Variation characteristics of evaporation in the Gulang River Basin during 1959-2013

Based on monthly evaporation of two meteorological stations in the Gulang River Basin of China, the inter-annual variation of evaporation during 1959-2013 were analyzed using Mann-Kendall and wavelet analysis. The results demonstrated that the annual evaporation show a fluctuating increase over the past 50 years approximately, with an average increase rate of 4.26 mm per decade. The overall trend was decrease-increase-decrease. According to the cumulative anomaly curve,the turning point of the annual evaporation occurred in 1979, in which the evaporation increased in the early stage and decreased in the later stage. Meanwhile, the seasonal variation of the evaporation shows that it decreased in Spring and Autumn, and increased in Summer and Winter, especially obvious for the later. The evaporation abruptly changed in Spring and Summer in 2008 and in Winter in 1994. In addition, all evaporation increased after the changes. However,the evaporation in Autumn abruptly changed in 1986 and 1999, which show a trend of increase-decrease-increase.Wavelet analysis shows that evaporation in Summer and wet season would decrease in the next few years, and in the other seasons would increase. Based on the aforementioned analysis, it can be concluded that increased evaporation is mainly induced by increase of evaporation in dry season, especially in Winter, and this trend to be continued in the future for the Gulang River Basin.