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Spatial and temporal fluctuation of rainfall and drought in Balochistan province, Pakistan

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Abstract

Drought is a multifaceted hydro-meteorological phenomenon that occurs due to a reduction in the amount of rainfall which increases complexity as well as scarcity in arid to semi-arid region. This research presented fluctuation in rainfall and analyzed drought conditions in Balochistan province using the standardized precipitation index (SPI). The six meteorological station (Met stations) data of rainfall were collected from the concerned stations. The data consists of 33 years of rainfall observations (1986–2018). For the data normality, skewness was applied and the results showed positive skewness at all station records with the highest variability in Kalat and Barkhan. The Mann–Kendall trend was applied on both 1-month and 12-month SPI data to assess the trend in the SPI results. In Balochistan, the SPI results detected two distinct driest drought intervals, i.e., 1998–2002 and 2014–2018. The MKT test results detected negative trend in the results of 1-month SPI at most of the selected stations with more significant results in Dalbandin. The January recorded a slight increase in rainfall in almost all weather stations with significant trend. Furthermore, the MKT results of the 12-month SPI deduced a significant positive trend in Dalbandin. Finally, the results revealed frequent drought events and it is expected that it may increase in the future.

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Funding

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41877433) and the Hebei Natural Science Foundation and Key Basic Research (18963301D).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environmental Evolution and Ecological Construction of Hebei Province, Hebei Normal University, 050024, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Rafiq, Yue Cong Li, Ikram Ullah & Ahmad Ali

  2. Departments of Information and Mapping, Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, CAGS, Beijing, China

    Yanpei Cheng

  3. Department of Geography, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan

    Ghani Rahman

Authors
  1. Muhammad Rafiq
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  2. Yue Cong Li
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  3. Yanpei Cheng
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  4. Ghani Rahman
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  5. Ikram Ullah
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  6. Ahmad Ali
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Correspondence to Muhammad Rafiq.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel

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Rafiq, M., Li, Y.C., Cheng, Y. et al. Spatial and temporal fluctuation of rainfall and drought in Balochistan province, Pakistan. Arab J Geosci 15, 214 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09514-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-09514-4

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