Extended Abstract

Spatial and Temporal Variations of Extreme Precipitation Events inthe Huaihe River Basin,ChinaYong WANG 1 , Qilong MIAO 2 , Yuanyuan DING 11 School of Remote Sensing, Nanjing Unversity of Information Science & Technology.2 College of Applied Meterology, Nanjing Unversity of Information Science &Technology. Email: wyong0210@163.com1. IntroductionThe spatial and temporal variations of extreme precipitation events are the directsource of flood and drought hazards. One of the major concerns related toanthropogenic climate change is an increase in extreme events that could have aprofound impact on both human society and the natural environment. The fourthassessment report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)pointed out extreme precipitation events in many mid-latitude regions were likely toincrease, and the total area affected by drought since the 1970s has been likely toincrease (Alexander et al., 2006; IPCC, 2007). These results described the generaltrends in extreme precipitation events at a large spatial scale, but the changes inparticular regions were not conclusive (Kunkel, 2003; Wang et al., 2008) and need tobe assessed.Regional differences in extreme climate events can be great. In general,increasing temperatures speed up the water cycling process, which can possibly resultin increases in precipitation amount and intensity.However, no trend or significantdownward trends in extreme precipitation events have also been found in some areasdue to variabilities such as topography and local circulation.The objectives of this study were to analyze the temporal trends and their spatialdistribution for each extreme precipitation indicator. Based on the daily observationaldata of 26 stations in the Huaihe River Basin (HRB), spatial and temporal variationsof extreme precipitation in the last 48 years are analysed in the present study. Thedetailed analysis on trends of the extreme precipitation events at a regional scale isimportant to forecast and reduce the climate induced flood risks and provideinformation for rational countermeasures.2. Data and Methods2.1 Study areaIn this paper, the study area is that the HRB is located in the eastern China (Fig.1). It rises of the Tongbo and Funiu Mountains in west, and faces to the Yellow Sea ineast. HRB totally covers 270,000km 2 area. The Huaihe River originates from theTongbo Mountain of Henan province and flows through four provinces (Henan,Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu province).-15-