Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analyses of Drought Events in Calabria (Southern Italy) Using Standardized Precipitation Index

  • Published:
Water Resources Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A deficit in precipitation has different impacts on soil moisture, snowpack, streamflow, groundwater and reservoir storage. In this study, drought, expressed using the SPI, has been analysed in a region of southern Italy (Calabria) using a homogenised and gap-filled database for 129 monthly rainfall series in the 1916–2006 period. Both the short-term (3 and 6 months) and the long-term (12 and 24 months) SPI were estimated and, in order to identify the worst events, the percentages of the regional area falling within severe or extreme dry conditions have been evaluated. With the aim to spatially characterize the most severe drought event, the SPI data were estimated at ungauged locations and mapped using a geostatistical approach. Finally, a time series analysis of long-term SPI was performed to detect possible trends. Results showed that several heavy drought episodes have widely affected the Calabria region and, among these events, the worst one occurred between December 2001 and April 2002. The trend analysis showed a reduction in the SPI values that is a tendency towards drier conditions, although the running trend approach, carried out only for the long-term SPI, revealed that this tendency is not persistent throughout the series length, but it depends on the period examined.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abrams MD, Ruffuer MC, Morgan TA (1998) Tree-ring responses to drought across species and contrasting sites in the ridge and valley of central Pennsylvania. For Sci 44:550–558

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin RB, Cantero-Martínez C, Arrúe JL, Playán E, Cano-Marcellán P (1998) Yield rainfall relationships in cereal cropping systems in the Ebro river valley of Spain. Eur J Agron 8:239–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhalme HN, Mooley DA (1980) Large-scale drought/floods and monsoon circulation. Mon Weather Rev 108:1197–1211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonaccorso B, Bordi I, Cancelliere A, Rossi G, Sutera A (2003) Spatial variability of drought: an analysis of the SPI in Sicily. Water Resour Manag 17:273–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonaccorso B, Peres DJ, Cancelliere A, Rossi G (2013) Large scale probabilistic drought characterization over Europe. Water Resour Manag 27:1675–1692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordi I, Sutera A (2001) Fifty years of precipitation: some spatially remote teleconnnections. Water Resour Manag 15:247–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordi I, Sutera A (2002) An analysis of drought in Italy in the last fifty years. Il Nuovo Cimento 25C:185–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordi I, Fraedrich K, Sutera A (2009) Observed drought and wetness trends in Europe: an update. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 13:1519–1530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunetti M, Nanni T, Maugeri M, Auer I, Boehm R, Schoener W (2006) Precipitation variability and changes in the Greater Alpine Region over the 1800–2003 period. J Geophys Res Atmos 111(D11), D11107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buttafuoco G, Caloiero T (2014) Drought events at different timescales in southern Italy (Calabria). J Maps 10:529–537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunetti M, Caloiero T, Coscarelli R, Gullà G, Nanni T, Simolo C (2012) Precipitation variability and change in the Calabria region (Italy) from a high resolution daily dataset. Int J Climatol 32:57–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buttafuoco G, Caloiero T, Coscarelli R (2011) Spatial and temporal patterns of the mean annual precipitation at decadal time scale in southern Italy (Calabria region). Theor Appl Climatol 105:431–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caloiero T, Coscarelli R, Ferrari E, Mancini M (2011) Trend detection of annual and seasonal rainfall in Calabria (southern Italy). Int J Climatol 31:44–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caloiero T, Buttafuoco G, Coscarelli R, Ferrari E (2014) Spatial and temporal characterization of climate at regional scale using homogenous monthly precipitation and air temperature data: an application in southern Italy (Calabria Region). Hydrol Res. doi:10.2166/nh.2014.022

    Google Scholar 

  • Cancelliere A, Di Mauro G, Bonaccorso B, Rossi G (2007) Drought forecasting using the Standardised Precipitation Index. Water Resour Manag 21:801–819

