Assessment of the Spatiotemporal Changes in the Extreme Precipitation Climate Indices over the Chungcheong Region of South Korea during 1973–2020

Abstract

This study analyzed the changes and trends in twelve extreme precipitation-based climate indices obtained using daily data from 10 synoptic stations in the Chungcheong region of South Korea during the 1973–2020 period. The climate indices were used to assess the trends in the extreme precipitation characteristics of duration, frequency, and intensity using the innovative trend analysis (ITA) method. The results of the ITA were further compared with two other non-parametric test methods such as Mann–Kendall (MK) and Spearman’s rho (SR). The results showed that most stations exhibited significant increasing trends in all the investigated climate indices at a 95% confidence level as indicated by the ITA method, with only a few stations indicating significant decreasing trends in R95p, R99p, Rx3day, and Rx5day. The sub-trend analysis further revealed the dominance of neutral behavior around the low-value cluster, especially for the extreme precipitation duration. At the same time, increasing trends dominate the high-value cluster at most stations. Meanwhile, only R10mm, R99p, and R95p exhibited monotonic trends in the Boeun and Seosan stations, respectively. Further, the ITA exhibited superior performance over the MK and SR methods by indicating the presence of more significant trends in the climate indices at most stations. The distribution of the extreme precipitation indices for duration, frequency, and intensity indicate the pronounced risk of flood conditions around the north–central and some parts of southern regions, while the western region indicates a potential drought risk, which could greatly impact the water resources and consequently agricultural activities in the study area. The results of this study provide essential information for addressing the climate-related problems of water resource management and agriculture in the study area and other related climatic regions.