CHANGES IN PRECIPITATION EXTREMES IN BRAZIL (PARANÁ RIVER BASIN)

This research was aimed at addressing aspects related to variation in the amount of precipitation during the period from 1986 to 2011, in the Paraná River Hydrographical Basin, Brazil, for 32 meteorological stations using 11 climate indices created by the ETCCDI (Expert Team, ET, on Climate Change Detection and Indices, ETCCDI). The daily rainfall data were organized in spreadsheets, which were subjected to an intense quality control and an accurate historical research. For each pluviometric index, we have estimated the trends and the statistical significant of the slopes have been calculated. The results confirm that there is an increase in the number of wet days in most of the basin, since an increase in total precipitation in almost all analyzed stations was registered, and the precipitation considered extreme were the main contributors to such additions. Successively, we have studied accurately the variations of rain of two municipalities (Curitiba, PR and Goiânia, GO - Brazil) located in different climatic regions of the study area. The aim was to evaluate the impact that rainfall may cause in these two large urban centers. In these two municipalities, it was found that the variation of rainfall amount can cause inconvenience to the population (floods and inundations) due to the increasing of extreme rainfall, such results may be of concern with the accelerated increase of these urban areas and their populations, suggesting, at least, the need of implementation of more effective urban planning for the future.