TITLE:
Climate Trends of Temperature, Precipitation and River Discharge in the Abbay River Basin in Ethiopia
AUTHORS:
Asaminew Abiyu Cherinet, Denghua Yan, Hao Wang, Xinshan Song, Tianlin Qin, Mulualem T. Kassa, Abel Girma, Batsuren Dorjsuren, Mohammed Gedefaw, Hejia Wang, Otgonbayar Yadamjav
KEYWORDS:
Abbay River Basin, Climate Change, Ethiopia, Precipitation, River Discharge, Temperature
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.11 No.10,
October
24,
2019
ABSTRACT: Projecting future changes of streamflow in the Abby River Basin (ARB) is important for planning and proper management of the basin system. The current study conducted in five stations of the Abbay river basin, and investigated the annual temperature, precipitation, and river discharge variability using the Innovative trend analysis method, Mann-Kendall, and Sen’s slope test estimator. The result showed a slightly increasing trend of annual precipitation in Assoa (Z = 0.71), Bahir Dar (Z = 0.13), and Gonder (Z = 0.26) stations, while a significant increasing trend was observed in Nedgo (Z = 2.45) and Motta (Z = 1.06) stations. Interestingly, the trend of annual temperature in Assosa (Z = 5.88), Bahir Dar (Z = 3.87), Gonder (Z = 4.38), Nedgo (Z = 4.77), and Motta (Z = 2.85) was abruptly increased. The average mean temperature has increased by 0.2°C in the past 36 years (1980 to 2016). The extreme high temperature was observed in the semi-dry zone of northern Ethiopia. During the study period, a significant declining trend of the river discharge was recorded, and the river discharge was sharply decreased from 1992 onwards. The results of the current study showed annual variability of river discharge, precipitation, and temperature of the study area of the basin that could be used as a basis for future studies.