Introduction of East Asian Drought Monitoring System

Abstract

This paper introduces the East Asian drought monitoring system that has been operational since 2008 (http://atmos.pknu.ac.kr/~intra2). It provides the spatial and temporal distribution of droughts using variables such as the drought intensity and duration. The main feature of this system is the effective drought index (EDI; Byun and Wilhite 1999) in which the drought intensity is calculated by considering cumulative precipitation as a weighting function of time. In addition, this system provides an available water resources index (AWRI; Byun and Lee 2002), which represents the hydrological index. These indexes were calculated using the monthly precipitation data obtained from 298 stations in East Asia (Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, and China). Information on drought is provided in terms of monthly spatial distribution and is presented in the text and a time series. The period of data collection differs according to the observation start dates of the stations, and the longest period of data collection (Seoul, Korea) started in 1778. This system will contribute to drought prevention by diagnosing drought in real time. It will also provide fundamental data for further studies on drought by detecting the time and location of droughts.