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Detecting hydro-climatic change using spatiotemporal analysis of rainfall time series in Western Algeria

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Abstract

The knowledge of the climatic behavior especially that one of semi-arid regions is required to optimize the management of water resources. Here climate variability is directly related to water resources that are of a high socio-economic and environmental significance. This work deals mainly with a statistical analysis of the precipitation regime to assess its spatial distribution and temporal variation in north-western Algeria. For this, a time series and a principal component analysis are performed on rainfall series representing annual precipitations of twenty-one meteorological stations for the period 1914 to 2004, the most complete and longest of West Algeria, in order to detect patterns and trends in the region. A spectral analysis of the time series revealed the existence of a period of roughly 30 years for all stations. Furthermore, the trend of a wide part of the obtained spectra suggests the existence of another period longer than the samples size.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Agence Nationale des Ressources Hydriques (ANRH National water resources Agency) for providing the meteorological data and the reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEGHYD Laboratory, Civil Engineering Faculty, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediène, BP 32, 16311, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers

    Leila Hamlaoui-Moulai & Doudja Souag-Gamane

  2. LGBO Laboratory, Earth Sciences Faculty, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediène, BP 32, 16311, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers

    Mohammed Mesbah

  3. LGAT Laboratory, Earth Sciences Faculty, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediène, BP 32, 16311, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers

    Abderrahmane Medjerab

Authors
  1. Leila Hamlaoui-Moulai
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  2. Mohammed Mesbah
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  3. Doudja Souag-Gamane
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  4. Abderrahmane Medjerab
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Correspondence to Leila Hamlaoui-Moulai.

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Hamlaoui-Moulai, L., Mesbah, M., Souag-Gamane, D. et al. Detecting hydro-climatic change using spatiotemporal analysis of rainfall time series in Western Algeria. Nat Hazards 65, 1293–1311 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0411-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0411-2

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