Abstract
The Three River Headwaters Region (TRHR) has great uncertainty on drought conditions under climate change. The aim of this study is to compare the drought conditions detected by multiple drought indices across the TRHR. We applied four single drought indices, i.e., Precipitation Condition Index (PCI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI), Soil Moisture Condition Index (SMCI), and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and two combined drought indices, i.e., Combined Meteorological Drought Index (CMDI) and Combined Vegetation drought index (CVDI), to explore the drought conditions across the TRHR. Three in situ drought indices, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Non-Parametric Index (SNPI) were used to evaluate the performances of multiple drought indices. The results include various drought conditions detected by multiple drought indices, as well as a comparative study among different drought indices. Through the comparative study, we found that PCI was a desirable single index to monitor meteorological drought. TCI was suitable for monitoring agricultural/vegetation drought. SMCI and VCI should be avoided for monitoring drought in this region. CMDI was an appropriate meteorological drought index, and CVDI was a promising indicator in monitoring agricultural/vegetation drought.
Highlights
Drought is one kind of the costliest and the most complex disasters, which may bring devastating damages to agriculture, vegetation ecology, industry and even threat human life [1,2,3].Droughts can be categorized into four types, including meteorological drought, hydrological drought, agricultural/vegetation drought and social economic drought [4]
We found that Precipitation Condition Index (PCI) was a desirable single index to monitor meteorological drought
Three in situ drought indices, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Standardized Non-Parametric Index (SNPI), are used in this study to evaluate the performance of CI-based drought indices across the Three River Headwaters Region (TRHR)
Summary
Drought is one kind of the costliest and the most complex disasters, which may bring devastating damages to agriculture, vegetation ecology, industry and even threat human life [1,2,3]. Droughts can be categorized into four types, including meteorological drought, hydrological drought, agricultural/vegetation drought and social economic drought [4]. The first three drought types are related to water deficit in the hydrological cycle [5]. The below-normal precipitation might result in meteorological drought. Hydrological drought is related to the deficit of streamflow or groundwater. Agricultural/vegetation drought may occur when soil moisture falls below the mean level. Social economic drought is associated with complicated social conditions, besides the hydrological cycle aspect
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