scholarly journals Drought Trends in the Iberian Peninsula over the Last 112 Years

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Páscoa ◽  
C. M. Gouveia ◽  
A. Russo ◽  
R. M. Trigo
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Climatic Research Unit ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Mean Intensity ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
Northwestern Region ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index

The Iberian Peninsula (IP) is a drought-prone area located in the Mediterranean which presents a significant tendency towards dryness during the last decades, reinforcing the need for a continuous monitoring of drought. The long-term evolution of drought in the IP is analyzed, using the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), for the period of 1901–2012 and for three subperiods: 1901–1937, 1938–1974, and 1975–2012. SPI and SPEI were calculated with a 12-month time scale, using data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) database. Trends in the drought indices, precipitation, and reference evapotranspiration (ET0) were analysed and series of drought duration, drought magnitude, time between drought events, and mean intensity of the events were computed. SPI and SPEI significant trends show areas with opposite signals in the period 1901–2012, mainly associated with precipitation trends, which are significant and positive in the northwestern region and significant and negative in the southern areas. Additionally, SPEI identified dryer conditions and an increase in the area affected by droughts, which agrees with the increase in ET0. The same spatial differences were identified in the drought duration, magnitude, mean intensity, and time between drought events.

scholarly journals Forecasting droughts in East Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 10209-10230 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Mwangi ◽  
F. Wetterhall ◽  
E. Dutra ◽  
F. Di Giuseppe ◽  
F. Pappenberger
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
East African ◽  
African Region ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
Rain Season

Abstract. The humanitarian crisis caused by the recent droughts (2008–2009 and 2010–2011) in the East African region have illustrated that the ability to make accurate drought predictions with adequate lead time is essential. The use of dynamical model forecasts and drought indices, such as Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), promises to lead to a better description of drought duration, magnitude and spatial extent. This study evaluates the use of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) products in forecasting droughts in East Africa. ECMWF seasonal precipitation shows significant skill for both rain seasons when evaluated against measurements from the available in-situ stations from East Africa. The October–December rain season has higher skill that the March–May season. ECMWF forecasts add value to the statistical forecasts produced during the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forums (GHACOF) which is the present operational product. Complementing the raw precipitation forecasts with SPI provides additional information on the spatial extend and intensity of the drought event.

scholarly journals Drought Frequency Analysis Based on the Development of a Two-Variate Standardized Index (Rainfall-Runoff)

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gholamreza Nikravesh ◽  
Mohammad Aghababaei ◽  
Mohammad Nazari-Sharabian ◽  
Moses Karakouzian
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Flow Index ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Standardized Index ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index

Drought is one of the most drastic events, which has imposed irreparable damages on human societies and may occur in any climate regime. To define drought, given its properties of multidimensionality and randomity, one cannot rely on a single variable/index (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture, and runoff). Accordingly, implementing a novel approach, this study investigated drought events in two basins with different climatic regimes, using multivariate frequency analyses of drought duration, severity, and severity peak, based on developing a Two-variate Standardized Index (TSI). The index was developed based on the concept of copula, by applying rainfall-runoff data (1974–2019) and comparing them with two popular drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Stream Flow Index (SSFI), in terms of derived drought characteristics. The results show that TSI determined more severe drought conditions with fewer return periods than SPI and SSFI in a specific drought event. This implies that the disadvantages of SPI and SSFI might not be found in TSI. The developed index can be employed by policymakers and planners to protect water resources from drought.

scholarly journals Jointly Modeling Drought Characteristics with Smoothed Regionalized SPI Series for a Small Island

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Angel Espinosa ◽  
Maria Manuela Portela ◽  
João Dehon Pontes Filho ◽  
Ticiana Marinho de Carvalho Studart ◽  
João Filipe Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moving Average ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Cumulative Distribution ◽  
Interarrival Time ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Rain Gauges ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Homogeneous Regions

The paper refers to a study on droughts in a small Portuguese Atlantic island, namely Madeira. The study aimed at addressing the problem of dependent drought events and at developing a copula-based bivariate cumulative distribution function for coupling drought duration and magnitude. The droughts were identified based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) computed at three and six-month timescales at 41 rain gauges distributed over the island and with rainfall data from January 1937 to December 2016. To remove the spurious and short duration-dependent droughts a moving average filter (MA) was used. The run theory was applied to the smoothed SPI series to extract the drought duration, magnitude, and interarrival time for each drought category. The smoothed series were also used to identify homogeneous regions based on principal components analysis (PCA). The study showed that MA is necessary for an improved probabilistic interpretation of drought analysis in Madeira. It also showed that despite the small area of the island, three distinct regions with different drought temporal patterns can be identified. The copulas approach proved that the return period of droughts events can differ significantly depending on the way the relationship between drought duration and magnitude is accounted for.

