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Assessment of Drought Characteristics, and Its Impacts on Vegetation and Wheat Yield in Tunisia

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Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions (2nd Edition) (EMCEI 2019)

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Engineering ((ENVSCIENCE))

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Abstract

Tunisia, located on the shores of the Mediterranean, is projected to experience most predominant droughts. However, detailed drought assessments at the regional scale of Tunisia are limited to date, with most studies only focusing on a specific region and/or making use of one drought index. This study identifies both vegetation and agricultural region-specific drought indices over the country. Tunisia was divided into three main vegetation zones: the northern forest, central steppe, and southern desert. Monthly meteorological (Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)) and soil moisture (Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and soil moisture percentiles, Wp) drought indices were used to analyze drought characteristics using gridded-meteorological and ground-measured soil data, and compared with the weekly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the winter wheat yield data to assess vegetation and agriculture responses to drought, respectively. We found that short-term meteorological droughts were frequent, triggering soil moisture droughts that were more persistent and severe. The most important finding of this study was that SPI is the best indicator for assessing a drought impact on both vegetation and agriculture in the northern forest, while PDSI in the central steppe for vegetation and agriculture and in the southern desert for vegetation (no agricultural data on southern desert). The results of this study highlight the importance of region-specific drought indices which are most likely to provide a very useful measure for drought monitoring and mitigation in Tunisia.

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References

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Acknowledgements

The simulations used in this work were downloaded from the Med-CORDEX database (www.medcordex.eu). The DIAS dataset is archived and provided under the framework of the Data Integration and Analysis System (DIAS) funded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Nada Ben Mhenni, Masato Shinoda & Banzragch Nandintsetseg

  2. Information and Research Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment, Ulaanbaatar, 210646, Mongolia

    Banzragch Nandintsetseg

  3. School of Arts and Sciences, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 1420, Mongolia

    Banzragch Nandintsetseg

Authors
  1. Nada Ben Mhenni
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  2. Masato Shinoda
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  3. Banzragch Nandintsetseg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nada Ben Mhenni .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. High Institute of Biotechnology, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Mohamed Ksibi

  2. Appliquées et Technologies, Institut Supérieur des Sciences, Gabès, Tunisia

    Achraf Ghorbal

  3. University of Calabria, Rende, Cosenza, Italy

    Sudip Chakraborty

  4. School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Helder I. Chaminé

  5. Università degli Studi di Roma, Roma, Roma, Italy

    Maurizio Barbieri

  6. University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Giulia Guerriero

  7. High Institute of Biotechnology, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Olfa Hentati

  8. Faculty of Engineering, Water and Water Structure Engineering Department, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Abdelazim Negm

  9. University of Geneva, Genève, Geneve, Switzerland

    Anthony Lehmann

  10. ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, Flörsheim am Main, Hessen, Germany

    Jörg Römbke

  11. Centre for Environmental+Marine Studies, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Armando Costa Duarte

  12. Department of Geography, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Gießen, Hessen, Germany

    Elena Xoplaki

  13. Springer Nature, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Nabil Khélifi

  14. Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Gembloux, Belgium

    Gilles Colinet

  15. University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    João Miguel Dias

  16. Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Imed Gargouri

  17. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université de Paris, Paris, France

    Eric D. Van Hullebusch

  18. FOTOAIR-CIEMAT, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Benigno Sánchez Cabrero

  19. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Settimio Ferlisi

  20. College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Chedly Tizaoui

  21. Sfax National School of Engineering, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Amjad Kallel

  22. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Sami Rtimi

  23. Department of Mining Engineering, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey

    Sandeep Panda

  24. Université Clermont Auvergne, Polytech, Aubière, France

    Philippe Michaud

  25. Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Jaya Narayana Sahu

  26. High School of Science and Technology, University of Sousse, Sousse, Tunisia

    Mongi Seffen

  27. SEED DICIV, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Vincenzo Naddeo

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© 2021 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Ben Mhenni, N., Shinoda, M., Nandintsetseg, B. (2021). Assessment of Drought Characteristics, and Its Impacts on Vegetation and Wheat Yield in Tunisia. In: Ksibi, M., et al. Recent Advances in Environmental Science from the Euro-Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions (2nd Edition). EMCEI 2019. Environmental Science and Engineering(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51210-1_304

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