Spatial Patterns and Temporal Variability of Drought in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Areas in China

Abstract

Drought identification and assessment are essential for regional water resources management. In this paper, the spatiotemporal characteristics of drought were evaluated based on monthly precipitation data from 33 synoptic stations during the period of 1960–2010. The percent of normal precipitation was applied to illustrate the driest years in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan areas (BTHMA) (1965, 1997, and 2002). The modified Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) was applied to capture the drought patterns and to estimate the drought severity at 33 meteorological stations. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis (AHCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to identify three different drought subregions R1, R2, and R3 based on the monthly precipitation values in BTHMA, which is located in southeast, north, and south of BTHMA, respectively. The year 1965 was the driest and 1964 was the wettest during the observed period. The characteristics of drought were analyzed in terms of the temporal evolution of the RDI-12 values and the frequency of drought for the three identified regions. The percentage of years characterized by drought was 13.73% for R1, 16.50% for R2, and 15.53% for R3. 66.91% of drought belongs to the near normal drought category. The obtained results can aid to improve water resources management in the area.

Probabilistic Analysis of Drought Spatiotemporal Characteristics in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Area in China

“…When larger time scales of RDI are used (6-month), the pattern changes and indicates that the most drought-affected areas were the central areas of the region. Finally, the spatial variation of the 12-month RDI shows that the most affected areas were the western areas, which was consistent with former research [51].…”

The Spatiotemporal Variation of Drought in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region (BTHMR) Based on the Modified TVDI

“…The areas that were hit by severe droughts were small in 2006 and 2007; the overlay of this figure with Figure 6 shows that the areas that were hit by severe droughts were primarily concentrated to the northwest of Zhangjiakou and across the majority of Chengde, in Hebei province. These results are consistent with the large body of literature and statistical data available for the BTHMR [37][38][39][40]. There are two reasons that caused the inconsistency in the drought timing of the farmland and grassland: these regions are located at different latitudes, and they have different irrigation conditions, e.g., many farmlands were equipped with irrigation facilities.…”

Quantifying the Relationship between Drought and Water Scarcity Using Copulas: Case Study of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Metropolitan Areas in China

“…Southeast of BTHMA is mainly flat, while its northern areas consist of plateaus and mountains. The geographic features affecting the climate of BTHMA are the Inner Mongolia Plateau, the Hubei Plains, and the Bohai Sea [19]. The climate type of this area is temperate semi-humid semi-arid continental monsoon climate.…”