Assessing Trends of aridity index changes over 1966-2100 period in the Northwest of Iran

In this study, changes of aridity index (AI), reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and precipitation were investigated in six stations located in the west and northwest of Iran over 1966-2010, 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 periods. The outputs of HadCM3 under A2 and B2 emission scenarios were downscaled using statistical downscaling approach by Statistical downscaling model (SDSM). Mann-Kendall trend test was applied to assess the significance of trends of aridity index, reference evapotranspiration and precipitation in 1966-2010. The results of Mann-Kendall test revealed that there was a significant decreasing trend in AI and precipitation at the level of 95% over 1966-2010 in most of the surveyed stations. The negative trends of AI during winter, spring, summer and autumn were significant at five, four, zero and two of six surveyed stations, respectively. This indicates that reduced wintertime aridity index plays an important role in downward trend of annual aridity index in the studied area. The results also showed that AI, averaged across all stations, would decline by 8.0, 14.7 and 34.3% under A2 and 12.6, 12.5 and 20.1% under B2 over the early, middle and late 21st century relative to the baseline period (1966-2010), respectively, indicating a drier climate in northwest and west of country over the 21st century. On seasonal scale, the greatest decrease of AI is expected in summertime under A2 and springtime under B2 over the 21st century. AI, averaged over all stations, will most likely approach 0.2 indicating a severe reduction of aridity index in the studied area under A2. In some regions such as Tabriz, increased ET0 and decline of precipitation will cause a shift from semi-arid to arid climatic condition over the 21st century.