Summary
In the present study the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) is used to detect drought events in spatial and temporal basis. Using monthly precipitation data from 23 stations well spread over Greece and for a period of 51 years, a classification of drought is performed, based on its intensity and duration. Results indicate that, mild and moderate droughts reduce from north to south and from west to east on the 3- and 6-months time scale, while for the class of severe drought, the frequencies in the southern part of Greece are higher than in the other parts of the country. Furthermore the frequency of occurrence of severe and extreme drought conditions is very low over the whole Greek territory on the 12-month running time scale. Finally SPI was compared to the “de Martonne aridity index (I)” and a satisfactory correlation between them was found.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agnew CT, Chappell A (1999) Drought in the Sahel. Geo Journal (submitted)
CT Agnew (2000) ArticleTitleUsing the SPI to identify drought Drought Network News 12 IssueID1 6–12
WM Alley (1984) ArticleTitleThe Palmer drought severity index. Limitations and assumptions J Climate Appl Meteor 23 1100–1109 Occurrence Handle10.1175/1520-0450(1984)023<1100:TPDSIL>2.0.CO;2
Barrcelò, Mestre A (1995) Five-year drought continues in Spain. Drought Network News. October 1995
HN Bhalme DA Mooley (1980) ArticleTitleLarge scale droughts/floods and monsoon circulation Mon Wea Rev 108 1197–1211 Occurrence Handle10.1175/1520-0493(1980)108<1197:LSDAMC>2.0.CO;2
Edwards DC, McKee TB (1997) Characteristics of 20th century drought in the United States at multiple time scales. Climatology Rep 97-2. Colorado State University Dept. of Atmospheric Science Fort Collins Colorado, 155 pp
Geerts B (2002) The standardized precipitation index. Western Regional Climate Center, pp 1–2
NB Guttman (1991) ArticleTitleA sensitivity analysis of the Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index Water Resour Bull 27 797–807 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1752-1688.1991.tb01478.x
NB Guttman (1993) ArticleTitleThe use of L-moments in the determination of regional Precipitation Climates J Climate 6 2309–2325 Occurrence Handle10.1175/1520-0442(1993)006<2309:TUOLMI>2.0.CO;2
NB Guttman (1998) ArticleTitleComparing the Palmer Drought Index and the Standardised Precipitation Index J Amer Water Resour Assoc 34 113–121 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1752-1688.1998.tb05964.x
NB Guttman (1999) ArticleTitleAccepting the Standardized Precipitation Index. A calculation algorithm J Amer Water Resour Assoc 35 311–322 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1752-1688.1999.tb03592.x
MJ Hayes MD Svoboda DA Wilhite OV Varnyarkho (1999) ArticleTitleMonitoring the 1996 drought using the Standardized Precipitation Index Bull Amer Meteor Soc 80 IssueID3 429–438 Occurrence Handle10.1175/1520-0477(1999)080<0429:MTDUTS>2.0.CO;2
MJ Hayes (2000) ArticleTitleRevisiting the SPI: clarifying the process Drought Network News 1 13–14
Heim RR Jr (2002) A review of twentieth-century drought indices used in the United States. Bull Amer Meteor Soc, pp 1149–1165
Keyantash J, Dracup JA (2002) The quantification of drought: an evaluation of drought indices. Bull Amer Meteor Soc, pp 1167–1180
AU Komuscu (1999) ArticleTitleUsing the SPI to analyze spatial and temporal patterns of drought in Turkey Drought Network News 11 IssueID1 7–13
Livada I, Asimakopoulos DN (2002) Introduction to applied statistics. methods and applications. Athens: Symmetria Press, 650 pp (in Greek)
I Livada DN Asimakopoulos (2005) ArticleTitleIndividual seasonality index of rainfall regimes in Greece Climate Res 28 155–161 Occurrence Handle10.3354/cr028155
A Loukas L Vasiliades NR Dalezios C Domenikiotis (2001) ArticleTitleRainfall-frequency mapping for Greece Phys Chem Earth (B) 26 IssueID9 669–674 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S1464-1909(01)00067-3
Loukas A, Vasiliades L, Spiliotopoulos M, Banzelis D, Domenikiotis C, Dalezios NR (2002) An assessment of regional droughts in Greece using two meteorological drought indices. 6th Hellenic Conference in Meteorology-Climatology and Atmospheric Physics 2: 708–716
Mariolopoulos EG (1938) Climate of Greece. Athens Greece (in Greek)
Martonne de E (1926) Une nouvelle fanction climatologique. L’indice d’aridité. La Météorologie, pp 449–458
McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1993) The relationship of drought frequency and duration to time scales. Preprints Eighth Conf on Applied Climatology Anaheim CA. Amer Meteor Soc, pp 179–184
McKee TB, Doesken NJ, Kleist J (1995) Drought monitoring with multiple time scales. Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Applied Climatology. Amer Meteor Soc Boston, pp 233–236
WC Palmer (1965) ArticleTitleMeteorological drought US Weather Bureau Research Paper 45 58
Rossi G, Sonna F (1995) Severe drought in Italy: characteristics, impact and mitigation strategies. Drought Network News: October 1995
DA Wilhite MH Glantz (1985) ArticleTitleUnderstanding the drought phenomenon: The role of definitions Water Inter 10 IssueID3 111–120 Occurrence Handle10.1080/02508068508686328
Wilhite DA (1995) Developing a precipitation-based index to assess climatic conditions in Nebraska. Final Report Natural Resources Commission 301 Centennial Mall south, P.O. Box 94876, Lincoln, NE 68509–4876, 66 pp
World Meteorological Organization (1975) Drought and agriculture. WMO Note 138 Publ WMO-392 Geneva-Switzerland, 127 pp
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Livada, I., Assimakopoulos, V. Spatial and temporal analysis of drought in greece using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Theor. Appl. Climatol. 89, 143–153 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-005-0227-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-005-0227-z