Comparison of different drought assessment methods in continental Croatia

Abstract

Drought is an extreme hydrological event that causes great economic and environmental damage. Various methods are used for the identification and quantification of drought. The analysis of five drought identification methods was conducted for continental Croatia on 15 weather stations in the period from 1981 to 2011: standardised precipitation index, deciles index, percent of normal precipitation, rainfall anomaly index, and threshold level method. Results have revealed that each of these methods has its specific features but that all are applicable for the area under study. There is a significant correlation between the standard precipitation index and the deciles index, rainfall anomaly index, and percent of normal.