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Nat Hazards (2012) 64:481492
DOI 10.1007/s11069-012-0251-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
Qiang Zhang Jianfeng Li Vijay P. Singh Yungang Bai
Received: 4 November 2011 / Accepted: 7 June 2012 / Published online: 20 June 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract Daily precipitation data for 19572009 from 53 stations in the Xinjiang, China, are analyzed, based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) with the aim to investigate spatio-temporal patterns of droughts. The MannKendall trend test is used to detect the trends in the SPI values of monthly drought series, drought severity and drought duration. The frequencies of moderate, severe and extreme droughts are higher in the North Xinjiang, while mild droughts occur more often in the South Xinjiang. A decreasing frequency of droughts in the North Xinjiang is found in winter, but a drying tendency is detected in the western parts of the North Xinjiang during spring, summer and autumn, which may be harmful for agriculture. The South Xinjiang seems to be getting wetter in summer, while the south parts of the South Xinjiang seem to be getting drier in spring. The middle of the East Xinjiang is identied to be in a slightly dry tendency. The drought severity is decreasing and drought duration is getting shorter in the North Xinjiang, while
Q. Zhang (&) J. Li
Department of Water Resources and Environment, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China e-mail: [email protected]
Q. Zhang J. Li
Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Water Security in Southern China of Guangdong High Education Institute, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Q. Zhang J. Li
Guangdong Key Laboratory for Urbanization and Geo-simulation, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
V. P. Singh
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-2117, USA
V. P. Singh
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-2117, USA
Y. Bai
Xinjiang Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower, Xinjiang 830049, China
SPI-based evaluation of drought events in Xinjiang, China
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both of them increase in the southern parts of the South Xinjiang. In addition, droughts in the middle parts of the East Xinjiang are intensifying.
Keywords Drought variations Standardized Precipitation Index MannKendall trend
test Xinjiang
1 Introduction
Because of...