Mapping of drought for Sperchios River basin in central Greece

Abstract

The estimation of drought at certain temporal and spatial scales is useful for research on climate change and global warming. Greece is often affected by droughts, which are widespread spatially and temporally due to the complex topography. Within the Greek territory, various complex microclimates are created, linked with the spatial variances in drought phenomena. In this paper an estimation of drought in the Sperchios River basin was conducted using the Aridity Index (AI). Additionally, a seasonal analysis of drought was performed. Meteorological data from the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) were used as inputs for the AI equation. Spatial interpolation of AI for the Sperchios River basin was performed using a kriging method by the application of ArcGIS 9.3. In order to produce required input data, several models (EmPEst, RayMan) and techniques (linear regression, interpolation) were combined. Finally, the meteorological data series were randomly separated into two periods and AI was estimated for these sub-periods, in order to test the effectiveness of the drought index used. The results indicate that the conditions prevailing in the area are humid, mostly affected by increased rainfall occurring in the mountainous section of the basin. Broadly, the humid environment in the upstream of Sperchios River prevents drought occurring in the lowlands of Sperchios River valley. Nevertheless, some differentiation appeared during the summer period, to which special attention needs to be given in order to prevent drought conditions.

Recent Trends of Extreme Precipitation and Their Teleconnection with Atmospheric Circulation in the Beijing-Tianjin Sand Source Region, China, 1960–2014

“…The spatial distribution of the 11 indices for the BTSSR was interpolated with the Kriging ordinary function using ArcGIS 10.2 from ESRI. As the simplest form of Kriging interpolation [37], this method interpolates irregularly distributed surface station data to create spatial data with a continuous smooth surface, and is now widely used with meteorological variables [38,39].…”

Climatological Drought Analyses Using SPI, Deciles, PPN, EDI and Rainy Days in Chile

“…While the numerical values of the measured index (SPI) and the proposed model (SPI*) are not expected to be the same, the important factor is to be precise when comparing the drought condition and the presence of the drought event (Wong et al 2013, Paparrizos et al 2016. For example, for the Armerillo station at a latitude of 35.5° S (with a 50% success in the drought condition with the SPI*), the results obtained are acceptable if the historical evolution of the drought condition is observed in figure 8.…”

Integrated analysis and mapping of aridity over Greek areas with different climate conditions

“…Attempts towards this direction have also been performed from Matzarakis et al, (2007);Gouvas et al, (2009);Maris et al, (2013);Feidas et al (2014) and Paparrizos et al, (2015b;2016).…”

“…In the Ardas River basin various climate types exist, but the basin is mainly characterized by humid continental climate conditions (Peel et al, 2007). Sperchios River basin (Paparrizos et al, 2014;2015a;2015b) Table 1 presents the local population that is employed in the primary section or are related with agricultural activities, while Figure 1 shows the general location, the meteorological stations and the characteristics of the study areas. …”