Assessment of spatial variability of precipitation in Krishna River Basin using a metric based on apportionment entropy

ABSTRACT

A new standardized metric, the standardized spatial variability index (SSVI), was developed using apportionment entropy. The proposed SSVI was used to study the spatial variability of precipitation extremes and volumes in the Krishna River basin (KRB), India, using gridded data from 1901 to 2020. The analysis was performed at three spatial and two temporal scales. Results show that the proposed SSVI can better capture spatial variability than traditional methods. KRB experienced a significant spatial variability in precipitation volume and extremes. More importantly, there is a concentration of extreme precipitation events in the western part compared to the eastern part. The variability of extreme events showed a significant correlation with the mean elevation of the catchments. Trend analysis reveals significant increasing trends observed in SSVI of extreme precipitation events in the northwestern KRB over the study period, indicating that extreme precipitation events have been evenly spread across the catchment in recent decades.

KEYWORDS:

• precipitation variability
• spatial variability
• entropy
• SSVI

Editor S. Archfield; Associate Editor S. Fischer

Editor S. Archfield; Associate Editor S. Fischer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2024.2376708

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad [SG-114].