Entropy based assessment and palmer drought severity index of drought analysis

Abstract

Drought is one of the most important natural events. Evaluation of drought is of great importance because it is influential in many areas like water resources projects and agricultural production; it has various social and economical consequences and it is closely related to the economy, health, psychology and commerce of the society. To be able to take precautions against the dangers of drought, knowledge and monitoring of the parameters of drought is first required. In the present study, the drought problem was investigated in the Central Anatolian Region in Turkey. The data of 13 stations having long term precipitation and temperature observations operated by The Turkish State Meteorological Service (DMI) were evaluated. The objective of this research was to examine and forecast the extent of droughts in the Central Anatolian Region. For this purpose, palmer drought severity index method was used for the drought analysis. On the other hand, the applicability of entropy method for the analysis of drought was also investigated in this study. The results of the study contributed to the determination of drought parameters for the Central Anatolian Region and consequently the lack of information and data on this subject was completed. In this study, a new classification was made for entropy based drought analysis. The results of the present study show that entropy method can be used in the analysis of drought. Key words: Drought, palmer drought severity index, entropy.