The rainfall and discharge trends of Surma River area in North-eastern part of Bangladesh: an approach for understanding the impacts of climatic change

Background Bangladesh is known as a deltaic plain at the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna River Basins (GBM) and their tributaries. The rainfall pattern of northeastern part of Bangladesh is changing along with the discharge pattern of Surma River. In this study, the changes in precipitation of Sylhet and river discharge of Surma River and the relationship between them were investigated. The study emphasizes on the influence of climatic component (rainfall) on the hydro-characteristics of river. The time series data from 1973 to 2016 (44 years) of rainfall and river discharge of Surma River were collected and analyzed. The basic hydro-characteristics, including arithmetic mean, variability, skewness, distribution type, persistence, dependence, trend, and correlation have been studied through various statistical methods, including coefficient of variation, Mann–Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator, and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation.