Abstract
Climate change is one of the major global issues of our time with a direct impact on the hydrological system. It increases the frequency of extreme weather events, especially droughts and floods. Ten rainfall and hydrological stations, with continuous monthly precipitation and streamflow records over the period 1965–2017, were considered in the analysis to understand the hydrological variability (precipitation and streamflow) in Medjerdah’s basin (Northern Tunisia), one of the main rivers of Tunisia. This study also aimed to examine the influence of the dominant climatic patterns in the hydrological system [North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Sea Surface Temperature (SST), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and Mediterranean Oscillation Indices (MOI)]. A “Bertin matrix” chronological graphical method and wavelet coherence analysis were also used to determine the different periods of dry and wet cycle changes and to identify and describe the variability in Medjerda streamflows. The statistical analyses show that the rainfall in the basin of Medjerda varies widely on the temporal scale, but it follows the same variation in all the stations. This analysis also shows that the streamflow variation in rivers changes over time and from upstream to downstream, with a fairly fast and strong hydrological response upstream, and a medium to low downstream disturbance. This phenomenon is affected by several conditional factors of the flow (lithology, vegetation, morphology, …). The wavelet coherence analysis did not show a coherence between NAO/streamflow and precipitation/NAO identified at the inter-annual scale in the basin of Medjerda. Therefore, we can conclude that the phenomenon is not the same as the one in Algeria and Morocco.
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Cherni, H. et al. (2022). Investigation of Hydrological Variability in Medjerda Watershed (NW Tunisia). In: Chenchouni, H., et al. New Prospects in Environmental Geosciences and Hydrogeosciences. CAJG 2019. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72543-3_100
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72543-3_100
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