Impact of climate change on water resources in southern Taiwan

This study investigates the impact of climate change on water resources in southern Taiwan. The upstream catchment of Shin-Fa Bridge station in the Kao-Pen Creek basin was the study area chosen herein. The historical trends of meteorological variables, such as mean daily temperature, mean daily precipitation on wet days, monthly wet days, and the transition probabilities of daily precipitation occurrence in each month, at the Kao-Hsiung meteorological station, near the catchments were detected using a non-parametric statistical test. The trends of these meteorological variables were then employed to generate runoff in future climatic conditions using a continuous rainfall a-runoff model. The analytical results indicate that the transition probabilities of daily precipitation occurrence significantly influence precipitation generation, and generated runoff for future climatic conditions in southern Taiwan was found to rise during the wet season and decline during the dry season. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.