JOURNAL OF WATER AND LAND DEVELOPMENT ISSN 1429–7426, e-ISSN 2083-4535 Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Committee on Agronomic Sciences JOURNAL OF WATER AND LAND DEVELOPMENT Section of Land Reclamation and Environmental Engineering in Agriculture 2019, No. 43 (X–XII): 28–40 Institute of Technology and Life Sciences (ITP) https://DOI.org/10.2478/jwld-2019-0060 Available (PDF): http://www.itp.edu.pl/wydawnictwo/journal; http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jwld; http://journals.pan.pl/jwld Received 10.01.2019 Reviewed 19.05.2019 Accepted 17.06.2019 Characterization of the climatic drought indices A – study design B – data collection application to the Mellah catchment, C – statistical analysis D – data interpretation E – manuscript preparation North-East of Algeria F – literature search Lina BENDJEMAABCDEF , Kamila BABA-HAMEDACDEF, Abderrazak BOUANANIACDEF University of Tlemcen, Faculty of Technology, Laboratory Promotion of Hydraulic, Mining and Pedagogical Resources, Environmental Legislation and Technological Choices Tlemcen BP 119, 13000 Chetouane Tlemcen, Algeria; e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] For citation: Bendjema L., Baba-Hamed K., Bouanani A. 2019. Characterization of the climatic drought indices application to the Mellah catchment, North-East of Algeria. Journal of Water and Land Development. No. 43 (X–XII) p. 28–40. DOI: 10.2478/jwld-2019-0060. Abstract Drought is one of the important phenomena resulting from variability and climate change. It has negative effects on all economic, agricultural and social sectors. The objective of this study is to rapidly detect climate dryness situations on an annual scale at the Mellah catchment (Northeast Algeria) for periods ranging from 31 years through the calculation of: the standardized precipitation index (SPI), the standardized Streamflow index (SSFI), the standardized temperature index (STI). Calculations made it possible to locate periods of drought more precisely by their intensity, duration and frequency, and detect years of breaks using the tests of Pettitt, rang, Lee and Heghinian, Hubert and Buishand. The use of the statistical tests for the rainfall series analyzed show all breaks, the majority of which are in 1996/1997 and 2001/2002. For the tem- peratures the breaks are situated in 1980/1981. Key words: drought, drought break, drought index, humidity, Mellah catchment INTRODUCTION According to AOUN SEBAITI [2010], Algeria's water resources are currently relatively well known, but the According to SVOBODA et al. [2012], drought is an in- drought that has been raging for more than 20 years has led sidious plague that results from a decrease in precipitation water services to update their assessments of water quality from levels considered normal. When the phenomenon rainfall in each region. Algeria has experienced many peri- lasts a whole season, or over a longer period, rainfall is ods of drought of varying magnitude during its history. insufficient to meet the needs of the environment and hu- Some of them have had sometimes dramatic repercussions man activities. Drought must be considered a more relative on the living conditions of the population, particularly in than absolute state. It is indeed a phenomenon of regional rural areas (1943–1948); the most severe and persistent scale and each region has its own climatic characteristics. droughts are those observed during the 1980s to 1990s, Temperature, wind and relative humidity are also im- when the rainfall deficit was estimated at 50% for the cen- portant factors in characterizing drought. This has led tral regions and in western Algeria and 30% in the East. many researchers to study climate change in the world and The year 1988/1989 was classified as a dry year for Alge- in Algeria in particular [DJELLOULI et al. 2016; FARAH ria. This drought has had a negative impact on the flow 2014; GHENIM, MEGNOUNIF 2011; 2013; GHERISSI 2018; regime of the wadis, on the supply of the groundwater and IBRAHIM, 2012; KHOUALDIA et al. 2014; MERABTI 2018; on the filling level of the roadblocks. It was followed by OTMANE et al. 2018; SORO et al. 2014; SOUBEYROUX et al. many floods that have been marked all over the country 2012]. Algerian territory [KHOUALDIA et al. 2014]. © 2019. The Authors. Published by Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) andInstitute of Technology and Life Sciences (ITP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/3.0/). Characterization of the climatic drought indices application to the Mellah catchment, North-East of Algeria 29 MEDDI and MEDDI [2009] present drought as the most in the Mellah watershed. We will adopt revealing indices recurrent climatic phenomenon in most of Africa. The of its degree of intensity as a methodological approach to northern part of Algeria is characterized by a Mediterrane- identify the relationship meteorological drought and