Abstract
AbstractA new high‐resolution (5 km) gridded daily precipitation dataset for Tunisia between 1979 and 2015 is introduced. This product combines 960 rain gauges with the SAFRAN analysis to produce the precipitation gridded data. A validation approach on two different datasets reveals that the SAFRAN analysis outperforms other standard interpolation methods such as Inverse Distance, Nearest Neighbors, Ordinary Kriging or Residual Kriging with altitude. When compared to EOBS, a widely used gridded dataset over Europe, a strong negative bias in EOBS precipitation is found. However due to the aridity and the low density of rain gauges in south Tunisia, results in this region must be analyzed with care. The SAFRAN product could be useful for various purposes such as climate model evaluation, climate studies, hydrological modelling to support the planning and management of surface water resources in Tunisia.
Highlights
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is subject to water scarcity (Ragab and Prudhomme, 2002) and more than 60% of the population live in areas of high water stress compared to a global average of about 35%. Droogers et al (2012) mentioned that, in present time, the average per capita water availability in MENA region is slightly above the physical water scarcity limit at about 1076 m3/yr compared to the world average of about 8500 m3/yr
The goal of the present study is to develop a gridded data set of precipitation in Tunisia, making use of the whole rain gauge monitoring network of the country
We introduced a new high-resolution (5 km) gridded precipitation dataset for Tunisia
Summary
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is subject to water scarcity (Ragab and Prudhomme, 2002) and more than 60% of the population live in areas of high water stress compared to a global average of about 35%. Droogers et al (2012) mentioned that, in present time, the average per capita water availability in MENA region is slightly above the physical water scarcity limit at about 1076 m3/yr compared to the world average of about 8500 m3/yr. A recent study et Zittis (2017) using various existing gridded datasets, showed that the long term trends in the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region is indicating an overall drying since the beginning of the twentieth century mainly, over the Maghreb region. They noted that the different data sources have statistically significant differences in the distribution of monthly precipitation for about 50% of the domain
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