Abstract
Drought is a natural phenomenon caused by a shortage of water resources and has a great impact on agriculture, the economy, and the environment. To study the Spatio-temporal distribution and explore the zonal patterns of drought, this paper took the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (YGP) as the research region, selected the air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration, wind speed, and precipitation data from 47 meteorological stations on the YGP. First, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was calculated, and then the Spatio-temporal distribution of YGP drought was analyzed with the SPEI, Mann–Kendall test, and principal component analysis (PCA). Finally, the correlations between the average SPEI, drought characteristics extracted from the SPEI, and longitude/elevation/latitude were analyzed with the linear regression method, and then the zonal patterns of the YGP drought were obtained. The results revealed that the annual and seasonal SPEI values mainly decreased. Because the first component of the SPEI (the largest eigenvalue makes it the most important component) in annual and winter had a poor relationship with longitude/elevation, its correlation was weak, while the average SPEI values in other seasons were significantly correlated with longitude/elevation (α = 0.001), and the absolute value of the correlation coefficient was between 0.6879–0.9453. Except for PC1 in annual and winter, PC1 and PC2 were significantly correlated with longitude/elevation (α = 0.001), and the absolute value of the correlation coefficient was between 0.5087–0.9501. The duration, severity, intensity, frequency of drought were significantly correlated with longitude/elevation (α = 0.001) in most situations. The average SPEI values and drought characteristics showed a good multivariate linear correlation with longitude, latitude, and elevation, indicating that drought exhibited strong zonal patterns. This study will provide new ideas for drought research and technical support for regional industrial layouts, planting structure adjustments, and drought and disaster reduction.
Highlights
Based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) calculation results, this paper first analyzes the temporal and spatial distribution of the SPEI and investigates the zonal patterns of drought on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (YGP), i.e., the variation pattern of drought according to longitude, latitude, and elevation
The average SPEI in autumn was greater in the northwestern section of the YGP and smaller in other sections of the YGP, and the SPEI values of most stations were greater than 0, indicating that drought did not occur in most areas of the YGP in autumn
The results show that the SPEI of the YGP is decreasing, and the drought is becoming increasingly severe
Summary
Recent studies have demonstrated that global climate change has altered precipitation and temperature in different regions (Almazroui et al, 2016; Vinnarasi and Dhanya, 2016; Sung et al, 2017; Salman et al, 2017; Sa’adi et al, 2017; Pour et al, 2018; Tao et al, 2018) and affected the entire hydrological system (Zahabiyoun et al, 2013), thereby increasing theZonal Patterns of Drought frequency and intensity of drought events (Sung and Chung, 2014; Ahmed et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2017; Mohsenipour et al, 2018). The research results for the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (YGP) and its adjacent areas showed that the annual (SPEI12) and seasonal (SPEI3) droughts in Southwest China decreased from 1968 to 2018; the drought in the southern region was severe, and the drought frequency increased (Tang et al, 2021). According to the revised reconnaissance drought index (RDI) and Mann–Kendall methods, the RDI of the YGP declined annually and in summer, autumn, and winter, indicating that the severity of drought was increasing, but the opposite pattern was observed in spring. These trends were not significant, and there was no mutation on the YGP from 1960 to 2013 (Cheng Q. et al, 2020). The analysis of the temporal and spatial distribution of drought on the YGP will further enrich the research results in this area
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