Validation of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for Meteorological Drought Risk in Central India

This study materialized an approach to drought risk (DR) mapping in an agricultural basin. The risks of drought have potential to cause damage, their occurrences are matter of concern to the agricultural society and economy. This study mainly dealt with droughts during the southwest monsoon season (June– September) in central India. The risk associated with drought was assessed by a combination of the regional exposure associated with natural events and the vulnerability of anthropogenic events. DR is the abstraction of the product of drought hazard (DH) and drought vulnerability (DV). The frequency of drought events has been computed using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). As the variability of rainfall is much higher than that of other variables, it makes SPI suitable for the analysis in this study. Resulting area affected by drought based on 6 months base period has maximum area under dry condition that reflects the deficiency of water in stream flow and reservoir storage condition. The hazard map is then produced by occurrence probability of drought at respective stations. The application of GIS has played a vital role for analyzing, managing and representing DH, DV and computing DR in this study. Further, results of SPI have been validated with Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) which is worldwide accepted as a global drought calculator.http://indianecologicalsociety.com/society/wp-content/themes/ecology/volume_pdfs/Final%2046(4)%201_removed%20(1)-5.pd