IMERG-Based Meteorological Drought Analysis over Italy

Tommaso Caloiero,Giulio Nils Caroletti,Roberto Coscarelli

doi:10.3390/cli9040065

Tommaso Caloiero, Giulio Nils Caroletti + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9040065

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Abstract

The Mediterranean region is an area particularly susceptible to water scarcity and drought. In this work, drought has been analyzed in Italy using multiple timescales of the standardized precipitation index (SPI) evaluated from the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement product from 2000 to 2020. In particular, drought characteristics (severity, duration, and intensity) have been estimated by means of the run theory applied to the SPI values calculated in 3325 grid points falling within the Italian territory. Results clearly indicate that although a high number of drought events has been identified for the short timescale, these events present a lower duration and lesser severity than the long-timescale droughts. The main outcomes of this study, with the indication of the spatial distribution of the drought characteristics in Italy, allow identifying the areas that could also face water stress conditions in the future, thus requiring drought monitoring and adequate adaptation strategies.

Highlights

We are only twenty years into the 21st century, European and Mediterranean countries have already faced numerous drought events [1], and a future increase in the number and the intensity of these events has been forecasted [2]
One of the most applied in the analysis of meteorological drought is the standardized precipitation index (SPI) which is a strong and effective drought index [8] enabling the analysis of different drought categories, and which can be evaluated for different timescales [9]
The aim of this study was to analyze some of the main characteristics of the drought events that affected Italy between 2000 and 2020 using the SPI evaluated from GPM-based satellite precipitation estimates at short (3 and 6 months) and long (12 and 24 months) timescales

Summary

Introduction

We are only twenty years into the 21st century, European and Mediterranean countries have already faced numerous drought events (e.g., in 2003, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2018) [1], and a future increase in the number and the intensity of these events has been forecasted [2]. Drought events can severely impact water resources, agricultural production, and socio-economic activities, causing very costly damages [3]. The SPI is simpler to calculate than other indices, because its evaluation requires only rainfall data, and allows the comparison of meteorological drought events in different areas and for different time periods [10]. For these reasons, numerous studies have been performed using the SPI in several countries of the world, e.g., [11,12,13,14,15] and especially in the Mediterranean Basin, e.g., [16,17]

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