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Drought assessment in a south Mediterranean transboundary catchment |
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| Authors: | Khouloud Gader Ahlem Gara Marnik Vanclooster Slaheddine Khlifi Mohamed Slimani |
| Institution: | 1. National Agronomic Institute of Tunisia (INAT) &2. Laboratory of Research, Sciences, and Technologies of the Waters, University of Carthage , Tunis, Tunisia khouloud.gader@yahoo.fr![ORCID Icon]({"type":"image","src":"/templates/jsp/images/orcid.png"} "ORCID Icon") https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3671-8730;4. Laboratory of Research, Sciences, and Technologies of the Waters, University of Carthage , Tunis, Tunisia;5. High School of Engineering of Medjez El Bab (ESIM), Tunisia &6. Unité De Recherche En Gestion Durable Des Ressources En Eau Et En Sol (GDRES), University of Jendouba , Jendouba, Tunisia;7. Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique De Louvain , Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;8. Laboratory of Research, Sciences, and Technologies of the Waters, University of Carthage , Tunis, Tunisia |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT Predicting the impacts of climate change on water resources remains a challenging task and requires a good understanding of the dynamics of the forcing terms in the past. In this study, the variability of precipitation and drought patterns is studied over the Mediterranean catchment of the Medjerda in Tunisia based on an observed rainfall dataset collected at 41 raingauges during the period 1973–2012. The standardized precipitation index and the aridity index were used to characterize drought variability. Multivariate and geostatistical techniques were further employed to identify the spatial variability of annual rainfall. The results show that the Medjerda is marked by a significant spatio-temporal variability of drought, with varying extreme wet and dry events. Four regions with distinct rainfall regimes are identified by utilizing the K-means cluster analysis. A principal component analysis identifies the variables that are responsible for the relationships between precipitation and drought variability. |
| Keywords: | standardized precipitation index (SPI) aridity index (AI) multivariate statistical methods Mediterranean region drought |