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Long-term analysis of the spatiotemporal standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index for West Asia

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Abstract

Droughts are one of the most catastrophic environmental hazards that have historically led to the destruction of many ancient civilizations in the cradle of civilization in the West Asian region. The purpose of this study is to analyze the long-term temporal and spatial variability of extreme long-term drought intensities of 18 to 48 months in the West Asian region in the statistical period of 118 years (1901–2018). In this study, using standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and accurate gridded data, the critical grid points (CGPs) caused by extensive and severe droughts in West Asia in the 118-year long-term period (1901–2018) was analyzed. The results of the cumulative standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (CSPEI) showed that in the long-term timescales of SPEI-18, SPEI-24, SPEI-36, and SPEI-48 months, the most affected areas of severe drought or the drought CGPs of West Asia were located in Yemen, Southern Iran, and western Saudi Arabia. The Southern and Western regions of Turkey, Northwestern Turkmenistan, Western Pakistan, and Afghanistan, as well as Western Oman and Azerbaijan, have also been less impacted by severe and widespread droughts in West Asia. Moreover, Armenia was found to experience fewer severe droughts than other study areas. The trend of temporal changes in the CGPs derived from the severity and extent of droughts indicates a significant downward trend in the CGPs of droughts in West Asia, which points to the fact that severe and widespread droughts will continue in the future and are likely to intensify. In other words, in the future, investigators will see more widespread and more severe droughts in the West Asian region, especially in Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

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Data availability

The global gridded SPEI database (SPEIbase v.2.6) used during this study are openly available Distributed Active Archived at https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/202305.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Notes

  1. Pirnaku Institute of Ecology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Geography, Tarbiiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Farshad Sadeghi, Yousef Ghavidel & Manuchehr Farajzadeh

Authors
  1. Farshad Sadeghi
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  2. Yousef Ghavidel
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  3. Manuchehr Farajzadeh
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Contributions

The authors’ participation in the article are as follows:

Conceived and designed the analysis: Yousef Ghavidel, Farshad Sadeghi.

Collected the data: Farshad Sadeghi, Yousef Ghavidel.

Contributed data or analysis tools: Manuchehr Farajzadeh, Farshad Sadeghi, Yousef Ghavidel.

Performed the analysis: Farshad Sadeghi, Yousef Ghavidel.

Wrote the paper: Farshad Sadeghi.

Supervision: Yousef Ghavidel.

Corresponding author: Yousef Ghavidel.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yousef Ghavidel.

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Responsible Editor: Zhihua Zhang

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Sadeghi, F., Ghavidel, Y. & Farajzadeh, M. Long-term analysis of the spatiotemporal standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index for West Asia. Arab J Geosci 15, 1183 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10458-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10458-y

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