DROUGHT ANALYSIS IN OZANA DRAINAGE BASIN

Abstract

Ozana drainage basin is located at the contact between large landscape units (the Carpathian mountains, the Subcarpathian area, and the plateau region). This placement determines the existence of a complex climate in the region. Despite being small in size, and its extension on an W-E direction, differences can be observed, especially of the way extreme phenomena take place. In the case of droughts, it had different intensities in the mountains, compared to the plateau region. In order to emphasize the different distribution on the territory, several climatic indexes have been calculated, regarding dryness (De Martonne Index, Hellman criterion). The analysis of these indexes at the same monitoring stations (Pluton, Leghin and Dumbrava) emphasizes the growth of the drought periods in the plateau region and the fact that they shorten in the mountain area. In the mountainous area, where the land is very well forested, the values of the De Martonne index can reach 45.4, and in the plateau regions, where the forest associations are sparse, the values dropped to 30.6. According to the Hellman criterion, several differences can be emphasized, at basin level. In the mountainous region, there is only one month that, at a multi-annual level, has stood up among the rest, as being excessively droughty, while in the median /central region of the basin, three months have been identified, that have such potential, as well as five months, at Dumbrava.

Keywords

• Ozana
• drought
• De Martonne
• Hellman
• index