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Byline: Tahsin Tonkaz (1), Mahmut Cetin (2), KazA+-m Tulucu (2) Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate long-term seasonal trends and decadal change patterns of monthly mean water vapor pressure (WVP) observation series at 16 meteorological stations scattered point-wisely over the Southeastern Anatolian Project (GAP) area in Turkey, where large-scale soil and water development projects have been put into practice since the 1970s. The record length of WVP observation series of each station varied between 31- and 41-years between 1962 and 2002. The monthly mean WVP observation series of each station was rearranged on seasonal basis. Sequential Mann--Kendall trend test, Sen's slope estimator, and Spearman's rank--order correlation tests were employed for detection of likely trends, and Kruskall--Wallis test was used to detect decadal variations in WVP series of each observation station. A possible area of representation for each meteorological station was determined by using the Thiessen polygons technique in a geographical information systems media. It was found that 15 seasonal WVP series have a positive trend covering 97% of the GAP area in the summer season although one WVP series has a negative trend direction. However, in the spring season, 33% of the area had a positive trend, and a negative trend did not appear in any stations. WVP records in the winter season showed an increasing trend over 19% of the GAP area, whereas a decreasing trend prevailed in 9% of the area. The study results led us to conclude that the substantial increase of WVP observations in summer season could be attributed to both the shift from rain-fed agriculture to irrigated agriculture being made increasingly spacious year by year and building large water reservoirs in the GAP located in a semi-arid region. The results also indirectly suggested that the historical trends in the WVP parameters might be related to global climate change phenomenon. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, Harran University, 63040, SanlA+-urfa, Turkey (2) Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, Cukurova University, 01330, BalcalA+-, Adana, Turkey Article History: Registration Date: 28/06/2006 Received Date: 24/01/2005 Accepted Date: 23/05/2006 Online Date: 11/01/2007