Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka

Changes in precipitation patterns significantly affect flood and drought hazard management and water resources at local to regional scales. Therefore, the main motivation behind this paper is to examine the spatial and temporal rainfall variability over Sri Lanka by Standardized Rainfall Anomaly Ind...

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Main Authors: Uttam Pawar, Pasindu Karunathilaka, Upaka Rathnayake
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-01-01
Series:Advances in Meteorology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6456761
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author Uttam Pawar
Pasindu Karunathilaka
Upaka Rathnayake
author_facet Uttam Pawar
Pasindu Karunathilaka
Upaka Rathnayake
author_sort Uttam Pawar
collection DOAJ
description Changes in precipitation patterns significantly affect flood and drought hazard management and water resources at local to regional scales. Therefore, the main motivation behind this paper is to examine the spatial and temporal rainfall variability over Sri Lanka by Standardized Rainfall Anomaly Index (SRAI) and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) from 1990 to 2019. The Mann–Kendall (MK) trend test and Sen’s slope (SS) were utilized to assess the trend in the precipitation concentration based on PCI. The Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method was incorporated to measure spatial distribution. Precipitation variability analysis showed that seasonal variations are more than those of annual variations. In addition, wet, normal, and dry years were identified over Sri Lanka using SRAI. The maximum SRAI (2.27) was observed for the year 2014 for the last 30 years (1990–2019), which shows the extremely wet year of Sri Lanka. The annual and seasonal PCI analysis showed moderate to irregular rainfall distribution except for the Jaffna and Ratnapura areas (annual scale-positive changes in Katugastota for 21.39% and Wellawaya for 17.6%; seasonal scale-Vavuniya for 33.64%, Trincomalee for 31.26%, and Batticaloa for 18.79% in SWMS). The MK test, SS-test, and percent change analyses reveal that rainfall distribution and concentration change do not show a significant positive or negative change in rainfall pattern in Sri Lanka, despite a few areas which experienced significant positive changes. Therefore, this study suggests that the rainfall in Sri Lanka follows the normal trend of precipitation with variations observed both annually and seasonally.
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spelling doaj-art-b1cdff0e24c14f51926039e9e1ce7f9b2025-02-03T01:00:42ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93172022-01-01202210.1155/2022/6456761Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri LankaUttam Pawar0Pasindu Karunathilaka1Upaka Rathnayake2Department of GeographyDepartment of Civil EngineeringDepartment of Civil EngineeringChanges in precipitation patterns significantly affect flood and drought hazard management and water resources at local to regional scales. Therefore, the main motivation behind this paper is to examine the spatial and temporal rainfall variability over Sri Lanka by Standardized Rainfall Anomaly Index (SRAI) and Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) from 1990 to 2019. The Mann–Kendall (MK) trend test and Sen’s slope (SS) were utilized to assess the trend in the precipitation concentration based on PCI. The Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method was incorporated to measure spatial distribution. Precipitation variability analysis showed that seasonal variations are more than those of annual variations. In addition, wet, normal, and dry years were identified over Sri Lanka using SRAI. The maximum SRAI (2.27) was observed for the year 2014 for the last 30 years (1990–2019), which shows the extremely wet year of Sri Lanka. The annual and seasonal PCI analysis showed moderate to irregular rainfall distribution except for the Jaffna and Ratnapura areas (annual scale-positive changes in Katugastota for 21.39% and Wellawaya for 17.6%; seasonal scale-Vavuniya for 33.64%, Trincomalee for 31.26%, and Batticaloa for 18.79% in SWMS). The MK test, SS-test, and percent change analyses reveal that rainfall distribution and concentration change do not show a significant positive or negative change in rainfall pattern in Sri Lanka, despite a few areas which experienced significant positive changes. Therefore, this study suggests that the rainfall in Sri Lanka follows the normal trend of precipitation with variations observed both annually and seasonally.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6456761
spellingShingle Uttam Pawar
Pasindu Karunathilaka
Upaka Rathnayake
Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
Advances in Meteorology
title Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
title_full Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
title_fullStr Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
title_short Spatio-Temporal Rainfall Variability and Concentration over Sri Lanka
title_sort spatio temporal rainfall variability and concentration over sri lanka
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6456761
work_keys_str_mv AT uttampawar spatiotemporalrainfallvariabilityandconcentrationoversrilanka
AT pasindukarunathilaka spatiotemporalrainfallvariabilityandconcentrationoversrilanka
AT upakarathnayake spatiotemporalrainfallvariabilityandconcentrationoversrilanka