Spatial variability of concentration and aggressiveness of Precipitation in north-east of Algeria

Abstract

In this study, the spatial variation of daily and monthly concentration precipitation index and its aggressive ness were used in 23 rainfall stations in the extreme north-east of Algeria over the period 1970-2010. The trend was analysed by the Mann-Kendall (MK) test. The results show that daily precipitation concentration index (CI) values are noticeably higher in places where the amount of total precipitation is low, the results of MK test show that areas of high precipitation concentration tend to increase. The seasonality and aggressiveness of precipitation are high in the eastern and western parts of the study region (eastern and central coastal of Constantine catchments), whereas a moderately seasonal distribution with low aggressiveness is found in the middle of the study area (plains and central Seybouse catchment). As a result, the modified Fournier index (MFI) has a significant correlation with annual precipitation, whereas the CI and monthly precipitation concentration index (PCI) show an opposite correlation in relation to annual precipitation.