The Impact of Human Activities on Flood Trends in the Semi-Arid Climate of Cheliff Basin, Algeria

The Impact of Human Activities on Flood Trends in the Semi-Arid Climate of Cheliff Basin, Algeria

Algeria shares similarities with other countries of the world facing destructive floods. The need to understand changes in the intensity, frequency and severity of floods is critical for reducing significant social, economic, and environmental implications. In this study, flood indicators derived fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water resources Vol. 47; no. 3; pp. 409 - 420
Main Authors: Naima Zekouda, Meddi, Mohamed, LaVanchy, G. Thomas, Remaoun, Mohamed
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01-05-2020
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Annual precipitation
Aquatic Pollution
Arid climates
Aridity
Climate
Climate and human activity
Climate variability
Dam construction
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Economics
Environmental impact
Floods
Human influences
Human-environment relationship
Hydrogeology
Hydrology/Water Resources
Indicators
Moisture content
Precipitation
Regression analysis
Semiarid climates
Soil
Soil moisture
Soil moisture content
Trend analysis
Trends
Urban areas
Waste Water Technology
Water content
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water Resources and the Regime of Water Bodies
Algeria
human impacts
flood indicators
Cheliff Basin
trend analysis
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Summary:Algeria shares similarities with other countries of the world facing destructive floods. The need to understand changes in the intensity, frequency and severity of floods is critical for reducing significant social, economic, and environmental implications. In this study, flood indicators derived from annual maximum series and peak over threshold series were analyzed using Mann−Kendall trend analysis and linear regression analysis. Several studies in northern Algeria found decreasing trends of annual precipitation. However, precipitation could not explain most flood indicator trends found in our study. A general decreasing annual and seasonal trends of flood indicators were detected in the wadi Cheliff Basin. This result is partly due to decreasing precipitation and partly due to the construction of dams which have significantly altered flood processes. Increasing trends were found in the Mina Basin, which could be explained as the result of increases in urban area and decrease in soil moisture content before the occurrence of floods. Conversely, there was no dependency demonstrated between significant changes and spatial scales for these flood indicators. That is to say, human impacts and climate variability likely constitute the main factors causing increasing or decreasing flood trends.
ISSN:0097-8078
1608-344X
DOI:10.1134/S0097807820030136