Climate Comparison of Stream Flow to Precipitation Trends Found in Southwestern South Dakota

People have always been concerned with the available of freshwater and will continue to be as the climate does change. The water demand will continue to change as more water is used for agriculture, industries, and as well as human consumption. Changes in streamflow are affected by the amount of precipitation that is available over a certain area. It is important to develop climate scenarios in order to estimate the amount of water that is available for use. In order to develop a climate scenario historical precipitation data needs to be available to perform statistical analysis on. The historical precipitation data from the years 1956 to 2013 for the precipitation gauge at Interior, South Dakota was analyzed using a statistical approach as well as wavelet analysis to determine what tendencies occur. The historical streamflow data for the White River in South Dakota was analyze using a statistical approach as well wavelet analysis to determine what tendencies occur. These data sets were then compared with one another to determine if a correlation appears with each other. When the historical precipitation data and the historical streamflow data were compared to each other a number of correlations occurred. The first of these correlation was the wettest and driest years correspond to the highest and lowest flow years. The second thing that was evident is using wavelet analysis the trends between the precipitation data and the streamflow data was similar