Climate Variability and Surface Water Departure at the Catchment of the River Zou in Benin (West Africa)

The effects of climate on water resources can lead to one of the serious crises that humanity will face in the coming decades if the trend is not reversed in terms of current climate parameters. This study examines the effects of current climate conditions on the hydrological functioning of the river zou catchment in Benin. The rainfall, hydrological and thermometric data collected at the meteo-Benin agency and at the hydrology department of the General Directorate of Water over the period (1965-2015) made it possible not only to analyze the current rainfall trends, but also to appreciate the hydrological behavior of this watershed. In order to establish a link between the nature of the geological substratum and the availability of surface water in the study area, the temporal evolution of the recession coefficients and the dry period of the water course were estimated at from the law of Maillet.