Climate trends of temperature, precipitation and river discharge in the Volta Basin of West Africa

Neumann, Rebekka; Jung, Gerlinde; Laux, Patrick; Kunstmann, Harald

doi:10.1080/15715124.2007.9635302

Cited by 49 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In a former study of 342 P. LAUX ET AL. Neumann et al (2007), also significant precipitation trends on site scale were detected and many of them could be associated with climate indices, i.e. North Atlantic oscillation, Southern oscillation index, tropical North Atlantic oscillation and tropical South Atlantic oscillation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the regional onset of the rainy season in West Africa

2008

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Particularly in regions, where precipitation is limited to a few months per year only, reliable determination of the onset of the rainy season and the start of the sowing time is of crucial importance to sustainable food production. Especially since the mid-1980s, an increasing delay of onset dates in the Volta basin of West Africa has been suspected by local farmers. To investigate this speculation and develop a reliable tool to find the optimal sowing date, the onset of the rainy season in the region was analysed by means of several statistical techniques. The focus was put on the region of the Volta basin in Ghana and Burkina Faso.In a first step, two fuzzy logic based definitions of the onset were developed using daily precipitation data and additionally accounting for important plant physiological aspects. In this context, only one definition is potentially useful to judge whether the current onset of the rainy season has already begun. In a second step, methods for predicting the onset date of the ongoing season were investigated. In this context, the detection of onset controlling variables plays a major role. Two strategies are investigated and evaluated for the prediction of the monsoon's onset dates: 1) A combination of regionalized synoptic rainfall data by means of principal component analysis (PCA) in a spatial mode and linear discriminant analysis in order to detect reliable prediction parameters and allow for a classification of the rainy season, dry season, and the onset of the rainy season using current rainfall data. 2) Linear regression models were generated to estimate the onset of the rainy season for certain regions using the onset dates of regions, where the onset has already begun.To enhance the predictability, optimized definition parameterisation in the field of both strategies was applied. Copyright  2007 Royal Meteorological Society KEY WORDS onset of the rainy season; West Africa; Volta basin; farming management strategies; decision support system; linear discriminant analysis; principal component analysis; fuzzy logic

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the regional onset of the rainy season in West Africa

2008

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“…With climate change being one of the most severe challenges to rural Africa in the 21st century, West Africa is facing an urgent need to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures to protect its constantly growing population (Neumann et al, 2007;Naab et al, 2012;Eguavoen, 2013;Kirtman et al, 2013;Niang et al, 2014). The West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a large-scale research-focused program designed to help tackle this challenge and thereby enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to climate change and increasing variability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The WASCAL high-resolution regional climate simulation ensemble for West Africa: concept, dissemination and assessment

Heinzeller

Dieng

Smiatek

et al. 2018

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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“…With climate change being one of the most severe challenges to rural Africa in the 21 st century, West Africa is facing an urgent need to develop effective adaptation and mitigation measures to protect its constantly growing population (Neumann et al, 2007;Naab et al, 2012;Eguavoen, 2013;Kirtman et al, 2013;Niang et al, 2014). WASCAL (West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) is a large-scale research-focused program designed to help tackle this 10 challenge and thereby enhance the resilience of human and environmental systems to climate change and increased variability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%