Assessing and mitigating meteorological drought in the subtropical Kandi (drought prone) region of Jammu

摘要

Meteorological drought is a prolonged absence of normal precipitation. Precipitation and temperature are two major variants affecting aridity of a region. A simple method was developed with precipitation and temperature data for assessing drought event by determining aridity index as, Ia=(P-IPE)/mean annual maximum temperature; where P is the annual precipitation (mm) and Ips is potential evaporation, calculated as, IPE=1/100 (mean annual maximum temperature x annual precipitation in mm). If a region has low mean annual temperature, a rainfall of relatively low magnitude and intensity may be sufficient for optimum flows and aquifer recharge compared to high intensity rainfall of the same magnitude received in areas having high mean annual temperature. A value below 25 indicated aridity and its severity increases with decrease in the value. Values above 25 are indicative of optimum rainfall. The method can also be used for determining seasonal aridity indices.