Drought analysis in New Zealand using the standardized precipitation index

The present article investigates drought events in New Zealand through the application of the SPI at various timescales (3, 6, 12 and 24 months). First, a temporal analysis has been performed, and the most severe dry episodes have been detected. Then, the spatial distribution of the percentage of da...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnvironmental earth sciences Vol. 76; no. 16; pp. 1 - 13
Main Author Caloiero, Tommaso
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Agriculture
Analysis
atmospheric precipitation
Biogeosciences
Climate change
Cold
Data processing
Drought
Drought analysis
Dry season
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
El Nino
El Nino phenomena
El Nino-Southern Oscillation event
Environmental Science and Engineering
GDP
Geochemistry
Geology
Gross Domestic Product
Hydrology/Water Resources
industry
Islands
New Zealand
Original Article
Plains
Precipitation
Regions
Southern Oscillation
Spatial distribution
Standardized precipitation index
Summer
Terrestrial Pollution
Trend analysis
Weather
New Zealand
New Zealand
Trend
Drought
SPI
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Summary:The present article investigates drought events in New Zealand through the application of the SPI at various timescales (3, 6, 12 and 24 months). First, a temporal analysis has been performed, and the most severe dry episodes have been detected. Then, the spatial distribution of the percentage of data falling within the different level of drought has been evaluated. In addition, a trend analysis has been conducted at seasonal scale, considering the wet and the dry seasons, and at annual scale. Finally, the relationship between drought and ENSO has been investigated. Results show that, in every area currently subject to drought, an increase in this phenomenon can be expected. Specifically, the results of this paper highlight that agricultural regions on the Eastern side, such as the Canterbury Plains, are the most consistently vulnerable areas, as well as other regions in the North Island, including primary industry regions like Waikato. Moreover, a clear link between drought and the two phases of the ENSO has been detected.
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ISSN:1866-6280
1866-6299
DOI:10.1007/s12665-017-6909-x