Analysis of Climate Change Impacts on Hydro-meteorological Data

The study carried out to design hydrological systems that have been traditionally carried out on the assumption of stationarity of hydro-meteorological data and likely to be more reliable if potential impacts of climate change on hydro-meteorological variables are considered. In recent years, erratic patterns have been observed in monsoonal rainfall in India. Many modeling and empirical studies have revealed that summer monsoonal precipitation is significantly affected by climate change. The Mann-Kendall nonparametric test was used to analyze monthly trends in Maximum temperature (TMX), minimum temperature (TMN) and precipitation (PPT) at 10 stations in northern India. Analysis of trends in TMX indicated that there is an equal number of increasing and decreasing trends. There were, however, three statistically significant increasing trends and four statistically decreasing trends. Analysis of TMN at different stations indicates that there are a greater number of increasing trends than the decreasing trends. The statistically significant increasing trends outnumbered the statistically significant decreasing trends. Analysis of annual precipitation data at different stations in northern India clearly showed that the pattern is inconsistent as there are a relatively small number of statistical trends. Out of 10 stations, four showed increasing trends and six showed decreasing trends. The number of statistically significant trends was, however, two only. Interestingly, there are no statistically significant decreasing trends. Analysis of monsoonal precipitation data at different stations in northern India indicates an inconsistent pattern similar to that observed in the annual precipitation data. There are only two stations that showed a statistically significant increase in monsoonal at the stations.