scholarly journals Forecasting droughts in East Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Mwangi ◽  
F. Wetterhall ◽  
E. Dutra ◽  
F. Di Giuseppe ◽  
F. Pappenberger
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Spatial Extent ◽  
Precipitation Forecast ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Event ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Consensus Forecasts ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
Rain Season

Abstract. The humanitarian crises caused by the recent droughts (2008–2009 and 2010–2011) in East Africa have illustrated that the ability to make accurate drought forecasts with sufficient lead time is essential. The use of dynamical model precipitation forecasts in combination with drought indices, such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), can potentially lead to a better description of drought duration, magnitude and spatial extent. This study evaluates the use of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) products in forecasting droughts in East Africa. ECMWF seasonal precipitation shows significant skill for March–May and October–December rain seasons when evaluated against measurements from the available in situ stations from East Africa. The forecast for October–December rain season has higher skill than for the March–May season. ECMWF forecasts add value to the consensus forecasts produced during the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF), which is the present operational product for precipitation forecast over East Africa. Complementing the original ECMWF precipitation forecasts with SPI provides additional information on the spatial extent and intensity of the drought event.

scholarly journals High-spatial-resolution probability maps of drought duration and magnitude across Spain

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Domínguez-Castro ◽  
Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano ◽  
Miquel Tomás-Burguera ◽  
Marina Peña-Gallardo ◽  
Santiago Beguería ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Drought Assessment ◽  
Drought Hazard ◽  
Probability Maps ◽  
Peak Over Threshold ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index

Abstract. Assessing the probability of occurrence of drought is important for improving current drought assessment, management and mitigation measures, and strategies across Spain. This study employed two well-established drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), to characterize drought duration and magnitude at different timescales over Spain. In order to map the drought hazard probability, we applied the extreme value theory and tested different thresholds to generate peak-over-threshold (POT) drought duration and magnitude series. Our results demonstrate that the generalized Pareto (GP) distribution performs well in estimating the frequencies of drought magnitude and duration. Specifically, we found a good agreement between the observed and modelled data when using upper percentiles to generate the POT series. Spatially, our estimations suggest a higher probability of extreme drought events in southern and central Spain compared to the northern and eastern regions. Also, our study found spatial differences in drought probability estimations as a function of the selected drought index (i.e. SPI vs. SPEI) and timescale (i.e. 1, 3, 6, and 12 months). Drought hazard probability maps can contribute to the better management of different sectors (e.g. agriculture, water resources management, urban water supply, and tourism) at national, regional, and even local scale in Spain.

scholarly journals Multi-Index Drought Assessment in Europe

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis D. Oikonomou ◽  
Christos A. Karavitis ◽  
Elpida Kolokytha
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Duration ◽  
Current Effort ◽  
Drought Assessment ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
Drought Mitigation ◽  
Identification Threshold

Any attempt for the application of integrated drought management requires identifying and characterizing the event, per se. The questions of scale, boundary, and of geographic areal extent are of central concern for any efforts of drought assessment, impact identification, and thus, of drought mitigation implementation mechanisms. The use of drought indices, such as Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), has often led to pragmatic realization of drought duration, magnitude, and spatial extension. The current effort presents the implementation of SPI and SPEI on a Pan-European scale and it is evaluated using existing precipitation and temperature data. The ENSEMBLES Observations gridded dataset (E-OBS) for precipitation, minimum temperature, and maximum temperature used covered the period 1969–2018. The two indices estimated for time steps of 6 and 12 months. The results for the application period of recurrent droughts indicate the potential that both indices offer for an improvement on drought critical areas of identification, threshold definitions and comparability, and towards contingency planning, leading to better mitigation efforts.

Economical exposition to drought events (1980-2001)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Meyer
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Research Unit ◽  
Precipitation Index ◽  
Climatic Research Unit ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Gis Modeling ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Year 2000

Estimation of the annual economical exposition to drought based on Standardized Precipitation Index. It is based on three sources: 1) A global monthly gridded precipitation dataset obtained from the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia). 2) A GIS modeling of global Standardized Precipitation Index based on Brad Lyon (IRI, Columbia University) methodology. 3) A Global Domestic Product grid for the year 2010, provided by the World Bank. Unit is expected average annual GDP (2007 as the year of reference) exposed in (US $, year 2000 equivalent). For more information, visit: http://preview.grid.unep.ch/ Cost Drought Exposure Risk

scholarly journals Assessment of the Dissimilarities of EDI and SPI Measures for Drought Determination in South Africa

