A New Statistical Approach to Assess Climate Variability in the White Bandama Watershed, Northern Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

The population of northern Côte d’Ivoire, especially in the white Bandama watershed, lives for majority in rural areas and depends on farming, which is mainly linked to climate variability. This study evaluates the trends within watershed’s hydro-climatic variables and their level of significance over the period 1950-2000. The methodological approach consists in applying successively standardized indexes to detect trends and breaks in hydro-climatic long-term data. The Mann-Kendall statistical test lets us know the trends significance and the Kendall-Theil Robust Line test reveals their magnitude. The Student’s t test underlines break years. Results show that although rainfall has decreased, this decline is not statistically significant. However, temperature and potential evapotranspiration have strongly rised and discharge was submitted to high decline. These changes in hydrometeorological variables appeared from 1970 to 1980.