Spatio-temporal trend assessment of extreme temperatures and association with land use dynamics and water resource management practices in Bhogavo River watersheds, Gujarat, India

The purpose of this research is to investigate that the irrigation facilities, watershed development programs, and land use land cover (LULC) changes within the Bhogavo River watershed (BRW) in India have any impact on the regional-scale changes in the extreme temperature. In the present study, an investigation has been made to study the spatial and temporal trend assessment in the maximum, and the minimum temperature in BRW, in western India on an annual and monthly time scale; from 1979 to 2014, i.e., for available data span. The Mann–Kendall test with Sen’s slope estimator and linear regression methods are applied for trend detection and evaluation in extreme temperature. The annual minimum and maximum air temperature have shown non-significant trend (at 5%) rate at 0.0372 °C/year, and—0.0278 °C/year over 1979 to 2014, respectively, in the study area. It is recognized that the region with a growing area of cropland due to irrigation and water management facilities over the data span resulted in the negative trend/cooling in the maximum temperature within the study area. The minimum temperature trend in the rainy season portraits a low value comparative to other months. It is revealed that due to watershed management program implemented, and irrigation facilities created in the study area, the cropland, forest cover, surface cover of water bodies has been proliferated. Associating the spatial distribution of the extreme temperature trends to the LULC classification and their changes, it is established that increasing cropland and forest cover, and water bodies developed in the study area over a time horizon have shown tendencies of low/negative trend value in maximum temperature in the study area, and thus mitigate the changes due to climate. However, minimum temperature continues to follow non-significant positive trend. This study implies that the watershed development practices, sustainable water resources management, and proliferation of forest cover mitigate the global impact of climate change at regional scale. Thus, the watershed development program and sustainable water management practices at the regional and watershed scale should be promoted for adaptation and mitigation of climate change impacts.