Drought Risk Assessment based on PDSI in the Daqinghe Watershed, North China

Abstract

Drought is a worldwide natural disaster and has become an obstacle to the socio-economic development of the Daqinghe watershed in North China, the drought risk of which is analyzed in this study. PDSI is established and validated by the SPI, SRI, SMI, and agriculture drought-affect area in Baoding, a city in Daqinghe watershed. The result shows that PDSI performs well in describing the drought evolution, especially in the monthly scale. Then, the drought risk is assessed combining the drought hazard derived from PDSI with the exposed vulnerabilities consisting of the population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), cropland area, and vegetation area. It indicates that the subwatersheds with high drought risk mainly concentrate in the downstream plain area.