hydro- an climate with a relatively cold and rainy winter and a hot logical drought. and dry summer, the rainfall reaches 400 mm in the West, 700 mm in the Center and 1000 mm in the East for the lit- STUDY AREA toral. According to MEBARKI [2009], eastern Algeria is the most water-logged region in the country and, as a result, The watershed Wadi Mellah (Fig. 1) covers an area of has the largest share of surface water resources. With an 552.38 km2. It is located in northeastern Algeria, East of average annual flow of more than 200–300 mm in the Tell the Seybouse watershed, it constitutes the fifth sub-basin basins, it is clearly opposed to western Algeria where the after those of: upstream Cherf, downstream Cherf, Bou- dominant semi-aridity allows only mediocre flows, mostly hamdane and middle Seybouse. The Wadi Mellah is the less than 50 mm per year. The relative rainfall abundance main tributary of the right bank of the Seybouse with of eastern Algeria does not exclude that this region has which it converges, at the mouth of the Guelma Valley also experienced drought since 1980. However recent stud- (Fig. 2). It owes its name to the high salinity of the waters ies KHOUALDIA et al. [2014] show that a trend towards of the downstream catchment. This is due to the leaching a return of rainfall is observed for the period 2001–2007. of Triassic gypsum soils located in the central basin. Wadi According to KHEZAZNA et al. [2017] during the period Mellah, a tributary rises of north-west slope of the Medjer- 1995–2011, a gradually return to normal precipitation is da Mountains. Wadi Mellah receives some important tribu- observed; moderately wet and very wet conditions were taries, among others: Wadi Zarin, Wadi Rirane, Wadi La- recorded in the most areas of the Seybouse watershed, with biod, Wadi Bouredine, Wadi El Meza, Wadi Ghanem, different spatial extents. Though, the deficit of rainfall per- Wadi Chham, Wadi El Hammam and Wadi Bouzaraa. It is sists in the center of the basin (Guelma, Ain Makhlouf) elongated in shape with a south-western/north-eastern ori- over the entire period. entation and a very heterogeneous topography. The basin In the North-East of Algeria, Wadi Mellah crosses the includes all cultivated agricultural land. The region is sub- regions of Souk Ahras and Guelma to flow into Wadi Sey- ject to a Mediterranean climate characterized by two dis- bouse and participates as a water source in economic activ- tinct seasons: one humid and the other dry. The average ities (agriculture, industry ...). As for Wadi Mellah, a major annual precipitation is about 885 mm and the average tem- tributary of Seybouse, irrigates the Bouchegouf Plain (East perature is 16.5°C. The geology of the region is represent- of Guelma) and runs along the South-West study area to ed by three main formations: the permeable alluvial depos- the North-East. its of the Quaternary, which are of vital importance for the Knowledge of the climatic variability of a watershed hydrogeology of the region, and the two impermeable or such as the Mellah catchment, where hydraulic facilities semi-permeable formations that constitute the boundaries are lacking, is necessary for the integrated management of of the natural reservoirs. These formations are represented water resources such as the design of hydraulic structures. by Numidian sandstone and Triassic formations. Alluvial The present work will focus on the analysis of the climate deposits are groundwater reservoirs that are drained by the drought situation on an annual scale, in order to follow its Mellah wadi [CHAOUI et al. 2013]. evolution and to understand its impact on water resources Fig. 1. Map of northern Algerian watersheds; the numbers mean the code of the watershed according to the division of the National Water Resources Agency (ANRH); source: own elaboration 30 L. BENDJEMA, K. BABA-HAMED, A. BOUANANI Fig. 2. Situation of the Mellah watershed; source: own elaboration MATERIAL AND METHODS the Wadi Mellah watershed is controlled by a single hydrometric station at the outlet of Bouchegouf with an THE DATA observation period from 1979/1980 to 2009/2010. The rainfall and hydrometric station data used in this To characterize the climate of the study area, we study come from the database of the National Agency of based on: Hydraulic Resources (Fr. Agence Nationale des Res- three rainfall stations with long series of precipitation sources Hydriques – ANRH) in Algeria – Table 1. data from 1979/1980 to 2009/2010, these three stations The interannual variation of the runoff's depth record- (Mechroha, Hammam N'bail and Bouchegouf) located ed at the Bouchegouf station (Fig. 4), indicates an im- within the basin (Fig. 3); portant irregularity. We observe an exceptional year in thermometric measurements are carried out at the mete- 2002/2003 with 493 mm, the minimum of 17 mm is rec- orological stations of Guelma (Belkhir) and Souk Ahras orded in 2001/2002.