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capra A, Scicolone B (2012) Spatiotemporal variability of drought on a short–medium time scale in the Calabria Region (Southern Italy). Theor Appl Climatol 3:471–488

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capra A, Consoli S, Scicolone B (2013) Long-term climatic variability in calabria and effects on drought and agrometeorological parameters. Water Resour Manag 27:601–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chilès JP, Delfiner P (2012) Geostatistics: modelling spatial uncertainty, 2nd Edn. Wiley, New York

  • Costa AC (2011) Local patterns and trends of the Standard Precipitation Index in southern Portugal (1940–1999). Adv Geosci 30:11–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craddock JM (1979) Methods of comparing annual rainfall records for climatic purposes. Weather 34:332–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalezios WR, Loukas A, Vasiliades L, Liakopoulos E (2000) Severity– duration–frequency analysis of droughts and wet periods in Greece. Hydrol Sci J 45:751–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards D, McKee T (1997) Characteristics of 20th century drought in the United States at multiple scale. Atmos Sci Pap 634:1–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Fang K, Gou X, Chen F, Davi N, Liu C (2013) Spatiotemporal drought variability for central and eastern Asia over the past seven centuries derived from tree-ring based reconstructions. Quat Int 283:107–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Federico S, Dalu GA, Bellecci C, Colacino M (2000) Meso-scale energetics and flows induced by the sea-land and mountain-valley contrast. Ann Geophys 18:235–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng S, Hu Q, Oglesby RJ (2011) Influence of Atlantic sea surface temperatures on persistent drought in North America. Clim Dynam 37:569–586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez J, Sàenz J, Zorita E (2003) Analysis of wintertime atmospheric moisture transport and its variability over southern Europe in the NCEP-Reanalyses. Clim Res 23:195–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari E, Caloiero T, Coscarelli R (2013) Influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter rainfall in Calabria (southern Italy). Theor Appl Climatol 114:479–494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fink AH, Brücher T, Krüger A, Leckebush GC, Pinto JG, Ulbrich U (2004) The 2003 European summer heatwaves and drought-synoptic diagnosis and impacts. Weather 59:209–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowler A, Adams K (2004) Twentieth century droughts and wet periods in Auckland (New Zealand) and their relationship to ENSO. Int J Climatol 24:1947–1961

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García RV (1984) Nature pleads not guilty. Pergamon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs WJ, Maher JV (1967) Rainfall deciles as drought indicators. Bureau of Meteorology Bull 48, Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Golian S, Mazdiyasni O, AghaKouchak A (2014) Trends in meteorological and agricultural droughts in Iran. Theor Appl Climatol. doi:10.1007/s00704-014-1139-6

    Google Scholar 

  • Gommes R, Petrassi F (1994) Rainfall variability and drought in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1960. Agro-meteorology series working paper 9, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome

  • Goovaerts P (1997) Geostatistics for natural resources evaluation. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Guttman NB (1998) Comparing the Palmer drought severity index and the standardized precipitation Index. J Amer Water Res Ass 34:113–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guttman NB (1999) Accepting the standardized precipitation index: a calculating algorithm. J Amer Water Res Ass 35:311–323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes MJ, Svoboda M, Wilhite DA, Vanyarkho O (1999) Monitoring the 1996 drought using the SPI. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 80:429–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannaford J, Lloyd-Hughes B, Keef C, Parry S, Prudhomme C (2011) Examining the large-scale spatial coherence of European drought using regional indicators of precipitation and streamflow deficit. Hydrol Process 25:1146–1162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hua T, Wang XM, Zhang CX, Lang LL (2013) Temporal and spatial variations in the Palmer Drought Severity Index over the past four centuries in arid, semiarid, and semihumid East Asia. Chin Sci Bull 58:4143–4152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanti B (1998) Coping mechanisms practised by drought victims (1994/1995) in north Bengal, Bangladesh. Appl Geogr 18:355–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall MG (1962) Rank correlation methods. Hafner Publishing Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Khan S, Gabriel HF, Rana T (2008) Standard precipitation index to track drought and assess impact of rainfall on watertables in irrigation areas. Irrig Drain Syst 22:159–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kogan F (1995) Droughts of the late 1980s in the United States as derived from NOAA Polar-Orbiting Satellite data. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 76:655–668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kogan F (1997) Global drought watch from space. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 78:621–636

