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Spatial and Temporal Variability of Precipitation and Dryness/Wetness During 1961–2008 in Sichuan Province, West China

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Abstract

Changes in precipitation exerts a huge impact on human beings and it is of vital importance to study the regular pattern of meteorological and hydrological factors. In order to explore the changing patterns of precipitation in Sichuan province in west China during 1961–2008, several precipitation related indices were analysed by the Mann–Kendall test. For monthly precipitation, significant increasing trends are mainly found during January, March and June, while significant decreasing trends mostly are observed during July, September and October. Most of extreme precipitation indices are decreasing. Especially the annual total precipitation in wet days and maximum number of consecutive wet days show significant negative trends. Furthermore, the spatial and temporal variation of dryness/wetness has been assessed by Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and principal component analysis (PCA) on 24-month time scales. The results demonstrated noticeable spatial patterns with several sub-regions characterized by different trends: a remarkable dry tendency prevails in central and east Sichuan, while the other areas are dominated by a wet tendency.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was financially supported by Forestry Industry Research special funds for Public Welfare Projects “Study of water resource control function of typical forest vegetation in the region of Yangtze river delta” (No: 201104005-04), fully supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 51109109), National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No: 2012BAC23B01, 2012BAD16B0305), National 973 Program (No: 2006CB705809). We would like to thank the National Climate Centre (NCC) in Beijing for providing valuable climate datasets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Jin Huang & Yan Xue

  2. Applied Hydrometeorological Research Institute, Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Shanlei Sun

  3. Agrometeorological Center of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, 610072, China

    Jinjian Li

  4. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Forestry Ecological Engineering, College of Forest Source & Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Jinchi Zhang

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  1. Jin Huang
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  2. Shanlei Sun
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  3. Yan Xue
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  4. Jinjian Li
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  5. Jinchi Zhang
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Correspondence to Shanlei Sun.

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Huang, J., Sun, S., Xue, Y. et al. Spatial and Temporal Variability of Precipitation and Dryness/Wetness During 1961–2008 in Sichuan Province, West China. Water Resour Manage 28, 1655–1670 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0572-8

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