Assessment of seasonal and annual rainfall trend in Calabria (southern Italy) with the ITA method

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, an investigation on the temporal variability of seasonal and annual rainfall in the Calabria region (southern Italy) was carried out using a homogeneous and gap-filled monthly rainfall dataset of 129 rain gauges in the period 1951–2006. In particular, possible trends have been assessed by means of the Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA) technique, which allows the identification of a trend in the low, medium and high values of a series. Moreover, the results obtained with the ITA have been compared with the ones obtained with the Mann–Kendall test. These analyses have been performed in five rainfall zones (RZs) of the study area, characterized by different climatic conditions. As a result, both the methods evidenced a negative trend of the annual rainfall in the entire study area. On a seasonal scale, this negative tendency has been confirmed in autumn and winter although with some differences among the several RZs.