HR: 1340h
AN: GC33A-0953    [Abstracts]
TI: Exploring the Link Between Streamflow Trends and Climate Change in Indiana, USA
AU: * Kumar, S
EM: kumar34@purdue.edu
AF: School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AU: Kam, J
EM: jkam@purdue.edu
AF: School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AU: Thurner, K
EM: kthurner@purdue.edu
AF: School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AU: Merwade, V
EM: vmerwade@purdue.edu
AF: School of Civil Engineering, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States
AB: Streamflow trends in Indiana are evaluated for 85 USGS streamflow gaging stations that have continuous unregulated streamflow records varying from 10 to 80 years. The trends are analyzed by using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test with prior trend-free pre-whitening to remove serial correlation in the data. Bootstrap method is used to establish field significance of the results. Trends are computed for 12 streamflow statistics to include low-, medium- (median and mean flow), and high-flow conditions on annual and seasonal time step. The analysis is done for six study periods, ranging from 10 years to more than 65 years, all ending in 2003. The trends in annual average streamflow, for 50 years study period, are compared with annual average precipitation trends from 14 National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) stations in Indiana, that have 50 years of continuous daily record. The results show field significant positive trends in annual low and medium streamflow statistics at majority of gaging stations for study periods that include 40 or more years of records. In seasonal analysis, all flow statistics in summer and fall (low flow seasons), and only low flow statistics in winter and spring (high flow seasons) are showing positive trends. No field significant trends in annual and seasonal flow statistics are observed for study periods that include 25 or fewer years of records, except for northern Indiana where localized negative trends are observed in 10 and 15 years study periods. Further, stream flow trends are found to be highly correlated with precipitation trends on annual time step. No apparent climate change signal is observed in Indiana stream flow records.
DE: 1807 Climate impacts
DE: 1860 Streamflow
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting