Rainfall-altitude relationship in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Relations between rainfall and the altitude of the terrain can have significant implications for rainfall-runoff studies in hydrology. The aim of this paper is to report on a study of relationships between annual and seasonal rainfall and the altitude of the terrain in Saudi Arabia (SA) using global ordinary least square (OLS) and local geographically weighted regression (GWR) methods. Results using the OLS method showed a significant correlation between altitude and spring rainfall, with a coefficient of determination of r2=0.54, P