Identification and Spatial-Temporal Variation Characteristics of Regional Drought Processes in China

Abstract

Based on the daily temperature and precipitation data from 1961 to 2021 obtained from 2019 national meteorological stations of China, and by means of Meteorological Drought Comprehensive Index (MCI) and some improved identification methods, we identified all drought event processes in all the seven regions of China in this paper. We also carefully analyzed these regional droughts and made following conclusions: drought was spreading towards southern China with an increasing frequency; consecutive drought year group occurred in all the seven regions of China with an increasing frequency under the background of global warming; both drought duration and comprehensive intensity consistently changed with the area affected by drought, with a correlation coefficient of 0.52–0.67 and 0.88–0.99 respectively, and passed the significance test of 0.05. The method used in this paper could be employed to effectively monitor and evaluate drought processes from multiple dimensions including duration, comprehensive intensity and area affected by drought. Thus, it actually provided a helpful decision-making basis for governments to prevent the risk of drought.

Keywords

• regional drought identification
• comprehensive drought intensity
• consecutive drought year group
• China