Investigation of drought in the northern Iraq region

Abstract

Drought is a phenomenon of climate and is one of the catastrophic events that cause much damage on each occurrence. One of the ways of drought adjustment, evaluation and drought monitoring is based on indicators that can be used to determine its extent and continuity in a region. In this study, drought analysis (the duration and severity of drought) in the north Iraq region was studied by using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for time intervals of 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. That feature of this method helps to compare the drought events in different places and scales. To observe dry and wet periods and the severity and length of drought monthly rainfall data of 15 meteorological stations of the northern Iraq provinces from 1979 to 2013 were used. Calculations were performed on the SPI by using the SPI code in MATLAB computer software. The results of the study showed that the continuity of dry periods in the 6, 9 and 12 month periods was higher than in the 1 and 3 month time intervals. Moreover, according to the calculation, the driest year was observed in 2008. This analysis is essential because it gives full information about the longest dry and wet periods for all stations of the region.

Meteorological and hydrological drought analysis of Sinop, Kastamonu, Bartın provinces in the Western Black Sea

“…Drought patterns differed across the one, three, and six-month time frames, however. Study findings show a more accurate SPEI Drought Index regarding agricultural productivity and its usage is healthier [13].…”

Comparison of Four Precipitation Based Meteorological Drought Indices in Yesilirmak Basin, Turkey

“…It has been observed in recent years that researchers have used various drought indices with greater emphasis on drought studies with global warming (Lloyd-Hughes and Saunders 2002;Sirdas and Sen 2003;Deo and Sahin 2015;Yue et al, 2015;Oguzturk and Yildiz 2016;Osuch et al 2016;Ionita et al 2016;Wang et al 2017;Gumus and Algin 2017;Yacoub and Tayfur 2017;Ramkar and Yadav 2018;Myronidis et al 2018;Bushra et al 2019;Garcia-Leon et al 2019;Payab and Turker 2019;Pathak and Dodamani 2019;Yenigun and Ibrahim 2019;Kumanlioglu 2020;Vergni et al 2021). Morid et al (2006) conducted a study in Tehran and compared seven different drought indices (Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), Percent of Normal (PN), Deciles Index (DI), Z-Score Index (ZSI), China-Z Index (CZI), Modified China-Z Index (MCZI), and Effective Drought Index (EDI)).…”

Severity, Duration, and Magnitude Regionalization of Standardized Precipitation Index Over Iran During 1993-2016

“…Drought is one of the natural and complex climatic phenomena that have an extensive local and regional effect. The consequences of this recurrent extreme climate event can endanger the social, environmental, and economic activities of a region (Santos et al 2011;Yenigun and Ibrahim 2019). There is no unique definition of drought on a global scale since the perception and assumptions over the water deficit are different at the regional scale (Tallaksen and Van Lanen 2004).…”

“…There are different types of drought, namely meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and social-economic droughts (Yenigun and Ibrahim 2019;Yihdego et al 2019). According to Yihdego et al (2019), ecological droughts also exist and can be interpreted as a prolonged and widespread deficit in naturally available water supplies which threatens the integrity and sufficiency of the biota.…”

“…To this end, a range of indices is suggested for further application (e.g. Pedro-Monzonís et al 2015;Yenigun and Ibrahim 2019), while severity, duration, magnitude, spatial extent, and frequency are found to be the most important characteristics of droughts to illustrate the ongoing situation (Tsakiris et al 2007). Standardized precipitation index (SPI; McKee et al 1993), is the most known drought index that evaluates the meteorological drought.…”