INVESTIGATION OF TRENDS IN METEOROLOGICAL DROUGHTS IN NİĞDE PROVINCE

Abstract

Investigation of trends for meteorological droughts is important in water resources management. Nigde province is located in Konya Closed Basin and it is one of the most drought provinces receive low rainfall in Turkey. This study has two stages. In the first stage, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values of Nigde province were calculated for 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 36 month time scales to identify meteorological droughts. In the second stage, trends for meteorological droughts in Nigde province were investigated by using Mann Kendall Rank Correlation (MKRC) test at the 95% confidence interval. Monthly total precipitation values of Nigde meteorological station between 1950 and 2015 were used for application. According to SPI values, 110 drought periods lasted for six months and more were determined for Nigde province for different time scales. The trend analysis results showed that there were statistically significant increasing trends at the 95% confidence interval for all time scales except 1 month time scale. This means that SPI values have shown a tendency towards wetness in Nigde province.

Keywords

• Drought analysis,Trend analysis,Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI),Mann Kendall Rank Correlation (MKRC) Test

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