Agricultural drought assessment in Cuba

Abstract

Based in the introduction of the most advanced international techniques, used to calculate the atmosphere evaporation demand and the water used by the plants, a method that allows to evaluate the current and prospective agricultural drought conditionst it is shown. The same was conceived to determine the beginning, the temporary and space evolution, the intensity and the end of the agricultural drought processes, used in the Cuban agrometeorological research and service. An agrometeorological agricultural drought method was generated, based on the ten days monitoring of the dry conditions as a result of the modified water index, as one of the most important output of the agrometeorologiacal soil water balance, it allows assess the agricultural drought according to the affected area, their duration and intensity. The method is able to calculate the agricultural drought decade to decade, for each observation point of a grid for the whole country with a resolution of 1km2, and also for each point is possible to determine the beginning, the intensification, the space magnification, the attenuation, the affected area reduction and the agricultural drought end and absence, aided with the employment of geographical informations systems tools, with which is possible to make the maps of the space distribution of the evolution of this extreme climatic event. With truthfulness and accuracy the application of this method reflects the degree in which the humidity deficit has harmed the agricultural yiel under unirrigated land conditions, due to the tensions generated by the water stress in the crops; it takes accurately into account the demand and the water supply of each component of soil-plant-atmosphere system, which is shown in two model application examples of the Surveillance Agricultural Drought System.