Long-term trend analysis of climatic variables and reference evapotranspiration over different urban areas in Tunisia

Basma Latrech , Hiba Ghazouani , Lasram Asma , Boutheina M'hamdi Douh , Mansour Mohsen and Abdelhamid Boujelben

Abstract
In this study, the trend analysis of annual climatic variables including T_max, T_min, T_mean, RH_mean, WS and SR as well as FAO-56 PM ET0 were investigated in three locations in Tunisia during 1984-2007. The Mann-Kendall Test, the Sen's Slope Estimator and linear regression tests were used for the analysis. The obtained results showed a significant increasing trends (α < 0.001) and (α < 0.01) in annual T_max, T_min and T_mean at all the considered locations. However, T_min increase faster than T_max with a slope of magnitudes ranging between 0.057 to 0.1 ^oC year^-1. For RH_mean, a non-significant tendency of decrease was observed in Chott-Mariem station. However, significantly increasing trends were found for Kelibia and Tunis Carthage. Concerning the WS variable, a tendency of decrease is observed during the study period for all the stations. Nevertheless, the statistical analysis of decreasing tendency of wind speed varied from non-significant for Tunis Carthage to highly significant (α ≤ 0.001) at Chott-Mariem and Kelibia. Despite the highly significant upward trend of temperature, the temporal pattern of mean annual FAO56 PM-ET0, over the different stations, did not exhibit any significant trend except for Kelibia station.

Keywords
Trend analysis; Mann-Kendall Test; Sen's Slope Estimator; Linear regression; Climatic variables; FAO56 PM ET0; Tunisia.

DOI
10.21472/bjbs.061218

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