Abstract
Drought is one of slow onset natural hazards with great impacts in many aspects, such as economy, agricultural and human health. To well manage drought, the areal coverage, duration and frequency can be analyzed and estimated to provide insight into historical perspective of drought events as well the long-term variation of climate in the study area. This study tries to explore the natural of drought including its definitions, categories, trigger mechanism and possible mitigation methods. This research studies the drought characteristics in Wyoming, United States based on the rainfall data from the U. S Historical Climatology Network (USHCN). The main approach is Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which provides the means to analyze drought at different time scales and discusses the relationship between drought and climate change.
Highlights
Drought is a natural feature temporarily affecting most regions of the globe
In Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) calculation, positive values present the rainfall is great than median rainfall and negative values mean the rainfall is below the median rainfall
The standard precipitation index was chosen as the study method to evaluate the drought condition from January 1950 to December 2000
Summary
Drought is a natural feature temporarily affecting most regions of the globe. It is more than just a simple water deficit. It is a complex interaction between (1) precipitation deficiencies and natural evapotranspiration (2) the demands of human life and environmental water use[1] The shortage of water results in reducing the quality of life and economy. Due to the less predictable features of drought events in terms of initiation, termination, seriousness and frequency, drought can be recognized as both a disaster and a hazard. It is a disaster to agricultural and natural ecosystem and other human activities, because it comes with the change of precipitation regime, resulting in the interruption of water supply. Like other natural hazards, it is a natural accident with erratic appearance but at the same time with recognizable recurrence
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