Time Series Analysis of Hydrologic Data for Water Resources Planning and Management: a Review

The main intent of this paper is to present a review on the application of time series analysis techniques in hydrology and climatology. An overview of various statistical tests for detecting and estimating the hydrologic time series characteristics (i.e., homogeneity, stationarity, trend, periodicity, and persistence) is presented, together with their merits and demerits followed by comprehensive reviews of past studies (both basic and applied), and future research directions. The present review revealed that the climatologic time series of precipitation, air temperature, evapotranspiration and climatic change, and the hydrologic time series of streamflow and surface water quality have received a great deal of attention worldwide. Although the application areas of time series analysis techniques are expanding with growing concerns about climate change and global warming, their application is still very limited in groundwater hydrology as well as for non-traditional hydrologic time series. It is also apparent from this review that the detection of trend and stationarity by parametric and/or nonparametric tests has been a major focus in the past. Multiple comparison tests lack appreciation by the researchers for testing homogeneity in the hydrologic and climatologic time series. Furthermore, most studies have ignored the importance of testing periodicity and persistence in the time series, which are equally important properties of hydrologic and climatologic time series. Based on the comprehensive review, future research needs for time series studies in hydrology and climatology are discussed.