Abstract
This study examines spatial and temporal variability of rainfall in Bizerte-Ichkeul Watershed. The basin, located in the extreme north of Tunisia, covers an area of 3084 km2. Thirteen rainfall stations, with continuous monthly precipitation records over the period (1970–2011), were considered in the analysis. Two methods were used. In the first, the dimensionless standardized precipitation ratio is applied to examine precipitation temporal variation. The second method is represented by continuous wavelet analysis for the precipitation spatial analysis and the identification of the origin of its variability. The study of temporal variability of annual rainfall showed severe persistent and recurrent drought episodes over the period (1977–2001). Wavelet analysis resulted in detecting the modes and origins of precipitation variability. Three energy bands were clearly identified: (1, 2–4, and 4–8 years) for the entire watershed. The visualization of the power distribution showed that the observed modes of variability are different in their power distributions from one station to another. The approach adopted allowed the identification of two groups with the same precipitation frequency and temporal variation. These groups were defined according to the difference in occurrence of the frequency band for each station.
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15 May 2018
The article which was recently published contained errors in Table 1. The values of coefficient of skewness (Cs) and coefficient of kurtosis (Ck) are not in their proper locations. Given in this article is the corrected table. The original article has been corrected.
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Acknowledgements
Bizerte-Ichkeul Basin data used in this study were provided by the General Directorate of Water Resources (DGRE) In Tunisia. The authors also would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the quality of this paper.
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The original version of this article was revised: The article which was recently published contained errors in Table 1. The values of coefficient of skewness (Cs) and coefficient of kurtosis (Ck) are not in their proper locations. Given in this article is the corrected table. The original article has been corrected.
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Jemai, H., Ellouze, M., Abida, H. et al. Spatial and temporal variability of rainfall: case of Bizerte-Ichkeul Basin (Northern Tunisia). Arab J Geosci 11, 177 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-3482-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-3482-x