ABSTRACT
The knowledge of temporal trend of rainfall series in the Northeast of Brazil is a very important information for agricultural and water resources planning. The main objetive of this study was to delimit regions in the northeast semi-arid with environmental predisposition to desertification processes, by means of an analysis of rainfall temporal trends. In all 88 historical rainfall series from 1911 to 1996 period were analyzed using the method of least squares. The results showed regions with strong decreasing and increasing trends of localised rainfall, respectively, for the States of Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas; the other time trends observed in rainfall series are probably due to fluctuations in the low frequencies presented in the rainfall series of the Northeast Brazil.
Key words:
desertification; temporal trend; rainfall