| Abstract: | Drought is a worldwide natural disaster that has long affected agricultural production as well as social and economic activities. Frequent droughts have been observed in the Belt and Road area, in which much of the agricultural land is concentrated in fragile ecological environment. Based on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Satellite (TRMM) 3B43 precipitation data, we used the Precipitation Abnormity Percentage drought model to study the monthly spatio-temporal distribution of drought in south region of N50° of the Belt and Road area. It was observed that drought during winter was mainly distributed in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, while it was mainly distributed in Central Asia and West Asia during summer. The occurrence of historical droughts indicates an obvious seasonal cycle. The regional variations in drought were analyzed using the Breaks for Additive Season and Trend tool (BFAST) in six sub-regions according to the spatial distribution of six economic corridors in the Belt and Road area. The average drought conditions over the 18 years show a slight decreasing trend in Northeast Asia, West Asia, North Africa, South Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and a slight increasing trend in Central Asia. However, it was a fluctuating pattern of first increasing and then decreasing in Southeast Asia. The results indicate that the total drought area in the Belt and Road region showed a general decreasing trend at a rate of 40,260 km2 per year from 1998 to 2015. |
