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Abstract

Abstract Rainfall is a critical factor for any economic sector that depends on water. Watersheds are the future of climate resilient communities in combating water scarcity and sustaining agricultural production. Identification of variations in rainfall trends provides useful information for sustainable planning and management of water resources in a river basin particularly during flood and drought periods. The present study was conducted to determine trends in the annual and seasonal total rainfall over Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) basin of Tamil Nadu using 42 years (1981-2022) rainfall data from ERA Interim rainfall data at 0.125 ×0.125° resolution. Nonparametric Mann-Kendall test was used for the trend analysis and the nonparametric Sen’s slope method was used to measure the magnitude of trend in rainfall. The study on rainfall over PAP basin showed that annual had no significant trend for the period of 1981 to 2022. The upper region of PAP basin witnessed a significant positive trend during winter season, while the lower region of PAP basin experienced the same in the Northeast Monsoon period. Winter and Southwest monsoon are found to be experiencing higher variation on rainfall over the entire basin. Crop planning and water management during the different seasons can be developed further by the policy makers to benefit the farming community.

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