The longest multiannual drought in Northeastern Brazil

The Northeastern region of Brazil has long history of drought with impacts on water supply for cities and agriculture. However, the last drought that occurred in the region had unprecedented magnitude and periodicity, making it the longest multiannual drought in Northeastern Brazil. Thus, understand...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of South American earth sciences Vol. 143; p. 104976
Main Authors Aparecida de Souza Santos, Juliana, Wanderley, Henderson Silva, Carlos de Amorim, Ricardo Ferreira, Delgado, Rafael Coll, Fernades, Ronabson Cardoso
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2024
Subjects
Climate change
Mann-kendall
PDSI
Sertão
Trend
Water scarcity
Trend
Climate change
Mann-kendall
Water scarcity
Sertão
PDSI
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Summary:The Northeastern region of Brazil has long history of drought with impacts on water supply for cities and agriculture. However, the last drought that occurred in the region had unprecedented magnitude and periodicity, making it the longest multiannual drought in Northeastern Brazil. Thus, understanding and characterizing the behavior of this phenomenon is necessary, considering that another episodes may occur. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the drought trend in the Northeastern region of Brazil, with the application of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). The application of PDSI was carried out with the monthly calculation of the water balance coefficients referring to the soil water balance between the years 2000 and 2019, depending on the relative soil moisture values. The results obtained were submitted to the Mann-Kendall test to identify monthly trends in the index. The annual drought variability in Northeastern Brazil showed moderate to extreme intensity, with the worst drought being observed between the years 2012 and 2019. The monthly drought average shows the Mid-Northern and “Sertão” regions as the most critical, with monthly trend of significant drought severity. The positive trend was observed in the Eastern, Southern and Western coast regions of NEB. [Display omitted] •We evaluated the largest drought in the Northeast of Brazil.•Intensification of the drought in its frequency and magnitude has been proven.•A significant trend was identified for the intensification of drought.•El Niño events and change climate contribute to intensify record drought.
ISSN:0895-9811
1873-0647
DOI:10.1016/j.jsames.2024.104976