Abstracts
Résumé
Depuis une dizaine d'années, la communauté scientifique s'est beaucoup intéressée à l'hypothèse d'un réchauffement à l'échelle planétaire. De nombreuses études ont porté sur l'analyse de ces modifications climatiques éventuelles ainsi que sur la modélisation de leurs impacts sur les ressources en eau. Cependant, malgré l'attention croissante que reçoit le sujet des modifications climatiques, très peu de travail a été accompli pour mettre en place des réseaux de mesure spécialement conçus pour l'étude des modifications climatiques et leurs impacts sur les ressources en eau, et pour créer des bases de données adaptées à cet objectif. Cette tâche est encore plus nécessaire dans le cadre des réductions budgétaires auxquelles sont soumis les réseaux hydrométriques dans certains pays développés. Cet article présente les bases d'une étude dont l'objectif est la conception d'un réseau hydrométrique pour le suivi des modifications climatiques dans la province de Québec, Canada. Le but est d'identifier, afin de les conserver, les stations de jaugeage les plus adéquates pour accomplir cette tâche. L'article présente aussi une brève revue des types de modifications climatiques qui peuvent être observés et de certains tests qui existent pour leur détection et leur quantification. Une procédure bayésienne de détection des sauts de la moyenne a été sélectionnée sur la base de ses avantages théoriques, et appliquée aux séries de données des stations retenues au Québec.
Mots-clés:
- Réseaux hydrométriques,
- modifications climatiques,
- non-stationnarité,
- analyse bayésienne,
- débit
Abstract
The 1980s and 1990s contained most of the warmest years since the beginning of worldwide temperature recording nearly 140 years ago. Widely accepted estimates project that the earth's average temperature might increase by about 2°C over the next 100 years. It is also expected that, as a result of global warming, the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts may change. However, despite the increasing attention that the issue of climate change receives, there has been little effort to develop a systematic approach for the collection of relevant data, and to establish observational networks specifically designed for the analysis of climate variability and change and their impact on hydrologic regimes and water resources in general. This task is particularly important given the major network reductions that result from recent cutbacks in the funding of monitoring programs in Canada and other countries. This paper presents the results of a rigorous study that was carried out recently, and aimed at establishing a hydrometric network for the study of the attributes of climate change and variability across the province of Quebec (Canada) and their impact on water resources. The approach is based on identifying and maintaining stations that can help provide an understanding of the physical processes within the hydrological cycle and account for climate variations across the province. This network will be of fundamental importance in establishing scientific evidence of the magnitude and direction of possible shifts in climate patterns across the province. These aspects are of global significance and must be considered during the rationalization of monitoring networks. The results of the application of this procedure to the hydrometric network of the province of Quebec are presented. The paper presents also a brief review of the various types of non-stationarities that can be observed in hydrologic data series, and some of the current approaches that can be used for the detection of these non-stationarities. Several statistical tests and procedures have been proposed in the literature for the analysis of the characteristics of data samples and for hypothesis testing, for various types of non-stationarity. A Bayesian procedure, proposed by Lee and Heghinian (1977) and generalized by Bernier (1994), for the detection of shifts in the mean of hydrological and meteorological time-series is selected based on its theoretical advantages (Faucher et al., 1997). The procedure is then applied for the analysis of all streamflow series of selected stations in the province of Quebec with the objective of extracting information on possible climatic changes. Results indicate the presence of significant non-stationarities for a number of the series analyzed. For five stations, the most probable date for the shift in the mean level falls in the period 1983-1985. Recommandations are made for future research activities.
Keywords:
- Hydrometric network,
- climate change,
- non-stationarity,
- bayesian analysis,
- hydrologic cycle,
- flow