ASSESSMENT REGARDING THE EVOLUTION IN TIME (1980-2014) OF DROUGHT ON THE BASIS OF SEVERAL COMPUTATION INDEXES. STUDY CASE TIMISOARA

Abstract

Drought is a major issue that humanity confronts with and due to its vast ramifications it is also most difficult to solve. Being a natural phenomenon it has various manifestations which scholars have categorised into meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, environmental and others, in order to better define and understand this phenomenon. Several drought indices have been proposed by different scholars for measuring it which take rainfall, temperature, sun shining and other features into account. This of course, led to a variety of interpretations which makes the phenomenon even more difficult to size up and quantify its devastating effects on a long term scale. The seven indexes this paper makes use of, for calculating drought are: N. Topor index, De Martonne index, Domuta hydroheliothermal index, Selianinov hydrothermal index, Palfai drought index and Lang rain index. In this paper, the case study conducted for Timisoara in the 1980-2014 period reveals alternating wet and dry periods which do not pose any threat of aridisation or desertification in the near future. However, a constant monitoring is imposed in order for these phenomena not to occur, made by the authorized law enforcement together with specialists from various fields.

Keywords

• drought indices
• rainfall
• temperature
• sun shining
• climate changes