Annual and Low-Flow Trends in Serbia
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 3
Abstract
This study analyzed the annual and low-flow trends of rivers located in Serbia, a part of southeast Europe. To achieve this, a comprehensive framework for flow trend estimation was established using both the conventional Mann–Kendall trend test and its modified version, which considers the serial correlation of flows, alongside the Theil-Sen trend estimator for modeling linear trends. The investigation was performed at a large spatial scale for sites of 80 hydrological stations with negligible human influence. The most important rivers are given as follows: the Velika Morava, Južna Morava, Kolubara, Nišava, Timok, and Toplica rivers. Selected hydrological stations at these rivers drain the watershed areas from to with the respective recording periods (average length of the recorded data is equal to 60 years). The results implied that decreasing annual and low-flow trends are occurring for southern and eastern Serbian river streams while increasing trends were estimated at only a few hydrological sites. Hence, the results assist in revealing the most vulnerable river basins with statistically significant decreasing trends and provide a solid basis for the estimation of the design annual and low-flow trends in Serbia.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, Grant No. 6707, REmote WAter Quality monitoRing and INtelliGence, REWARDING.
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Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 3 • June 2024
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Mar 7, 2023
Accepted: Dec 13, 2023
Published online: Mar 15, 2024
Published in print: Jun 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Aug 15, 2024
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