In collaboration with Iranian Watershed Management Association

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student, Faculty of Geography and Planning, University of Tabriz, Iran

2 Professor, Faculty of Geography and Planning, University of Tabriz, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran

4 Associate Professor, Faculty of Geography and Planning, University of Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Hydro-meteorology parameters are sensitive to climate change. Therefore, it is important to investigate the present climate change pattern and its impact on water resources. Changes in a series may occur gradually or abruptly. Both of these changes could be detected by non parametric statistical tests. In this research, mean annual discharge flow and mean annual rainfall were selected for detection trends in Karkheh Watershed, one of the mountainous watersheds in Iran, using the Wilcoxon and Spearman rank correlation tests. Result showed that, both studied variables exhibit decreasing trend in the selected stations. But, no step changes were found in the time series. The observed trend in the upper area of the watershed may adversely affect the human activities of the region.