A drought monitoring and early warning service for food security in South Africa

Vasileios Pavlidis; Mahlatse Kganyago; Mxolisi Mukhawana; Thomas Alexandridis; Ines Cherif; Giovanni Laneve; Riccardo Orsi; Stergios Kartsios; Maria Chara Karypidou; Ioannis Sofiadis; Eleni Katragkou

Climate Services (Apr 2024)

A drought monitoring and early warning service for food security in South Africa

Vasileios Pavlidis,
Mahlatse Kganyago,
Mxolisi Mukhawana,
Thomas Alexandridis,
Ines Cherif,
Giovanni Laneve,
Riccardo Orsi,
Stergios Kartsios,
Maria Chara Karypidou,
Ioannis Sofiadis,
Eleni Katragkou

Affiliations

Vasileios Pavlidis: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Corresponding author at: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Campus, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece.
Mahlatse Kganyago: Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Mxolisi Mukhawana: Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Private Bag x313, Pretoria, South Africa
Thomas Alexandridis: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Ines Cherif: Department of Hydraulics, Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Giovanni Laneve: Scuola di ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
Riccardo Orsi: Scuola di ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
Stergios Kartsios: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Maria Chara Karypidou: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Ioannis Sofiadis: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Eleni Katragkou: Department of Meteorology and Climatology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 34
p. 100463

Abstract

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In this paper we present an operational system for drought monitoring and early warning over South Africa-Lesotho. The indicators used for the alert issuance are based on meteorological, agricultural and hydrological indices, assembled by satellite and reanalysis raw data, to cover for all aspects of drought. The service is operationally updated every 10 days and has a spatial resolution of 10 Km. A severe drought period for South Africa covering the time period 2017–2020 was used to test the performance of the drought system. Our analysis indicated that the service is useful, providing sufficient warning on the onsets of and duration of droughts. Comparison of our results with a South African national drought service indicates a very good agreement in early warning messaging. The service is particularly user friendly and easily transferable to any region worldwide.

Published in Climate Services

ISSN: 2405-8807 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: Netherlands
LCC subjects: Science: Physics: Meteorology. Climatology; Social Sciences: Social sciences (General)
Website: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/climate-services/

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