Long Term and Short Term Spatio‐Temporal Characterisation of Rainfall Variability and Dynamicity Over the Westernmost Part of West Bengal, India Using Modified Mann‐Kendal Test and Innovative Trend Analysis

ABSTRACT It has become important to understand the dynamic nature of hydro‐meteorological phenomena, especially rainfall, as rainfall is considered to be the principal source of water in the hydrological cycle. Purulia, the westernmost district of West Bengal, India, is part of the Chotanagpur Plateau fringe with its undulating topography, varying slope, hard rock aquifer, limited surface and subsurface water resources, and sub‐humid dry climate. Drought has been a recurring phenomenon for years, and the majority of its residents practise rain‐fed agriculture, solely relying on the monsoonal rain. Therefore, it is crucial to study the nature and pattern of annual and seasonal rainfall. The objective of the study is to bring out the long‐term nature of the rainfall trend along with the short term and to understand the characteristics of the rainfall over the region. This study has used the India Meteorological Department (IMD) provided daily gridded rainfall dataset for 1961 to 2020, non‐parametric Mann‐Kendal (M‐K) test, Modified version of M‐K test, and Sen's slope estimator to determine the trend of rainfall in long‐term and short‐term time series; the recently developed approach, i.e., innovative trend analysis (ITA) is also applied to determine the underlying trend and its stability in the long‐term time series. For the purpose of change point identification, this paper has applied the sequential version of M‐K test (SQMK). Both the long term (1961–2020) and two short term (1961–1990 and 1991–2020) time series have been analysed annually and seasonally. To understand the long‐term variation in the character of rainfall temporally and spatially, three indices, i.e., precipitation concentration index (PCI), rainfall deviation index (RDI) and modified Fournier index (MFI) have also been implemented. The ITA approach provides a better understanding of the trend as it can determine the trend whilst the M‐K test failed to determine it in some cases. In contrast to the long‐term (1961–2020) and first‐half (1961–1990) series, the second half of the time step (1991–2020) had the largest falling trend; i.e., 90% of the total stations have recorded a downward trend during the monsoon season. PCI and RDI, as well as SSE, identified the western half of the district as being the driest, and MFI revealed that the eastern section of the district has high rainfall intensity. This study may help the planners and policymakers to frame policies for its people and their livelihood; the comprehension of the previous hints will be used to predict the future.