In this study, statistical downscaling of general circulation model (GCM) simulations to monthly inflows of Kemer Dam in Turkey underA1B,A2, andB1emission scenarios has been performed using machine learning methods, multi‐model ensemble and bias correction approaches. Principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to reduce the dimension of potential predictors of National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data. Then, the reasonableGCMswere selected by investigating the rank correlations between the selected predictors inNCEP/NCARreanalysis data and those inGCMsfor20C3Mscenario between periods 1979 and 1999. Upon the training of feedforward neural network (FFNN), least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) and relevance vector machine (RVM) downscaling models, the general performance of the downscaled predictions usingNCEP/NCARreanalysis data for Kemer watershed showed that the trainedRVMmodel produced adequate results. The effectiveness ofRVMmodel was illustrated by its integration with20C3Mscenario between periods 1979 and 1999 andA1B,A2, andB1future climate scenarios between periods 2010 and 2039. Afterwards, the flow forecasts were obtained by building a multi‐model ensemble through the selectedGCMsfollowed by a bias correction approach. Finally, the significance of the probable changes in trends was identified through statistical tests based on the corrected forecasts. Results showed that decreasing flows trends in winter, spring and fall seasons have been foreseen over the study area for the period between 2010 and 2039.
Downscaling of general circulation model (GCM) outputs extracted from CMIP5 datasets to monthly precipitation for the Gediz Basin, Turkey, under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) was performed by statistical downscaling models, multi‐GCM ensemble and bias correction. The output databases from 12 GCMs were used for the projections. To determine explanatory predictor variables, the correlation analysis was applied between precipitation observed at 39 meteorological stations located over the Basin and potential predictors of ERA‐Interim reanalysis data. After setting both artificial neural networks and least‐squares support vector machine‐based statistical downscaling models calibrated with determined predictor variables, downscaling models producing the most suitable results were chosen for each meteorological station. The selected downscaling model structure for each station was then operated with historical and future scenarios RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5. Afterwards, the monthly precipitation forecasts were obtained from a multi‐GCM ensemble based on Bayesian model averaging and bias correction applications. The statistical significance of the foreseen changes for the future period 2015–2050 was investigated using Student's t test. The projected decrease trend in precipitation is significant for the RCP8.5 scenario, whereas it is less significant for the RCP4.5 and RCP6.0 scenarios.