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livada I, Assimakopoulos VD (2007) Spatial and temporal analysis of drought in Greece using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Theor Appl Climatol 89:143–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd-Huhes B, Saunders MA (2002) A drought climatology for Europe. Int J Climatol 22:1571–1592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Logan KE, Brunsell NA, Jones AR, Feddema JJ (2010) Assessing spatiotemporal variability of drought in the U.S. central plains. J Arid Environ 74:247–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loukas A, Vasiliades L (2004) Probabilistic analysis of drought spatiotemporal characteristics in Thessaly region, Greece. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 4:719–731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manatsa D, Mukwada G, Siziba E, Chinyanganya T (2010) Analysis of multidimensional aspects of agricultural droughts in Zimbabwe using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Theor Appl Climatol 102:287–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mann HB (1945) Nonparametric tests against trend. Econometrica 13:245–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1993) The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scale. In: Preprints Eighth Conf on Applied Climatology, Anaheim, Amer Meteor Soc :179–184

  • McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1995) Drought monitoring with multiple time scales. In: Preprints Ninth Conf on Applied Climatology, Dallas, Amer Meteor Soc :233–236

  • Minetti JL, Vargas WM, Poblete AG, de la Zerda LR, Acuña LR (2010) Regional droughts in southern South America. Theor Appl Climatol 102:403–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morales A, Olcina J, Rico AM (2000) Diferentes persepciones de la sequía en España: Adaptación, catastrofismo e intentos de corrección. Investig Geográf 23:5–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Moreira EE, Mexia JT, Pereira LS (2012) Are drought occurrence and severity aggravating? A study on SPI drought class transitions using log-linear models and ANOVA-like inference. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 16:3011–3028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson SE, Tucker CJ, Ba MB (1998) Desertification, drought and surface vegetation: an example from the west African Sahel. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 79:815–829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orwing DA, Abrams MD (1997) Variation in radial growth responses to drought among species, site and canopy strata. Trees 11:474–484

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer WC (1965) Meteorlogical drought. US Weather Bur Tech Pa 45:1–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer WC (1968) Keeping track of crop moisture conditions, nationwide: the new crop moisture index. Weatherwise 21:156–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pereira LS, Cordery I, Iacovides I (2002) Coping with water scarcity, UNESCO IHP VI, Technical documents in hydrology, no. 58. UNESCO, Paris

  • Pickup G (1998) Desertification and climate change – the Australian perspective. Clim Res 11:51–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quiring SM, Papakryiakou TN (2003) An evaluation of agricultural drought indices for the Canadian prairies. Agric For Meteorol 118:49–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raziei T, Saghafian B, Paulo AA, Pereira LS, Bordi I (2009) Spatial patterns and temporal variability of drought in Western Iran. Water Resour Manag 23:439–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raziei T, Bordi I, Pereira LS, Sutera A (2010) Space-time variability of hydrological drought and wetness in Iran using NCEP/NCAR and GPCC datasets. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 14:1919–1930

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossi G, Cancelliere A (2002) Early warning of drought: development of a drought bullettin for Sicily. Proc. 2nd international conference New trends in water and environmental engineering for safety and life: eco-compatible solutions for aquatic environments. Capri, Italy, pp 1–12

  • Shafer BA, Dezman LE (1982) Development of a surface water supply index (SWSI) to assess the severity of drought conditions in snow pack runoff areas. Proceedings of the 50th Annual Western Snow Conference. Reno, Nevada, pp 164–175

