IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v28y2014i1p15-40.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncertainty-Driven Characterization of Climate Change Effects on Drought Frequency Using Enhanced SPI

Author

Listed:
  • Amin Zargar
  • Rehan Sadiq
  • Faisal Khan

Abstract

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is a well-established drought index that is based on transforming the interannual distribution of precipitation to a standard normal distribution. Because of its robust statistical basis, SPI is readily applicable to different regions making comparisons between locations and time windows possible. Nevertheless, the usability of SPI results is undermined by shortcomings that are partly resultant from data and model uncertainties. One such shortcoming is the inability of the existing SPI model to include change in variability of interannual precipitation from non-stationary normal – mostly caused by climate change. In addition, epistemic uncertainty in the form of incompleteness in station-wide precipitation records results in heterogeneity and inconsistency in SPI results. The effects of such epistemic uncertainty on the accuracy of estimations of long-term changes in drought frequency are mostly unknown. Given such deficiency, SPI’s procedure and subsequent results remain deterministic and inadequately informative. Here, we introduce modifications to the traditional SPI using Dempster-Shafer theory (DST) to enable modeling and propagation of variability and epistemic uncertainty with the regular SPI procedure. By generalizing the SPI model from a deterministic setting to an “uncertainty-driven setting” provided by DST, this work makes possible: (a) efficiently propagating data uncertainty in interpolation of station-wide precipitation and SPI, and (b) modeling the effects of shift in precipitation normals (due to e.g., climate change) on drought frequency. In addition, the significance of this shift may then be evaluated with respect to the epistemic uncertainty by measuring how much of the surrounding epistemic uncertainty this shift encloses (i.e., “probability of enclosing”). The latter is especially important due to large unknowns already associated with climate change modeling. We implement the model on summer extreme drought for the Okanagan Basin, BC, Canada. For a single general circulation model and scenario (CGCM3 A2) a maximum 7 % increase in summer extreme drought (for 2080s, as per current definition) is estimated with a maximum probability of enclosing of 36 %. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Amin Zargar & Rehan Sadiq & Faisal Khan, 2014. "Uncertainty-Driven Characterization of Climate Change Effects on Drought Frequency Using Enhanced SPI," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(1), pages 15-40, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:28:y:2014:i:1:p:15-40
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-013-0467-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-013-0467-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-013-0467-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Cancelliere & G. Mauro & B. Bonaccorso & G. Rossi, 2007. "Drought forecasting using the Standardized Precipitation Index," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 21(5), pages 801-819, May.
    2. Isabella Bordi & Alfonso Sutera, 2001. "Fifty Years of Precipitation: Some Spatially Remote Teleconnnections," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 15(4), pages 247-280, August.
    3. G. Tsakiris & D. Pangalou & H. Vangelis, 2007. "Regional Drought Assessment Based on the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 21(5), pages 821-833, May.
    4. Fishburn, Peter C, 1994. "A Variational Model of Preference under Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 127-152, March.
    5. Hong Wu & Donald Wilhite, 2004. "An Operational Agricultural Drought Risk Assessment Model for Nebraska, USA," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 33(1), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Shamsuddin Shahid & Houshang Behrawan, 2008. "Drought risk assessment in the western part of Bangladesh," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 46(3), pages 391-413, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Md Haque & Ataur Rahman & Dharma Hagare & Golam Kibria, 2014. "Probabilistic Water Demand Forecasting Using Projected Climatic Data for Blue Mountains Water Supply System in Australia," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(7), pages 1959-1971, May.
    2. I. García-Garizábal & J. Causapé & R. Abrahao & D. Merchan, 2014. "Impact of Climate Change on Mediterranean Irrigation Demand: Historical Dynamics of Climate and Future Projections," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(5), pages 1449-1462, March.
    3. Kai Duan & Yadong Mei, 2014. "Comparison of Meteorological, Hydrological and Agricultural Drought Responses to Climate Change and Uncertainty Assessment," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(14), pages 5039-5054, November.
    4. Basem Shomar & Mohamed Darwish & Candace Rowell, 2014. "What does Integrated Water Resources Management from Local to Global Perspective Mean? Qatar as a Case Study, the Very Rich Country with No Water," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(10), pages 2781-2791, August.
    5. Ana Paulo & Diogo Martins & Luís Santos Pereira, 2016. "Influence of Precipitation Changes on the SPI and Related Drought Severity. An Analysis Using Long-Term Data Series," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(15), pages 5737-5757, December.
