Rainfall Trend Analysis Of Sydney’s Drinking
Water Catchments
Author(s)
S. Shrestha, S. Riley & L. Thomas
Abstract
The Warragamba catchment, which supplies about 80% of Greater Sydney’s
drinking water, reached an all time low of 32.4% in February 2007. Questions
were raised about the adequacy of the water infrastructure to meet the water
needs of Sydney and whether the reduction in storage was a result of decreasing
rainfall trend in the region. This paper attempts to answer these questions by
investigating the long-term rainfall pattern in the Warragamba catchment area
and investigates the seasonal and annual changes in rainfall patterns. Statistical
analysis of available rainfall data indicates a trend of decreasing rainfall of
2.52mm/year between the period of 1945 and 1998 whereas between 1890 and
2003, a linear increasing trend of 0.32mm/year was observed. Three substantial
drought periods have occurred over the study period. These periods were
identified as 1901-1910, 1939-1948 and 2000-2006. Out of these, the 1901-1910
drought was the most severe one, followed by the 1939-1948 drought. The most
recent drought (2000-2006) was the least severe among the three recorded.
However, it is the only drought of significant duration that has occurred since the
completion of construction of Warragamba Dam in 1960.
Keywords: Warragamba, rainfall trend, breakpoint analysis.
Keywords
Warragamba, rainfall trend, breakpoint analysis
Related Book
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