Trending Regional Precipitation Distribution and Intensity: Use of Climatic Indices

Syeed Md Iskander, Mohammad Adnan Rajib, Md Mujibur Rahman

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/acs.2014.43038                

Abstract

Trends and variability of annual precipitation total, annual number of rainy days and two climate change related precipitation indices named Simple Daily Intensity Index (SDII) and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) have been investigated in this study. The analysis was based on daily and monthly precipitation data of 35 observatory stations all over Bangladesh for the study period of 1971-2010. Mann Kendall test was performed to detect the trend and Sen’s slope method to determine the magnitude of change. The results indicate statistically significant (95% confidence level) negative trend in 4 stations and significant positive trend in 2 stations for annual precipitation total. Significant positive trend in 9 stations for annual number of rainy days, significant negative trend in 6 stations for SDII and for PCI, and significant negative trend in 6 stations were found all over Bangladesh in this study. The values of PCI indicate strongly irregular precipitation distribution in South Eastern Region (SER) and mostly irregular distribution in other regions. On the other hand values of SDII indicate strong precipitation intensity in SER and mostly moderate intensity in other regions all over the country.

Keywords

Bangladesh, Climate Change Indices, Precipitation, PCI, SDII

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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