Analysis of spatial variation of temperature trends in the semiarid Euphrates basin using statistical approaches

This study analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution of trends on monthly, seasonal, and annual mean temperatures (1967–2017) at 22 stations in the Euphrates Basin of Turkey. The recently proposed innovative trend analysis (ITA) and the nonparametric Mann–Kendall (MK) and Spearman’s rho (SR) test at 5% and 1% significance levels were applied to examine the temporal trends of temperatures. Before using the nonparametric trend analysis, the serial correlation of the temperature data was removed with the pre-whitening (PW) method. Then, MK-Z values were mapped in ArcGIS environment using the Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) method to reveal the spatial variation of temperature trends. As a result, according to the ITA method, increasing temperature trends at 1% significance level dominate almost all periods. Based on the MK and SR tests, it was identified that increase trends were dominant at 1% and 5% significance levels in February, March, April, July, August, Spring, Summer, and Annual periods. According to the spatial temperature trend maps, significant increase trends occupy an important place in most of the basin in February, March, April, June, July, August, Spring, Summer, Winter, and Annual periods. The study results provide important information to water resources managers and decision-makers about the regions at significant risk in climate change in the Euphrates Basin. © 2022, The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences.