scholarly journals Analysis of Drought Investigation Using Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) of Historical Rainfall Data (1979-2013) Under Temperate Conditions Over Anand, Gujarat (India)

Author(s):  
G. J. Kamani ◽  
N. K. Pampania ◽  
S. S. Chinchorkar

Drought is a naturally occurring event caused due to deficiency in precipitation over an extended period of time. It is a slow-onset, creeping natural hazard that affects continuously all parts of the world. It occurs in all climatic zones such as high as well as low precipitation areas and causes high economic and social losses around the world. Droughts are generally measured in terms of deficiency in the rainfalls or streams flows below a predefined reference level. The magnitude of departure from the reference level during a drought spell is known as the severity of drought. Droughts are occurring in different regions of the world with increased frequency and severity. In this study, temporal pattern of droughts was analyzed in the Anand Station using SPI approach. Monthly precipitation data from 1979 to 2013 were used to compute Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values. The computation of SPI series was done for short as well as intermediate time scales. Analysis of SPI values were done to study the temporal patterns of drought occurrence. The drought severity and duration were also estimated. From the analysis, it was observed that in the years 1980, 1984,1985,1986,1987, 1989, 1991,1992,1993,1995, 1999,2000,2001,2002 and 2009 drought occurred in the area in Anand station. Extreme drought occurred in the year 1987 when the SPI value was -2.27. Also, SPI in the severe and extreme drought years indicate only moderate dryness instead of extreme dryness.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 199-216
Author(s):  
R Afrin ◽  
F Hossain ◽  
SA Mamun

Drought is an extended period when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) method was used in this study to analyze drought. Northern region of Bangladesh was the area of study. Monthly rainfall data of northern region of Bangladesh was obtained from the Meteorological Department of Bangladesh. Obtained rainfall data was from 1991 to 2011 and values from 2012 to 2026 were generated using Markov model. Then SPI values from 1991 to 2026 were calculated by using SPI formula for analyzing drought. Analysis with SPI method showed that droughts in northern region of Bangladesh varied from moderately dry to severely dry conditions and it may vary from moderately dry to severely dry conditions normally in future but in some cases extreme drought may also take place. From the study, it is observed that the northern region of Bangladesh has already experienced severe drought in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010. The region may experience severe drought in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 and extreme drought in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2023 and 2024. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 11(1-2): 199-216 2018


2021 ◽  
Vol 893 (1) ◽  
pp. 012022
Author(s):  
Misnawati ◽  
R Boer ◽  
F Ramdhani

Abstract Drought is a natural hazard that results from a deficiency of precipitation, leading to low soil moisture and river flows, reduced storage in reservoirs, and less groundwater recharge. This study investigates the spatial variations of drought characteristics (drought event frequency, duration, severity, and intensity). This study using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) to analyse the drought characteristics in Central Java during 1990-2010. The rain gauge station data and CHIRPS rainfall data over Central Java is used to calculate the SPI index. The SPI was calculated at multiple timescales (1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, 24- and 48-month), the run theory was used for identification and characterization of drought events. Analysis of drought characteristics by SPI from 1990 to 2010 shows the longest drought event is four months, the maximum drought severity is 6.06, and the maximum drought intensity is 2.02. El Nino year probability drought occurrence reached 100% in August for moderate drought, severe drought, and extreme drought category, whereas the probability drought occurrences in the Normal and La Nina year range 0-70% for moderate drought, 0-50% for severe drought category and 0-40% for extreme drought category. The results of this study may help inform researchers and local policymakers to develop strategies for managing drought.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Loukas ◽  
L. Vasiliades ◽  
J. Tzabiras

Abstract. This paper evaluates climate change effects on drought severity in the region of Thessaly, Greece. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has been used for estimation of drought severity. A geographical information system is applied for the division of Thessaly region to twelve hydrological homogeneous areas based on their geomorphology. Mean monthly precipitation values from 50 precipitation stations of Thessaly for the hydrological period October 1960–September 1990 were used for the estimation of mean areal precipitation. These precipitation timeseries have been used for the estimation of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for multiple time scales (1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-months) for each sub-basin or area. The outputs of Global Circulation Model CGCM2 were applied for two socioeconomic scenarios, namely, SRES A2 and SRES B2 for the assessment of climate change impact on droughts. The GCM outputs were downscaled to the region of Thessaly using a statistical methodology to estimate precipitation time series for two future periods 2020–2050 and 2070–2100. A method has been proposed for the estimation of annual cumulative drought severity-time scale-frequency curves. These curves integrate the drought severity and frequency for various types of drought. The SPI timeseries and annual weighted cumulative drought severity were estimated and compared with the respective timeseries and values of the historical period 1960–1990. The results showed that the annual drought severity is increased for all hydrological areas and SPI time scales, with the socioeconomic scenario SRES A2 being the most extreme.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aristeidis G. Koutroulis ◽  
Aggeliki-Eleni K. Vrohidou ◽  
Ioannis K. Tsanis

Abstract A modified drought index, named the spatially normalized–standardized precipitation index (SN-SPI), has been developed for assessing meteorological droughts. The SN–SPI is a variant index to the standardized precipitation index and is based on the probability of precipitation at different time scales, but it is spatially normalized for improved assessment of drought severity. Results of this index incorporate the spatial distribution of precipitation and produce improved drought warnings. This index is applied in the island of Crete, Greece, and the drought results are compared to the ones of SPI. A 30-year-long average monthly precipitation dataset from 130 watersheds of the island is used by the above indices for drought classification in terms of its duration and intensity. Bias-adjusted monthly precipitation estimates from an ensemble of 10 regional climate models were used to quantify the influence of global warming to drought conditions over the period 2010–2100. Results based on both indices (calculated for three time scales of 12, 24, and 48 months) from 3 basins in west, central, and east parts of the island show that 1) the extreme drought periods are the same (reaching 7% of time) but the intensities based on SN–SPI are lower; 2) the area covered by extreme droughts is 3% (first time scale), 16% (second time scale), and 25% (third time scale), and 96% (first time scale), 95% (second time scale), and 80% (third time scale) based on the SN–SPI and SPI, respectively; 3) concerning the longest time scale (48 months), more than half of the area of Crete is about to experience drought conditions during 28%, 69%, and 97% for 2010–40, 2040–70, and 2070–2100, respectively; and 4) extremely dry conditions will cover 52%, 33%, and 25% of the island for the future 90-year period using 12-, 24-, and 48-month SN–SPI, respectively.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2359-2373 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dutra ◽  
F. Di Giuseppe ◽  
F. Wetterhall ◽  
F. Pappenberger

Abstract. Vast parts of Africa rely on the rainy season for livestock and agriculture. Droughts can have a severe impact in these areas, which often have a very low resilience and limited capabilities to mitigate drought impacts. This paper assesses the predictive capabilities of an integrated drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting system (up to 5 months lead time) based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The system is constructed by extending near-real-time monthly precipitation fields (ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis and the Climate Anomaly Monitoring System–Outgoing Longwave Radiation Precipitation Index, CAMS-OPI) with monthly forecasted fields as provided by the ECMWF seasonal forecasting system. The forecasts were then evaluated over four basins in Africa: the Blue Nile, Limpopo, Upper Niger, and Upper Zambezi. There are significant differences in the quality of the precipitation between the datasets depending on the catchments, and a general statement regarding the best product is difficult to make. The generally low number of rain gauges and their decrease in the recent years limits the verification and monitoring of droughts in the different basins, reinforcing the need for a strong investment on climate monitoring. All the datasets show similar spatial and temporal patterns in southern and north-western Africa, while there is a low correlation in the equatorial area, which makes it difficult to define ground truth and choose an adequate product for monitoring. The seasonal forecasts have a higher reliability and skill in the Blue Nile, Limpopo and Upper Niger in comparison with the Zambezi. This skill and reliability depend strongly on the SPI timescale, and longer timescales have more skill. The ECMWF seasonal forecasts have predictive skill which is higher than using climatology for most regions. In regions where no reliable near-real-time data is available, the seasonal forecast can be used for monitoring (first month of forecast). Furthermore, poor-quality precipitation monitoring products can reduce the potential skill of SPI seasonal forecasts in 2 to 4 months lead time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Bahrami ◽  
Samira Bazrkar ◽  
Abdol Rassoul Zarei

Abstract Drought as an exigent natural phenomenon, with high frequency in arid and semi-arid regions, leads to enormous damage to agriculture, economy, and environment. In this study, the seasonal Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) drought index and time series models were employed to model and predict seasonal drought using climate data of 38 Iranian synoptic stations during 1967–2014. In order to model and predict seasonal drought ITSM (Interactive Time Series Modeling) statistical software was used. According to the calculated seasonal SPI, within the study area, drought severity classes 4 and 3 had the greatest occurrence frequency, while classes 6 and 7 had the least occurrence frequency. Results indicated that the best fitted models were Moving-Average or MA (5) Innovations and MA (5) Hannan-Rissenen, with 60.53 and 15.79 percentage, respectively. On the other hand, results of the prediction as well, indicated that drought class 4 with the highest percentages, was the most abundant class over the study area and drought class 7 was the least frequent class. According to results of trend analysis, without attention to significance of them, observed seasonal SPI data series (1967–2014), in 84.21% of synoptic stations had a negative trend, but this percentage changes to 86.84% when studying the combination of observed and predicted simultaneously (1967–2019).


Data ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Lucas ◽  
Clay Trauernicht ◽  
Abby G. Frazier ◽  
Tomoaki Miura

Spatially explicit, wall-to-wall rainfall data provide foundational climatic information but alone are inadequate for characterizing meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, or ecological drought. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is one of the most widely used indicators of drought and defines localized conditions of both drought and excess rainfall based on period-specific (e.g., 1-month, 6-month, 12-month) accumulated precipitation relative to multi-year averages. A 93-year (1920–2012), high-resolution (250 m) gridded dataset of monthly rainfall available for the State of Hawai‘i was used to derive gridded, monthly SPI values for 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, 12-, 24-, 36-, 48-, and 60-month intervals. Gridded SPI data were validated against independent, station-based calculations of SPI provided by the National Weather Service. The gridded SPI product was also compared with the U.S. Drought Monitor during the overlapping period. This SPI product provides several advantages over currently available drought indices for Hawai‘i in that it has statewide coverage over a long historical period at high spatial resolution to capture fine-scale climatic gradients and monitor changes in local drought severity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 956-965 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. J. Bong ◽  
J. Richard

Abstract Severe droughts in the year 1998 and 2014 in Sarawak due to the strong El Niño has impacted the water supply and irrigated agriculture. In this study, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used for drought identification and monitoring in Sarawak River Basin. Using monthly precipitation data between the year 1975 and 2016 for 15 rainfall stations in the basin, the drought index values were obtained for the time scale of three, six and nine months. Rainfall trend for the years in study was also assessed using the Mann–Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator and compared with the drought index. Findings showed that generally there was a decreasing trend for the SPI values for the three time scales, indicating a higher tendency of increased drought event throughout the basin. Furthermore, it was observed that there was an increase in the numbers of dry months in the recent decade for most of the rainfall stations as compared to the previous 30 to 40 years, which could be due to climate change. Findings from this study are valuable for the planning and formulating of drought strategies to reduce and mitigate the adverse effects of drought.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1493-1501 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. S. Martins ◽  
T. Raziei ◽  
A. A. Paulo ◽  
L. S. Pereira

Abstract. The spatial variability of precipitation and drought are investigated for Portugal using monthly precipitation from 74 stations and minimum and maximum temperature from 27 stations, covering the common period of 1941–2006. Seasonal precipitation and the corresponding percentages in the year, as well as the precipitation concentration index (PCI), was computed for all 74 stations and then used as an input matrix for an R-mode principal component analysis to identify the precipitation patterns. The standardized precipitation index at 3 and 12 month time scales were computed for all stations, whereas the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and the modified PDSI for Mediterranean conditions (MedPDSI) were computed for the stations with temperature data. The spatial patterns of drought over Portugal were identified by applying the S-mode principal component analysis coupled with varimax rotation to the drought indices matrices. The result revealed two distinct sub-regions in the country relative to both precipitation regimes and drought variability. The analysis of time variability of the PC scores of all drought indices allowed verifying that there is no linear trend indicating drought aggravation or decrease. In addition, the analysis shows that results for SPI-3, SPI-12, PDSI and MedPDSI are coherent among them.


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