Performance of Various Forms of the Palmer Drought Severity Index in China from 1961 to 2013

Abstract

Abstract A topic of ongoing debate on the application of PDSI is whether to use the original version of the PDSI or a self-calibrating form, as well as which method to use for calculating potential evapotranspiration (PET). In this study, the performances of four forms of the PDSI, including the original PDSI based on the Penman–Monteith method for calculating PET (ETp), the PDSI based on the crop reference evapotranspiration method for calculating PET (ET0), the self-calibrating PDSI (scPDSI) based on ETp, and the scPDSI based on ET0, were evaluated in China using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), modeled soil moisture anomalies (SMA), and the terrestrial water storage deficit index (WSDI). The interannual variations of all forms of PDSI agreed well with each other and presented a weak increasing trend, suggesting a climate wetting in China from 1961 to 2013. PDSI-ET0 correlated more closely with NDVI anomalies, SMA, and WSDI than did PDSI-ETp in northern China, especially in northeastern China, while PDSI-ETp correlated more closely with SMA and WSDI in southern China. PDSI-ET0 performed better than PDSI-ETp in regions where the annual average rainfall is between 350 and 750 mm yr−1. The spatial comparability of scPDSI was better than that of PDSI, while the PDSI correlated more closely with NDVI anomalies, SMA, and WSDI than did scPDSI in most regions of China. Knowledge from this study provides important information for the choice of PDSI forms when it is applied for different practices.