2021, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Part A

author(s)
Ozi-Isah Mustapha, Mashi Sani Abubakar and Oguche Christopher Joseph

abstract
The study examined the influence of climate (rainfall and temperature) variability on the runoff of Rivers Niger and Benue confluence at Lokoja, Kogi state, Nigeria. Remotely sensed climatic data (rainfall and temperature) for 1979-2014 was obtained from global weather data for soil water assessment tools website (SWAT), water runoff data was generated using Soil Conservation Service Curve Number method (SCS-CN), Multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that rainfall experienced an average decrease of about 462.7mm while temperature experienced an average increase of about 3.90 C. This increase has effect on runoff, and runoff experienced an average decrease of 31.7 m³/s. The temperature increases the rate of evaporation which helps in reducing the volume of water in the river. The multiple correlation result shows that rainfall and temperature are significantly associated with runoff. The coefficient of multiple determinations (R²) indicated that 21.6% of the changes in runoff were accounted for by the combination of rainfall and temperature, while the remaining unexplained variations of 86.4% were accountable by other factors not considered in the present study and the research also shows that, the consistency of the findings in affirming previous studies has shown that remotely sensed climatic data can still be considered reliable as data from conventional stations. The study recommended that effort should be put in place to manage the decrease trend in runoff so that it doesn’t affect power generation and other usage and also more open, user-friendly data access especially remotely sensed climatic data.