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A comparative assessment of meteorological drought characteristics in agro-climatic zones of Rajasthan (arid) and Tamil Nadu (humid), India

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Abstract

Understanding the long-term rainfall trends and characteristics of meteorological drought resulting from scanty rainfall, under the influence of changing climate, is vital in addressing the challenges associated with the management of water resources. An attempt has been made to analyze the changes in long-term rainfall trends and meteorological drought characteristics in agro-climatic zones of two different regions, i.e., Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, India. A 52-year daily gridded precipitation dataset (0.25° × 0.25°) for the period of 1969 to 2020 has been obtained from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to analyze region-wise agro-climatic rainfall variability and drought characteristics. In addition, IMD grids of both regions are divided into three zones based on the classification of agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of India. The ACZs-wise precipitation irregularity has been evaluated using the Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI). The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was also performed at different time scales (three, six, twelve, and twenty-four months) to identify the meteorological droughts. Further, the run theory was applied to characterize drought assessment for both regions. SPI results showed that in Tamil Nadu, the East coast plains and hills region (zone 3 ECH) experienced more frequent but less severe and short-lived droughts, while the West coast plains and hills region (zone 1 WCG) experienced less frequent but more severe and long-lasting droughts, whereas in Rajasthan, the Western Dry Region (zone 3 WDR) experienced more frequent but less severe droughts, while the Trans Gangetic Plains (zone 1 TGP) experienced less but more severe and long-lasting droughts. Findings revealed that the regional topography and moisture availability perform a major role in regional precipitation variability. A comparative evaluation of drought characteristics in different climatic regions using agro-climatic zones provides valuable information to planners for adopting management strategies to easily tackle drought conditions.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the India Meteorological Department and National Data Centre, Pune, for providing the datasets for the research. We are also thankful to Dr. Lisa Alexander and Dr. Nicholas Herold from the Climate Change Research Centre for providing the ClimPACT2 software.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support was received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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  1. Trushna Mallick and P. Deepak have contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Science, School of Earth Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan, NH-8, Bandarsindri, Kishangarh, Ajmer, 305817, India

    Trushnamayee Mallick, Deepak Pandidurai, Devesh Sharma, Aditya Sharma & S. K. Panda

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Contributions

TM and DP both contributed equally: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, software, visualization, roles/writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing; DS was involved in the conceptualization, resources, supervision, and writing—review and editing. AS and SKP contributed to the conceptualization, resources, and writing—review and editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Devesh Sharma.

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Mallick, T., Pandidurai, D., Sharma, D. et al. A comparative assessment of meteorological drought characteristics in agro-climatic zones of Rajasthan (arid) and Tamil Nadu (humid), India. Nat Hazards 120, 4181–4203 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06376-1

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