Abstract
The temporal and spatial characteristics of meteorological drought have been investigated to provide a framework of methodologies for the analysis of drought in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area (BTHMA) in China. Using the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) as an indicator of drought severity, the characteristics of droughts have been examined. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area was divided into 253 grid-cells of 27 × 27km and monthly precipitation data for the period of 1960–2010 from 33 meteorological stations were used for global interpolation of precipitation using spatial co-ordinate data. Drought severity was assessed from the estimated gridded RDI values at multiple time scales. Firstly, the temporal and spatial characteristics of droughts were analyzed, and then drought severity-areal extent-frequency (SAF) annual curves were developed. The analysis indicated that the frequency of moderate and severe droughts was about 9.10% in the BTHMA. Using the SAF curves, the return period of selected severe drought events was assessed. The identification of the temporal and spatial characteristics of droughts in the BTHMA will be useful for the development of a drought preparedness plan in the region.
Highlights
In recent years, climate change and the growing global warming trend have aroused people’s concern, having frequently caused extreme events [1,2,3]
The methodology presented in this paper and applied to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area (BTHMA) is as follows: the spatial interpolation of precipitation gauge data and the generation of gridded precipitation data; the calculation of the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) values for each grid using the respective gridded precipitation for multiple timescales; analysis of the temporal characteristics of droughts in the BTHMA followed by the analysis of spatial characteristics of droughts in the BTHMA; and the development of drought severity-areal extent-frequency curves for the region for mean annual droughts and multiple time-scales
This study was focused on presenting a framework of methodologies for the analysis of the temporal and spatial characteristics and frequency of droughts in the BTHMA in China
Summary
Climate change and the growing global warming trend have aroused people’s concern, having frequently caused extreme events [1,2,3]. As one of the most serious disasters produced by extreme weather events, drought have devastating impacts on water resources, the environment and the human health in some regions, even worldwide [4,5]. Drought is a complex natural hazard but a disaster [7] which is defined by the lack of precipitation [8]. Regional drought has become a vital research topic in regional studies of global change [9]. It has become important to study drought distribution characteristics in terms of time and space of a region and what caused the drought [10,11]
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