Changing Properties of Daily Precipitation Concentration in the Hai River Basin, China

Abstract

Understanding the spatiotemporal pattern of precipitation concentration is important for the assessment of flood and drought risk and utilization of water resources. In this study, the daily precipitation concentration index in the Hai River basin in China was calculated based on the Gini coefficient obtained from the observed data of 51 meteorological stations from 1951 to 2018 and spatiotemporal pattern variations were investigated. The trends and abrupt changes of DPCI were tested by the Mann–Kendall and the Pettitt methods, respectively. The relationships among DPCI, percentage of precipitation contributed by the rainiest days, and disaster losses were discussed by the linear correlation analysis. The results showed that the DPCI value ranges between 0.6471 and 0.7938, decreases westward and northward, which is negatively related to latitude and elevation, and is positively related to longitude. Negative trends of the DPCI were found at most stations, and the PCI trends of more than 80% stations were statistically significant. Abrupt changes of the DPCI have a postponement trend from west to east with time. Daily heterogeneity of the rainfall in a year is highly correlated with the heavy rainfall amount of the 25% rainiest days. For a year, higher DPCI coupled with more precipitation is easy to cause a flood disaster; conversely, higher DPCI along with less precipitation is easy to cause a drought disaster. In the future, the risk of flood disasters would be reduced, but the drought disasters would be increased in the Hai River basin.