    6. Ayşegül Kuzucu & Gülay Onuşluel Gül, 2023. "Analysis of Drought Dynamics over Annual Maximum Drought Severity Series Based on Daily Index Definitions," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(3), pages 1421-1436, February.
    7. B. Fiseha & S. Setegn & A. Melesse & E. Volpi & A. Fiori, 2014. "Impact of Climate Change on the Hydrology of Upper Tiber River Basin Using Bias Corrected Regional Climate Model," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(5), pages 1327-1343, March.
    8. Antonino Cancelliere, 2017. "Non Stationary Analysis of Extreme Events," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 3097-3110, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jing Wang & Feng Fang & Qiang Zhang & Jinsong Wang & Yubi Yao & Wei Wang, 2016. "Risk evaluation of agricultural disaster impacts on food production in southern China by probability density method," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 83(3), pages 1605-1634, September.
    2. G. Buttafuoco & T. Caloiero & R. Coscarelli, 2015. "Analyses of Drought Events in Calabria (Southern Italy) Using Standardized Precipitation Index," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(2), pages 557-573, January.
    3. Saowanit Prabnakorn & Shreedhar Maskey & F. X. Suryadi & Charlotte Fraiture, 2019. "Assessment of drought hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and risk for rice cultivation in the Mun River Basin in Thailand," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(2), pages 891-911, June.
    4. Dimitrios Myronidis & Dimitrios Stathis & Konstantinos Ioannou & Dimitrios Fotakis, 2012. "An Integration of Statistics Temporal Methods to Track the Effect of Drought in a Shallow Mediterranean Lake," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(15), pages 4587-4605, December.
    5. E. Preziosi & A. Bon & E. Romano & A. Petrangeli & S. Casadei, 2013. "Vulnerability to Drought of a Complex Water Supply System. The Upper Tiber Basin Case Study (Central Italy)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(13), pages 4655-4678, October.
    6. Jianzhu Li & Shuhan Zhou & Rong Hu, 2016. "Hydrological Drought Class Transition Using SPI and SRI Time Series by Loglinear Regression," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(2), pages 669-684, January.
    7. Fadhilah Yusof & Foo Hui-Mean & Jamaludin Suhaila & Zulkifli Yusof, 2013. "Characterisation of Drought Properties with Bivariate Copula Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(12), pages 4183-4207, September.
    8. Pourzand, Farnaz & Noy, Ilan & Sağlam, Yiğit, 2020. "Droughts and farms’ financial performance: a farm‐level study in New Zealand," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), July.
    9. Xiao-Chen Yuan & Yu-Liang Zhou & Ju-Liang Jin & Yi-Ming Wei, 2013. "Risk analysis for drought hazard in China: a case study in Huaibei Plain," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 67(2), pages 879-900, June.
    10. Xiaojing Liu & Jiquan Zhang & Donglai Ma & Yulong Bao & Zhijun Tong & Xingpeng Liu, 2013. "Dynamic risk assessment of drought disaster for maize based on integrating multi-sources data in the region of the northwest of Liaoning Province, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 65(3), pages 1393-1409, February.
    11. Nadjib Haied & Atif Foufou & Samira Khadri & Adel Boussaid & Mohamed Azlaoui & Nabil Bougherira, 2023. "Spatial and Temporal Assessment of Drought Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk in Three Different Climatic Zones in Algeria Using Two Commonly Used Meteorological Indices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-25, May.
    12. Jianzhu Li & Shuhan Zhou & Rong Hu, 2016. "Hydrological Drought Class Transition Using SPI and SRI Time Series by Loglinear Regression," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(2), pages 669-684, January.
    13. Farnaz Pourzand & Ilan Noy & Yigit Saglam, 2019. "Droughts and farms' financial performance in New Zealand: a micro farm-level study," CESifo Working Paper Series 7633, CESifo.
    14. Nadir Elagib, 2015. "Drought risk during the early growing season in Sahelian Sudan," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 79(3), pages 1549-1566, December.
    15. P. Vijaya Kumar & Mohammed Osman & P. K. Mishra, 2019. "Development and application of a new drought severity index for categorizing drought-prone areas: a case study of undivided Andhra Pradesh state, India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(2), pages 793-812, June.
    16. Ping Zhang & Zhuo Chen & Gang Ding & Jiaqi Fang & Jinglong Fan & Shengyu Li, 2024. "Spatial Analysis and Risk Assessment of Meteorological Disasters Affecting Cotton Cultivation in Xinjiang: A Comprehensive Model Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Mohammad Ghabaei Sough & Hamid Zare Abyaneh & Abolfazl Mosaedi, 2018. "Assessing a Multivariate Approach Based on Scalogram Analysis for Agricultural Drought Monitoring," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(10), pages 3423-3440, August.
    18. Hyunwoo Kang & Venkataramana Sridhar, 2018. "Improved Drought Prediction Using Near Real-Time Climate Forecasts and Simulated Hydrologic Conditions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-29, May.
    19. Javad Bazrafshan & Somayeh Hejabi & Jaber Rahimi, 2014. "Drought Monitoring Using the Multivariate Standardized Precipitation Index (MSPI)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(4), pages 1045-1060, March.
    20. Dimitrios Myronidis & Konstantinos Ioannou & Dimitrios Fotakis & Gerald Dörflinger, 2018. "Streamflow and Hydrological Drought Trend Analysis and Forecasting in Cyprus," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(5), pages 1759-1776, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:28:y:2014:i:1:p:15-40. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.