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Assessment of rainfall variability and its relationship to ENSO in a sub-Andean watershed in central Bolivia

Amaya, Andres Gonzales LU ; Villazon, Mauricio F. and Willems, Patrick (2018) In Water 10(6).
Abstract

Climate change and variability are likely to increase in most parts of the world, leading to more extreme events, which may increase the stress on already threatened water resources. This study focuses on the effects of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the rainfall of Pucara basin and in the groundwater levels of the Punata alluvial fan in the Bolivian sub-Andes. Climate change and variability were assessed using the Quantile Perturbation Method, by detecting anomalous temporal changes in extreme quantiles of annual precipitation in the Pucara watershed and the correlation with groundwater levels in the Punata fan. The results show oscillatory behavior over periods of 28 to 33 years for the occurrence of wet and dry extremes at all... (More)

Climate change and variability are likely to increase in most parts of the world, leading to more extreme events, which may increase the stress on already threatened water resources. This study focuses on the effects of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the rainfall of Pucara basin and in the groundwater levels of the Punata alluvial fan in the Bolivian sub-Andes. Climate change and variability were assessed using the Quantile Perturbation Method, by detecting anomalous temporal changes in extreme quantiles of annual precipitation in the Pucara watershed and the correlation with groundwater levels in the Punata fan. The results show oscillatory behavior over periods of 28 to 33 years for the occurrence of wet and dry extremes at all studied meteorological stations. This suggests a similar oscillatory behavior of the groundwater levels; however, longer groundwater level observations are needed in order to confirm the link between precipitation variability and groundwater fluctuations. Local actors such as water managers, farmers and decision makers must take into consideration this climate variability in order to plan for these multi-decadal variations in response to the changes.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Bolivia, Climate variability, El Niño, Groundwater, Southern Oscillation Index
in
Water
volume
10
issue
6
article number
701
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85047784662
ISSN
2073-4441
DOI
10.3390/w10060701
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
daf91065-726a-4f23-86cc-647752f33b88
date added to LUP
2018-06-12 15:33:26
date last changed
2022-04-17 20:59:42
@article{daf91065-726a-4f23-86cc-647752f33b88,
  abstract     = {{<p>Climate change and variability are likely to increase in most parts of the world, leading to more extreme events, which may increase the stress on already threatened water resources. This study focuses on the effects of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the rainfall of Pucara basin and in the groundwater levels of the Punata alluvial fan in the Bolivian sub-Andes. Climate change and variability were assessed using the Quantile Perturbation Method, by detecting anomalous temporal changes in extreme quantiles of annual precipitation in the Pucara watershed and the correlation with groundwater levels in the Punata fan. The results show oscillatory behavior over periods of 28 to 33 years for the occurrence of wet and dry extremes at all studied meteorological stations. This suggests a similar oscillatory behavior of the groundwater levels; however, longer groundwater level observations are needed in order to confirm the link between precipitation variability and groundwater fluctuations. Local actors such as water managers, farmers and decision makers must take into consideration this climate variability in order to plan for these multi-decadal variations in response to the changes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Amaya, Andres Gonzales and Villazon, Mauricio F. and Willems, Patrick}},
  issn         = {{2073-4441}},
  keywords     = {{Bolivia; Climate variability; El Niño; Groundwater; Southern Oscillation Index}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Water}},
  title        = {{Assessment of rainfall variability and its relationship to ENSO in a sub-Andean watershed in central Bolivia}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10060701}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/w10060701}},
  volume       = {{10}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}