CHANGING CLIMATE IN THE POTOHAR REGION- PUNJAB AND ITS EFFECT ON STREAMFLOW: A CASE STUDY OF KANSHI RIVER

Abstract

The current study is to identify and examine the impacts of climate change on the water runoff in the Kanshi catchment of the Potohar Plateau region for 50 years from 1961-2010. Simple linear regression and Pearson correlation were used to assess the correlation coefficient, trend magnitude, and variability of temperature, rainfall, and stream. The results revealed that mean and maximum annual temperature steady and significant increase at the rate of 0.06 °C and 0.053/year during the last two decades. The rainfall pattern was also declined at the rate of -6.821, -0.018, -1.458 and -4.409 mm/year in winter, summer, autumn and spring steadily. Similarly, in August and September, the total water discharge had a significant and negative trend with p values 0.08 and 0.03 during 1991-2010. This substantial and significant change resulted from climate change or increased intercession of anthropogenic activities on the earth's surface.