Trend Analysis of Precipitation and Temperature for Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh, India

The impact of climate variability has raised itself as a very challenging issue to the present generation. For assessing this, it is needed to quantify the climatic changes in terms of different hydro-meteorological parameters like rainfall and temperature, as they are the key factors responsible for drought-like or intense flooding situations. In this study, the temporal variability in precipitation and average temperature over a period of 102 years (1901-2002) has been investigated over Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh, India. The statistical non-parametric Mann-Kendall test has been utilized to detect the monotonic trend whereas, Theil-Sen estimator test was applied to quantify the rate of change at monthly, seasonal (winter, pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon), and annual scales. The results reveal for the precipitation trends to be increasing for most of the months and seasons, although they are not significant except for March, May, and pre-monsoon season. The annual rainfall over the district has increased by 10.65% during the past 102 years. The average temperature was found to be significantly decreasing for monsoon season and increasing for non-monsoon seasons. The annual average temperature has increased by 1.44% from 1901 to 2002. This study will be helpful to the local stakeholders and policy makers to encompass the climatic variability aiding to effective decision making for proper water management.