FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, vol.21, no.10, pp.2908-2915, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
This paper applies a procedure that identifies trends in monthly precipitation totals across Turkey. The procedure utilizes the regional average Mann-Kendall non-parametric test with both serial and cross-correlation to detect trends for a network of 52 Turkish precipitation gauging stations for a 30-year period (1968-1997) in seven geographical regions of Turkey. The application of regional trend analysis confirmed spatial and temporal changes in the behaviour of precipitation over Turkey. The regional trend analysis revealed that almost no evidence of significant change was experienced with a general upward regional direction appearing primarily in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Anatolia regions and partly in the Marmara region compared to the Central Anatolia and Aegean regions. The regional insignificant increasing trends appeared to be dominant starting from June ending with December all over Turkey. In contrast, the most number of regional insignificant decreasing trends were obtained in January and spring months over Turkey except for the Southeastern Anatolia and Black Sea regions with some significant trends in the Aegean region.