Trends in extreme rainfall in the state of New South Wales,Australia |
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Authors: | Evan Hajani Elias Ishak |
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Institution: | 1. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia;2. Stromwater Management Section, Penrith City Council, Penrith, Australia |
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Abstract: | The trends in annual maximum rainfall (AMR) intensity data in New South Wales, Australia, were examined. Data from 60 stations were used covering three study periods, 1955–2010, 1965–2010 and 1978–2010. Mann-Kendall (MK) and Spearman’s rho (SR) tests were applied to assess trends at local stations. Pre-whitening (PW), trend-free pre-whitening (TFPW) and the variance correction (VC) tests were used to assess the effects of serial correlation on trend results. For regional trend analysis, the regional MK test was employed. The impacts of climatic variability modes on the observed trends in AMR intensity and seasonal maximum rainfall data were investigated. It was found that positive trends were more frequent than the negative ones. The PW, TFPW and VC tests resulted in a slight reduction in the count of stations exhibiting significant positive trends. The number of stations exhibiting significant trends decreased when the impact of climate variability modes was considered. |
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Keywords: | climate change climate variability serial correlation Spearman rho test regional Mann-Kendall test partial Mann-Kendall test |
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