New Approach to Identify Trend Pattern of Streamflows
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 15, Issue 3
Abstract
Streamflow trend analyses have so far mainly focused on testing if trends for a specified period are significant. However, the traditional trend tests cannot characterize trend patterns, i.e., if the trend is gradual or abrupt. This study contributes a novel approach to identify the trend pattern of streamflows. This study proposes the use of repeated monotonic trend tests with varying beginning and ending times. The results of the repeated trend tests are plotted along the beginning and ending times. The sensitivity of trends with respect to the period of time is then employed to characterize the trend pattern. Application of the new approach to watersheds within the Susquehanna River Basin demonstrates that the new approach is capable of characterizing trend patterns. A comparison with the results of single monotonic trend tests shows that it is also useful for the exploration of all available data in contrast to a single monotonic trend test that only shows trends for a specified time period.
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Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully thank Mike Brownell, the chief of the Water Resources Management Division at the Susquehanna River Basin Commissin (SRBC) for his encouragement and support of the study. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the SRBC and no official endorsement should be inferred. The writers would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 15 • Issue 3 • March 2010
Pages: 244 - 248
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 14, 2008
Accepted: Sep 2, 2009
Published online: Sep 14, 2009
Published in print: Mar 2010
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