Spatio-temporal precipitation and temperature trend analysis of the Seyhan–Ceyhan River Basins, Turkey

Abstract

Despite the recent popularity of studying the effects of climate change on critical regions worldwide, there is a paucity of data documenting the results from trend analysis for these regions based on hydro-climatic variables such as precipitation and temperature. The purpose of this study was to undertake a spatio-temporal precipitation and temperature trend analysis for the Seyhan and Ceyhan River Basins located in the south of Turkey. The data for the seasonal and annual temperature variations (minimum, maximum and mean) and the total precipitation outputs obtained from the 14 stations in these basins are considered. The non-parametric Mann–Kendall and the Mann–Kendall rank correlation tests are employed to determine the trend and its year of initiation. The linear slopes of the trends are calculated by using Sen's slope estimation technique and the spatial distributions for the slope of trends are presented. The results show that statistically significant upward trends exist for these basins based on the annual maximum temperature values, and the years of initiation of the trends are determined as mid-1990 and mid-2000.