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Fingerprinting of rainfall over semi-arid region, Western India, using MATLAB and GIS

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Abstract

The present study investigates long-term changes in the rainfall regime over the Sabarmati River Basin, Western India, during 1981–2020 using computational and spatial analysis tools. Daily gridded rainfall data from India Meteorological Department (IMD) at 0.25 × 0.25 spatial resolution was employed to determine changes in rainfall at annual, monthly, and seasonal scales and analyze changes in rainfall characteristics using different thresholds for dry/ wet days and prolonged spells over Western India. Mann–Kendall test, Sen slope estimation, and linear regression analysis indicate that annual and monsoon rainfall over the basin has increased while the rest of the seasons have shown a declining trend. However, none of the trends obtained was found to be statistically significant. Spatial analysis of rainfall trends for each decade between 1980 and 2020 revealed that certain parts of the basin had experienced a significant declining trend during 1991–2000. Monthly rainfall analysis indicates the presence of a unimodal distribution of rainfall and a shift in rainfall towards later monsoon months (August and September). It is also inferred that days with moderate rainfall have decreased while low and extreme rainfall events have increased over the basin. It is evident from the study that the rainfall regime is highly erratic, and the study is important in understanding the changes in the rainfall regime during the last 40 years. The study has significant implications for water resource management, agricultural planning, and mitigation of water-related disasters.

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Data availability

The daily gridded rainfall data used in this study are openly available to download at https://www.imdpune.gov.in/Clim_Pred_LRF_New/Grided_Data_Download.html. The ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM 30 m) data product is openly available at https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Saurabh Choubey would like to thank the DST- Inspire fellowship program, Department of science and technology (DST), for providing the necessary financial support for the research (DST/INSPIRE/03/2019/002055). The authors would like to thank the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar and Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, for providing with the platform for the research work. The authors would also like to acknowledge Indian Meteorological Department, Pune and Earth Explorer, USGS, for making the data available in the public domain for free access.

Funding

DST INSPIRE Junior research fellowship (INSPIRE-JRF) for doctoral research is availed by Saurabh Choubey (IVR Number: 201900032457 IF Number: 190588).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Sustainable Development, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, 382030, India

    Saurabh Choubey & Rina Kumari

  2. Space Applications Centre, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, 380015, India

    Shard Chander

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  1. Saurabh Choubey
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Contributions

Conceptualizations: Dr. Rina Kumari; data curation and analysis: Saurabh Choubey and Dr. Shard Chander; supervision: Dr. Rina Kumari and Dr. Shaard Chander; writing- original draft: Saurabh Choubey; writing- review and editing: Dr. Rina Kumari and Dr. Sharad Chander. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rina Kumari.

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Choubey, S., Kumari, R. & Chander, S. Fingerprinting of rainfall over semi-arid region, Western India, using MATLAB and GIS. Environ Monit Assess 195, 610 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11225-6

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