AGRICULTURAL DROUGHT ANALYSIS IN AEGEAN REGION, TURKEY

The aim of this study was to determine the climatological precipitation deficit index (PD), one of the indices used in monitoring agricultural drought, using monthly climatic data from the period 1975-2014 in the Aegean region, Turkey. Temporal variations in the index were examined by Mann-Kendall trend analysis. The long term average precipitation in the region is 624 mm, the reference evapotranspiration calculated by the Penman-Monteith method is 1208 mm. The average precipitation deficit values (PD) of station in the region varied between 70 and 934 mm. As a result of trend analysis conducted for the precipitation deficit parameter, statistically significant increasing trends were found at eight of the 31 stations in the study area, and a decreasing trend at one station. There was an increasing trend at 15 of the remaining stations, but this was found not to be statistically significant. The increasing trends determined within the study period varied between 5.228 and 7.974 mm/year