| dc.description.abstract | Water is a fundamental element in the attainment of food security and socio economic
development any country. Spatiotemporal variation in rainfall and lack of scientific research in water
resource utilization and management greatly affect conventional agricultural production. Rainfall is
very important for the economic growth and development of any nation; hence there is dire need to
study the monthly and annual trends. Rainfall in Botswana is highly variable characterized by frequent
droughts and flash floods. In addition to that understanding the rainfall variability in a catchment is
essential in policy formulation regarding for integrated water management and monitoring. Consistent
water shortage of water call for the need to study the hydrological processes in order to plan for the
limited resource. Descriptive statistical techniques like time series analysis, mean and standard
deviation were employed to depict the temporal distribution of rainfall over the area. The main
objective of this study is to model rainwater harvesting for irrigation taking into account spatio-
temporal variations of rainfall, its influences on streamflows, basin yield and their relationships with
climate change. The results of rainfall analysis reveals that Francistown catchment has high rainfall
variability as indicated by regression analysis R2, Skewness, and Kurtosis coefficients of respectively.
There is a shift in the rainy season onset and cessation coupled with recurrent droughts and floods.
These are clear indicators of that climate is changing. The rainfall distribution is also highly variable
with space and time which confirms that the catchment is situated in a semi-arid climate. Findings of
these model and rainfall analysis are useful planning for activities such as irrigable farming, agricultural
processing industries which strongly relies on year-to-year climatic variations. | en_US |
