Spatiotemporal assessment of the hydrometeorology in a transboundary Kabul River Basin

The current study investigated spatiotemporal trends in hydro-meteorological data on seasonal and annual scale in the Kabul River Basin (KRB). Thirty years (1981–2010) precipitation and temperature gridded data of 88 stations were retrieved from National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (NCEP-CFSR). Streamflow data of the four hydrometric stations (Chitral, Chakdara, Warsak, and Nowshera) was provided by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Pakistan. The Mann–Kendall and Sen’s slope tests were applied at a significance level of 5% to identify trends. To avoid the serial correlation’s effect on the test results, Trend Free Pre-Whitening (TFPW) was applied. Spatial maps of precipitation and mean temperature were prepared using the geographic information system-based Inverse Distance Weighting method. Non-significant trends were identified for precipitation during winter, summer, autumn, and annually at 92%, 93%, 86%, and 80% grid stations, respectively. Significant decreasing trends were observed during the spring at 63% of the grid stations. Similarly, non-significant trends were found for mean temperature during winter, spring, summer, and annually in 74%, 60%, 79%, and 60% grid stations, respectively, while 48% of the grid stations showed significant increasing trends during the autumn. Streamflow at Chitral indicated significant increasing trends during winter ( Z MK = 2.37) and spring ( Z MK = 2.40), whereas significant increasing trends were found at Chakdara on annual and seasonal basis. Significantly increasing trends were detected at Warsak during autumn ( Z MK = 2.09). The findings can be beneficial for water resource managers, planners, researchers, and hydrologists for their professional applications.