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Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-118).
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Environmental and Geographical Science
2014
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| _version_ | 1867613290794844160 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mdoka, Marshall Lison |
| author2 | Hewitson, Bruce |
| author_browse | Hewitson, Bruce Mdoka, Marshall Lison |
| author_facet | Hewitson, Bruce Mdoka, Marshall Lison |
| author_sort | Mdoka, Marshall Lison |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-118). |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/4783 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:48.261Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publishDateRange | 2014 |
| publishDateSort | 2014 |
| publisher | Department of Environmental and Geographical Science |
| publisherStr | Department of Environmental and Geographical Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/4783 Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe Mdoka, Marshall Lison Hewitson, Bruce Tadross, Mark Environmental and Geographical Science Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-118). The research focuses on an objective analysis of austral summer rainfall variability over Zimbabwe as well as characterization of rainfall patterns and frequency analysis over southern Africa region. A statistical analysis of historical trends in climate extreme events is used and lays a foundation of projecting into future climates. A trend analysis done on rainfall patterns attained from SOMs approach compliments the RClimdex statistical approach and strengthens some of the historical trends findings on climate extremes. Thereafter, some exploratory research seeks to explain the trends observed using the land-atmosphere interactions and shows the response of rainfall to anomalous soil moisture conditions during an extreme wet and dry seasons using RegCM3. Finally, some radiation effects results are presented from these soil moisture perturbations experiments. Results show drying out patterns over the region from the historical records analysed. The trend analysis done with SOM arrays revealed a positive trend towards drier conditions and a negative trend for wet conditions. The climate extremes indices analysis complimented these findings as shown in the decrease in total precipitation and an increase in the number of dry spells. This is supported by the circulation patterns showing an increase in frequency of the 500hPa anticyclones and a decrease of low pressures. However, some high altitude stations showed an intensification of precipitation events. This would exacerbate need for proper planning of future water resource management and farming strategies. Soil moisture rainfall feedback mechanisms were not fully explored. However drier conditions experiments showed a stronger response to soil moisture perturbations than in wetter conditions experiments. No consistent response to soil moisture initialisation over southern Africa was found. The altitude does modulate these feedback mechanisms with low-lying areas depicting a stronger response. A better understanding of the observed rainfall patterns, historical climate trends and soil moisture-rainfall feedback mechanisms are essential for improved short-term and seasonal forecasting and will aid the generation of plausible climate change impact predictions. 2014-07-31T07:59:03Z 2014-07-31T07:59:03Z 2005 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4783 eng application/pdf Department of Environmental and Geographical Science Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Environmental and Geographical Science Mdoka, Marshall Lison Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| title_full | Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| title_fullStr | Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| title_short | Climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over Zimbabwe |
| title_sort | climatic trends and soil moisture feedbacks over zimbabwe |
| topic | Environmental and Geographical Science |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4783 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mdokamarshalllison climatictrendsandsoilmoisturefeedbacksoverzimbabwe |