Search

Trend analysis of streamflow and its linkages to rainfall can facilitate the development of water resource management plans for watersheds. The present study focuses on trends in observed streamflow of the lower Tamiraparani river sub-basin in Tamilnadu, India using Mann - Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator for a period of 30 years. From this analysis, both the annual streamflow, annual rainfall increased very marginally at the rate of 0.1799 m3/s/year and 4.3741 mm/year, respectively. Similarly, in the northeast monsoon period, both the rainfall and streamflow were increased very minimally during the analysis period. However, the observations made during the southwest monsoon showed declining trends for most of the rainfall stations and no significant trend was observed for streamflow. The calculated Spearman's Rho correlation factor (p) between rainfall and streamflow showed weak correlation during summer (0.26) and very strong correlation during northeast monsoon (0.83), strong correlation during southwest monsoon (0.53) and moderate correlation during winter (0.40). From this analysis, using Mann - Kendal test and Spearman's correlation it implies that other than precipitation and temperature, urbanization, watershed and ecological development of the catchment area could have also influenced the trends of streamflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]