Abstract
The Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YZRB) is an important transboundary river basin in Tibet, China with south Asian countries. Changes in precipitation are important driving factors of river flow changes. Extreme Precipitation Events (EPE), in particular, have serious impacts on human life and sustainable development. The objective of this study is to explore the temporal changes and the spatial distribution of EPE over the YZRB in recent decades using a precipitation product with a 5 km spatial resolution and the Mann–Kendall nonparametric statistical test method. A more thorough understanding of the spatial heterogeneity in precipitation was expected from using this high resolution dataset. At both basin and pixel scale, both annual precipitation amounts and number of rain days had significant upward trends, indicating that the increase in the number of rain days is one possible cause of the annual precipitation amounts increases. The annual precipitation and number of rain days increased significantly in 50.8% and 75.8% of the basin area, respectively. The areas showing upward trends for the two indexes mostly overlapped, supporting the hypothesis that the increasing number of rain days is one possible cause of the increases in annual precipitation in these areas. General precipitation intensity and EPE intensity increased in the Lhasa regions and in the southern part of the lower-reach region. However, the intensity of general precipitation and EPE decreased in the Nyangqu River Basin. A total of 43.0% of the area in the YZRB exhibits significant upward trends in EPE frequency. The contributions of EPE to total rainfall increase significantly in the Lhasa and Shannan regions. Overall, it was shown that the risk of disasters from EPE in the YZRB increases in the eastern middle-reach region and southern lower-reach region.
Highlights
According to the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report, there is conclusive evidence that the Earth is becoming warmer
The objective of the present study is to analyze the temporal trends and the spatial distribution of the Extreme Precipitation Events (EPE) in Yarlung Zangbo River Basin (YZRB) for the past five decades using a satellite-based precipitation dataset with 5 km spatial resolution, and the Mann–Kendall trend analysis method
Seven indexes were computed to examine the characteristics of EPE in the YZRB, the highest river basin in the world, using a satellite-based precipitation dataset with a spatial resolution of 5 km
Summary
According to the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report, there is conclusive evidence that the Earth is becoming warmer. The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation noted that Extreme Precipitation Events (EPE) in Asia will increase, but that probabilities for, and trends in, EPE in different regions will vary, making it necessary to analyze the situation at the regional scale [2]. Most studies found that a decrease of precipitation will not lead to a decrease in EPE. EPE will increase at the global and regional scale in the future, which will cause significant damage to agriculture, ecosystems, and infrastructure, and cause a great loss of human life and property [9,10,11]. The extreme values of precipitation provide more valuable information than average values for disaster prevention
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