Spatiotemporal Analysis of Maximum and Minimum Temperature within a Basin: A Case Study of West-Flowing River Basin of Kutch, Saurashtra and Marwar, India

Abstract

India has a vast geographic diversity and accordingly has diverse responses to changing climate. The more than expected variations in the temperature are causing alterations in the water cycle and stressing the regional water availability along with agriculture significantly. With the current climate change conditions with globally evident rising temperatures, India has to face the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth along with ensuring food security to its increasing mainly agriculture-dependent population. The purpose of this research was to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in maximum and minimum temperature in terms of monthly and annual trends in west-flowing river basin of Kutch, Saurashtra and Marwar (WFR-KSM basin). The trend was calculated and assessed in ProUCL5.0.00 and ArcMap 10 software using 36-year Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) maximum and minimum temperature grid (1° × 1°) data from 1969 to 2004. The direction and magnitude of annual and monthly trends were calculated for every grid using Mann–Kendall (MK) test and Theil–Sen’s (TS) slope. The trends in annual, maximum and minimum temperature were spatially analyzed annually and for every month from January to December. The majority of the area exhibited increasing trend in minimum and maximum temperature annually and in all the months from January to December. In annual maximum temperature, all grids exhibited positive slope ranging from 0.01 to 0.03 degree Celsius per year. In annual minimum temperature, majority of the grids (81.25%) exhibited positive slope ranging from 0.01 to 0.04 degree Celsius per year and none of the grids exhibited negative slope. Monthwise trend in maximum and minimum temperature also indicated rising trend in majority of the grids, with few grids identified with declining trend mainly along the eastern border of the basin.