Application of standardised precipitation index for predicting meteorological drought intensity in Beheshtabad watershed, central Iran
by Rokhsareh Rostamian; Saeid Eslamian; Mohammad Reza Farzaneh
International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology (IJHST), Vol. 3, No. 1, 2013

Abstract: Demand for water is on the rise everywhere in the world, particularly in arid and semiarid countries including Iran. Arid and semiarid regions suffer from droughts. The goal of this study is to predict the standardised precipitation index (SPI) for future drought intensity in Beheshtabad watershed, Karun basin, which is located in central Iran. Daily climate series were produced using the recorded data of Shahrekord gaging station of a reference period (1961-1990). Hadley Center Climate Model 3 general circulation model (GCM) with one greenhouse gas emission scenario (A2) has been used to construct daily climate precipitation time series over three future periods (20102039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099). The statistical downscaling model (SDSM) was used to downscale GCM output. SPI for three 30-year future time series was determined on 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. The results indicate that at short time scales, the drought series have a high frequency of drought and short duration instead the SPI values of longer time scale had an extended range with low frequency of drought. The results indicated that the severity of droughts do not solely depend on the values of drought index and also depends on duration. The results show that an increase in duration and magnitude of droughts in the third future period is more than the second and initial future periods.

Online publication date: Sat, 12-Jul-2014

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology (IJHST):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com