Implementation of the Standardized Precipitation Index in semi-arid North African areas: Reply to the Discussion of “Drought assessment in a south Mediterranean transboundary catchment”

Abstract

We are very grateful to the authors, Aksoy and Cavus, for their constructive contributions to the discussion of “Drought assessment in a south Mediterranean transboundary catchment”. The paper Gader et al. (2020) focuses on the variability of rainfall and drought patterns in the Medjerda catchment in Tunisia and analyzed the underlying causes resulting in these changes. Scope exists to improve the integration of the space-time variability in the drought assessment methodology. Different drought indices and statistical methods are employed in this study. The discussion concentrates almost only on the use of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and some mistyped equations. In this reply, we clarify the problematic points of misunderstanding and discuss the classification of droughts based on the SPI values.