) the heaviest summer precipitation occurs in the southern part of downtown with a high frequency, resulting in the drastic amplification of urban rainstorm flood disasters; (3) the spatial distributions of most indices show a gradual increasing trend from the northern plain area to the southern mountainous area, while consecutive dry days show the opposite tendency; and (4) most indices roughly show similar spatiotemporal variation characteristics with AMP, i.e., decreases in southwestern area, but increases in the eastern mountainous region and the north plain area, exhibiting an overall increasing trend at the 1% significance level.