This study illustrates the benefits of statistical techniques to analyze spatial and temporal variations in water quality. In this scope water quality differentiation caused by anthropogenic and natural factors in the Tahtali and Balçova reservoirs in western Turkey was investigated using discriminant analysis-DA, Mann Whitney U techniques. Effectiveness of pollution prevention measures was analyzed by Mann Kendall and Sen’s Slope estimator methods. The water quality variables were divided into three groups as physical-inorganic, organic and inorganic pollution parameters for the study. Results showed that water quality between reservoirs was differentiated for “physical-inorganic” and “organic pollution” parameters. Degree of influence of water quality by urbanization was higher in the Tahtali reservoir and in general, no trend detection at pollution indicators explained by effective management practices at both sites.

The drought ranked first in terms the natural hazard characteristics and impacts followed by tropical cyclones, regional floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Drought monitoring is an important aspect of drought risk management and the assessment of drought is usually done through using various drought indices. The western region in Algeria is the most affected by the drought since the middle of the 70s.The current research focuses on the analysis and comparison of four meteorological drought indices (standardized precipitation index – SPI, percent of normal index – PN, decile index – DI, and rainfall anomaly index – RAI) in the Tafna basin for different time scales (annual, seasonal, and monthly) during 1979–2011. The results showed that the SPI and DI have similar frequencies for dry and wet categories. The RAI and PN were able to detect more drought categories. Meanwhile, all indices have strong positive correlations between each other, especially with Spearman correlation tests (0.99; 1.0), the meteorological drought indices almost showed consistent and similar results in the study area. It was determined in 1982 as the driest year and 2008 as the wettest year in the period of the study. The analysis of the trend was based on the test of Mann– Kendall (MK), a positive trend of the indices were detected on a monthly scale, this increasing of indices trend represent the increasing of the wet categories which explains the increasing trend of the rainfall in the last 2000s. These results overview of the understanding of drought trends in the region is crucial for making strategies and assist in decision making for water resources management and reducing vulnerability to drought.

The variability of the mean annual air temperature and precipitation totals in three periods: 1848–2010, 1951–2010 and 1981–2010 was investigated in the large Warta River basin, being the area with lowest rainfall in Poland. For the purposes of research, nine meteorological stations with the longest measurement series were selected. Air temperature increase in this river basin was similar than in neighbouring countries. In the last 30 years this trend kept increasing. The precipitation in the whole studied period was slightly increasing in the northern part of the Warta River basin, but decreasing in the southern part. The mean annual precipitation totals in the catchment area did not change visible. In the period 1981–2010, the precipitation totals show a small increase in the winter and spring and a decrease in summer. A negative influence of this climate change was not visible in the Warta River discharge. The main objectives of this study were the collection long-term records of air temperature and precipitation in the Warta River basin, and the statistical analysis of climate variability.