Climatic zoning of Ghana using selected meteorological variables for the period 1976–2018

Meteorological applications

article

Enoch Bessah¹  William Amponsah¹  Samuel Owusu Ansah⁴  Andrews Afrifa¹  Bashiru Yahaya⁴  Cosmos Senyo Wemegah⁶  Michael Tanu⁴  Leonard K. Amekudzi²  Wilson Agyei Agyare¹ 

[1] Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, College of Engineering;WASCAL Climate Change and Land Use, College of Engineering;Contribution: Conceptualization;Hydrometeorological Unit;Contribution: Data curation;Earth Observation Research and Innovation Centre;Department of Physics, College of Science;Contribution: Formal analysis;Contribution: Conceptualization ,(equal), Data curation ,(equal), Formal analysis ,(supporting), Methodology ,(supporting), Project administration

关键词: climatic zoning;    cluster analysis;    Ghana;    rainfall;    relative humidity;    temperature;   

DOI  :  10.1002/met.2049

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Periodic climate zoning is an essential classification of land cover to account for anthropogenic activities resulting from population increase and urbanization that affect key climate response parameters. Rainfall, relative humidity (RH), maximum (T max ) and minimum temperature (T min ) data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency were used to zone Ghana by adopting cluster and PCA analysis methods and verifying the groupings with the seasonal trend and Tukey Honestly Significance Difference (HSD) analysis. The cluster analysis grouped the synoptic stations into four major homogenous clusters while the PCA distributed them into three sub-divisions with reference to 1976–2018. Rainfall, RH, T max and T min were characterized by five, three, two and three factors with factor loadings in the range of 0.71–0.78, 0.53–0.70, 0.54–0.74 and 0.50–0.72, respectively. HSD found transition stations like Bole and Kete Krachi in cluster 1 and 2 to have no significant difference with cluster 1, while Wenchi, Sunyani, Sefwi Bekwai and Koforidua in cluster 2 had no significant difference with cluster 3. Accra station which was classified in cluster 3 showed the seasonal pattern of cluster 4 and was confirmed by HSD to belong in cluster 4. Therefore, Ghana-based on-point analysis is climatically grouped into Savannah (11°0′0′′N–7°46′11′′N), Forest (from 7°46′11′′N to the coast) and Coastal (about 30 km from the Gulf of Guinea coastline) based on the assessed parameters. These findings are vital for planners and decision-makers especially for industries that depend on weather and climatic conditions for their activities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY|CC BY-NC|CC BY-NC-ND