engleski

The Impacts of Climate Change on River Regimes in Croatia

Global climate change/variability in the last 30 years has been manifested mainly through average annual temperature rise, resulting in evapotranspiration and precipitation pattern change. Those changes have spatially different impact on river (discharge) regimes. An analyze of changes in river (discharge) regimes in Croatia was made for 53 hydrological stations for the period 1961-2009. To assess the trend, Kendall-Theil (Sen) non-parametric trend test was carried for the yearly and seasonal values of discharge. In addition, comparison of module (Pardé) coefficients between the standard thirty years time period (1961-1990) and the last twenty years period (1990-2009) was done. The results show changes on all analyzed rivers and stations. There is an evidence of redistribution of discharge throughout the year, increase of Autumn and Winter discharge (especially on rivers dominantly fed by snowmelt) and decrease of Summer values of discharge. In addition, we detected the change in the month of the appearance of discharge maxima and minima. Changes can be described through changes in regime of climate elements (temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration). We also found evidence of intensification of the processes in the last 20 years.

climate change; discharge; discharge regime; Croatia; Parde coefficients

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