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Omolola M. Adisa ◽  
Muthoni Masinde ◽  
Joel O. Botai
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Drought Monitoring ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Drought Severity ◽  
Pearson Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Drought Duration

This study examines the (dis)similarity of two commonly used indices Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) computed over accumulation periods 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month (hereafter SPI-1, SPI-3, SPI-6, and SPI-12, respectively) and Effective Drought Index (EDI). The analysis is based on two drought monitoring indicators (derived from SPI and EDI), namely, the Drought Duration (DD) and Drought Severity (DS) across the 93 South African Weather Service’s delineated rainfall districts over South Africa from 1980 to 2019. In the study, the Pearson correlation coefficient dissimilarity and periodogram dissimilarity estimates were used. The results indicate a positive correlation for the Pearson correlation coefficient dissimilarity and a positive value for periodogram of dissimilarity in both the DD and DS. With the Pearson correlation coefficient dissimilarity, the study demonstrates that the values of the SPI-1/EDI pair and the SPI-3/EDI pair exhibit the highest similar values for DD, while the SPI-6/EDI pair shows the highest similar values for DS. Moreover, dissimilarities are more obvious in SPI-12/EDI pair for DD and DS. When a periodogram of dissimilarity is used, the values of the SPI-1/EDI pair and SPI-6/EDI pair exhibit the highest similar values for DD, while SPI-1/EDI displayed the highest similar values for DS. Overall, the two measures show that the highest similarity is obtained in the SPI-1/EDI pair for DS. The results obtainable in this study contribute towards an in-depth knowledge of deviation between the EDI and SPI values for South Africa, depicting that these two drought indices values are replaceable in some rainfall districts of South Africa for drought monitoring and prediction, and this is a step towards the selection of the appropriate drought indices.

scholarly journals Hydrological response to different time scales of climatological drought: an evaluation of the Standardized Precipitation Index in a mountainous Mediterranean basin

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Vicente-Serrano ◽  
J. I. López-Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Precipitation Index ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Hydrological Droughts ◽  
Different Time Scales

Abstract. At present, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is the most widely used drought index to provide good estimations about the intensity, magnitude and spatial extent of droughts. The main advantage of the SPI in comparison with other indices is the fact that the SPI enables both determination of drought conditions at different time scales and monitoring of different drought types. It is widely accepted that SPI time scales affect different sub-systems in the hydrological cycle due to the fact that the response of the different water usable sources to precipitation shortages can be very different. The long time scales of SPI are related to hydrological droughts (river flows and reservoir storages). Nevertheless, few analyses empirically verify these statements or the usefulness of the SPI time scales to monitor drought. In this paper, the SPI at different time scales is compared with surface hydrological variables in a big closed basin located in the central Spanish Pyrenees. We provide evidence about the way in which the longer (>12 months) SPI time scales may not be useful for drought quantification in this area. In general, the surface flows respond to short SPI time scales whereas the reservoir storages respond to longer time scales (7–10 months). Nevertheless, important seasonal differences can be identified in the SPI-usable water sources relationships. This suggests that it is necessary to test the drought indices and time scales in relation to their usefulness for monitoring different drought types under different environmental conditions and water demand situations.

scholarly journals Análisis comparativo de índices de sequía en Andalucía para el periodo 1901-2012

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Peña-Gallardo ◽  
S. R. Gámiz-Fortís ◽  
Y. Castro-Diez ◽  
M. J. Esteban-Parra
Keyword(s):  
Time Windows ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Standardized Precipitation Index ◽  
Meteorological Drought ◽  
Precipitation Index ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Global Evaluation ◽  
Temporal Behaviour ◽  
The Standardized Precipitation Index

The aim of this paper is the analysis of the detection and evolution of droughts occurred in Andalusia for the period 1901-2012, by applying three different drought indices: the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Drought-Precipitation Index (IESP), computed for three time windows from the initial period 1901-2012. This analysis has been carried out after a preliminary study of precipitation trends with the intention of understanding the precipitation behaviour, because this climatic variable is one of the most important in the study of extreme events. The specific objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate and characterize the meteorological drought events, mainly the most important episodes in Andalusia; (2) to provide a global evaluation of the capacities of the three different considered indices in order to characterize the drought in a heterogeneous climatically territory; and (3) to describe the temporal behaviour of precipitation and drought indices series in order to establish the general characteristics of their evolution in Andalusia. The results have shown that not all the indices respond similarly identifying the intensity and duration of dry periods in this kind of region where geographical and climatic variability is one of the main elements to be considered.

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