SEASONAL TREND OF MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES: THE MIDDLE FIRAT SECTION

Abstract

The rapid expansion of industrialization and urbanization is mainly due to the concentration of
anthropogenic activities in urban areas. Unplanned and rapid urbanization in cities located in
developing countries has caused some environmental problems such as increasing energy
consumption, changes in the local climate and a higher amount of air pollution. The climate system
is effective in many areas, from the local scale to the global scale, and from the formation of the
Earth to human activities. Climate changes has occurred in the time that has passed since the first
formation of the Earth until today. In addition to the natural climate changes of the Earth,
anthropogenic effects on the climate system have been observed with the industrialization in the
19th century. Various statistical approaches have been developed to determine the size and the
direction of these respective changes. Global temperature changes adopted by many disciplines,
institutions and organizations have increased their impact and caused environmental problems
today. As in many regions of the world, Turkey is among the countries that have the potential to
discern short or long term climate changes depending on time. In particular, the Southeastern
Anatolia Region, which contains the study area, is among the sensitive areas in terms of climate
changes due to its location. A large number of statistical methods have been developed to reveal the
amount and direction of climate changes. In this study, the trend of changes in temperature
parameters in the Middle Fırat Region between 1970 and 2014 was examined. In this respect, the
trend in annual and seasonal minimum maximum temperatures was determined by using MannKendall and Linear Trend Analysis techniques. According to the results of the analysis, it was
observed that there was a statistically significant increase in the annual maximum and minimum
temperatures of the Middle Fırat Section. Depending upon the increase in temperatures, there may
be an increase in pressures on agricultural irrigation and water resources in the future. This case
may lead to a more critical state of the region's economy, which is based on agriculture.