Unravelling the Impacts of Climate Variability on Surface Runoff in the Mouhoun River Catchment (West Africa)

Cheick Oumar Zouré, Arsène Kiema, Roland Yonaba () and Bernard Minoungou
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Cheick Oumar Zouré: Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement (LPCE), Institut de Génie de l’Environnement et du Développement Durable (IGEDD), Université Joseph KI-ZERBO (UJKZ), Ouagadougou 03 BP 7021, Burkina Faso
Arsène Kiema: Service Régional des Etudes Statistiques et Sectorielles, Direction Régionale de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement du Centre-Nord, Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement, Ouagadougou 03 BP 7044, Burkina Faso
Roland Yonaba: Laboratoire Eaux, Hydro-Systèmes et Agriculture (LEHSA), Institut International d’Ingénierie de l’Eau et de l’Environnement (2iE), Ouagadougou 01 BP 594, Burkina Faso
Bernard Minoungou: Département Information et Recherche (DIR), Centre Climatique Régional pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest et le Sahel (CCR-WAS), Centre Régional AGHRYMET, Niamey BP 11011, Niger

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: This study assesses the impacts of climate variability on surface runoff generation in the Mouhoun River Catchment (MRC) in Burkina Faso, in the West African Sahel. The study uses a combination of observed and reanalysis data over the period 1983–2018 to develop a SWAT model (KGE = 0.77/0.89 in calibration/validation) further used to reconstitute the complete time series for surface runoff. Results show that annual rainfall and surface runoff follow a significant upward trend (rainfall: 4.98 mm·year −1 , p -value = 0.029; runoff: 0.45 m 3 ·s −1 ·year −1 , p -value = 0.013). Also, rainfall appears to be the dominant driver of surface runoff (Spearman’s ρ = 0.732, p -value < 0.0001), leading surface runoff at all timescales. Surface runoff is further modulated by potential evapotranspiration with quasi-decadal timescales fluctuations, although being less correlated to surface runoff (Spearman’s ρ = −0.148, p -value = 0.386). The study highlights the added value of the coupling of hydrological modeling and reanalysis datasets to analyze the rainfall–runoff relationship in data-scarce and poorly gauged environments and therefore raises pathways to improve knowledge and understanding of the impacts of climate variability in Sahelian hydrosystems.

Keywords: climate variability; hydrological response; Mouhoun River Catchment; surface runoff; SWAT model; West African Sahel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:11:p:2017-:d:1274426

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