Efficiency of some meteorological drought indices in different time scales, case study: wadi Louza basin (NW-Algeria)
2016
Djellouli Fayçal | Bouanani Abderrazak | Baba-Hamed Kamila
Drought is an insidious hazard of nature in many parts of the world. It originates from persistent shortage of precipitation over a specific region for a specific period of time and has a conceptual and operational definition. Drought impact on some activity, group, or environmental sector depends on the extent of water shortage and ground conditions. Algeria and especially the western region has experienced several periods of drought over the last century, since 1975 to the present day. The most recent drought in 1981, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1999 was characterized by its intensity and spatial extent. Drought is identified using various drought indices (meteorological, hydrological and agricultural). In this research, we focus on the meteorological drought, to assess the reliability of these indices under changing climatic conditions. Data was recorded for the period of 1980–2009 at wadi Louza catchment (NW-Algeria). For describing and monitoring drought severity periods, we calculated the correlation between both meteorological drought indices: Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and Effective Drought Index (EDI). The results show that the watershed of wadi Louza has experienced a severe meteorological drought. The correlation between meteorological drought indices was good for all time steps and the best was found for 9-month time step. The obtained results may provide some scientific support for fighting against droughts.
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