Evaluation for the Performance of the CORDEX Regional Climate Models in Simulating Rainfall Characteristics over Mbarali River Catchment in the Rufiji Basin, Tanzania

Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2017; 5:139-151This study aims to evaluate the performance of the individual Regional Climate Models (RCMs) used in Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) and the ensemble average of the four RCMs to feign the characteristics of the rainfall pattern for the Mbarali River catchment in Rufiji Basin for the period of 1979 to 2005. Statistical analysis for model performance such as Root mean square error, Mean error, Pearson correlation coefficient, Mean, Median, standard deviation and trend analysis are used. In addition to the statistical measure of model performance, the models are tested on their ability to capture the observed annual cycles and interannual variability of rainfall. Results indicated that the RCMs from the CORDEX indicated a better performance to reproduce the rainfall characteristics over Mbarali River catchment in Rufiji Basin. They reproduced fairly the Era Interim annual cycle and inter-annual variability of rainfall. The ensemble average performed better than individual models in representing rainfall over Mbarali River catchment in Rufiji Basin. These suggest that rainfall simulation from the ensemble average will be used for the assessment of the hydrological impact studies over Mbarali River catchment in Rufiji Basin.Future Climate for Africa UMFULA Project, with the financial support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), grant ref. No: NE/M020037/1, and the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID