Dryness characterization: A climatic water deficit approach in Turkey

Abstract

Drought has several negative impacts on economy, society and ecology. The drought duration, magnitude and severity is of great importance and can be expressed by using different indexes which could give different information for the drought analysis. In this study, drought is analyzed using the concept of standardized precipitation index (SPI) and run analysis. This paper is to assess the temporal and spatial characteristics of meteorological droughts in the Aegean and Central Anatolian regions of Turkey for providing a guide for sustainable water resources management. Long-term precipitation and temperature data observed in 77 raingauge stations in these regions of Turkey are evaluated for the period of 1973-2006. Water deficit (WD) was calculated as difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration. SPI was calculated from precipitation values. There is a clear difference between drought and aridity. The dryness analysis by run analysis is based on water deficit (WD) data and identifies various aridity properties. Frequencies present a small reduction moving from north to south and from west to east within a region. In this study, through scatter diagrams between dryness magnitude and length are provided, and the link between SPI and WD run analysis is assessed. In addition, kriging is used as a spatial aridity analysis for mapping. Dryness period, magnitude and standardized precipitation index values are presented to depict the relationships between dryness duration and magnitude. © by PSP.