Evaluation of climate variables impact on Kohrang River discharge (main branch of North Karoun River)

Kohrange sub-catchment is one of the main sources of North Karoun River. Climate variables, such as precipitation and temperature might have considerable impact on discharge of North Karoun River. To evaluate the impact of these variables, 27 years climate data were used. For this purpose, the mean of last ten years of 8 variables including, annual mean, max and min temperatures, number of snowy and rainy days, amount of annual rainfall, max daily rainfall intensity at Kohrang station and discharge of Dezak hydrometric station over mean previous years were evaluated and analyzed using Mann-Candall and Sen’s estimator methods. The above statistical methods showed that the mean annual temperature has increased by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to mean of previous years at the level of 95 percent confidence interval, but the max and min annual temperatures did not show a statistically significant trend. Although, the max daily rainfall intensity and the number of snowy and rainy days have reduced annually, but these tests did not show a statistically significant trend either. The above mentioned statistical tests confirmed decreasing trends in annual precipitation by 11 percent (155.4 mm/year) and 19.7 percent in discharge at Dezak hydrometric station.