  • Simolo C, Brunetti M, Maugeri M, Nanni T (2010) Improving estimation of missing values in daily precipitation series by a probability density function preserving approach. Int J Climatol 30:1564–1576

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirangelo B, Caloiero T, Coscarelli R, Ferrari E (2013) Statistical modelling of sequences of no-rain days. Proc. of First Annual Conference SISC, Climate change and its implications on ecosystem and society. Lecce, Italy, pp 349–360

  • Sirangelo B, Caloiero T, Coscarelli R, Ferrari E (2014) A stochastic model for the analysis of the temporal change of dry spells. Stoch Env Res Risk A. doi:10.1007/s00477-014-0904-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Sönmez FK, Kömüscü AU, Erkan A, Turgu E (2005) An analysis of spatial and temporal dimension of drought vulnerability in Turkey using the Standardized Precipitation Index. Nat Hazards 35:243–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsakiris G, Pangalou D, Vangelis H (2007) Regional drought assessment based on the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI). Water Resour Manag 21:821–833

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vangelis H, Spiliotis M, Tsakiris G (2011) Drought severity assessment based on bivariate probability analysis. Water Resour Manag 25:357–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Rooy MP (1965) A rainfall anomaly index independent of time and space. Notos 14:43–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Vergni L, Todisco F (2011) Spatio-temporal variability of precipitation, temperature and agricultural drought indices in Central Italy. Agric For Meteorol 151:301–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vicente-Serrano SM (2006) Differences in spatial patterns of drought on different time sales. An analysis of the Iberian Peninsula. Water Resour Manag 20:37–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wackernagel H (2003) Multivariate Geostatistics: an introduction with applications. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Webster R, Oliver MA (2007) Geostatistics for environmental scientists. Wiley, Chichester

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilhite DA (1997) Responding to drought: common threads from the past, visions for the future. J Am Water Resour Assoc 33:951–959

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilhite DA, Hayes MJ, Svodoba MD (2000) Drought monitoring and assessment in the U.S. In: Voght JV, Somma F (eds) Drought and drought mitigation in Europe. Kluwers, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu H, Hayes MJ, Wilhite DA, Svoboda MD (2005) The effect in the length of record in the Standardized Precipitation Index calculation. Int J Climatol 25:505–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xingcai L, Zongxue XU, Bo L (2009) Spatio-temporal characteristics of Standardized Precipitation Index in the Taihu Basin during 1951–2000. Wuhan Univ J Nat Sci 14:518–524

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaidman MD, Rees HG, Young AR (2001) Spatio-temporal development of streamflow droughts in north-west Europe. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 5:733–751

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhai L, Feng Q (2009) Spatial and temporal pattern of precipitation and drought in Gansu Province, Northwest China. Nat Hazards 49:1–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhai J, Su B, Krysanova V, Vetter T, Gao C, Jiang T (2010) Spatial variation and trends in pdsi and spi indices and their relation to streamflow in 10 large regions of china. J Clim 23:649–663

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the precious remarks and comments which led to improve the initial version of this paper.

The research was supported by ‘AQUA - Gestione sostenibile della risorsa acqua in agricoltura. Task 1.1 - Variabilità meteo-climatica ed eventi estremi di precipitazione e siccità nell’Europa Mediterranea. Decreto MIUR n. 973/2013. Department of Bio-Agrifood Science, National Research Council of Italy.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agriculture and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean (CNR-ISAFOM), Rende, CS, Italy

    G. Buttafuoco & T. Caloiero

  2. National Research Council of Italy, Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection (CNR-IRPI), Rende, CS, Italy

    R. Coscarelli

Authors
  1. G. Buttafuoco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T. Caloiero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. R. Coscarelli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. Buttafuoco.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Buttafuoco, G., Caloiero, T. & Coscarelli, R. Analyses of Drought Events in Calabria (Southern Italy) Using Standardized Precipitation Index. Water Resour Manage 29, 557–573 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0842-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0842-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation