Geospatial drought severity analysis based on PERSIANN-CDR-estimated rainfall data for Odisha state in India (1983-2018)

Studying the behavior of drought and its short-, medium- and long-termfeatures throughout a region is very important for the creation of adequate public policies and actions aimed at the economic and social development of the region. Furthermore, the frequency and intensity of weather-related natural hazards (rainfall, heatwaves and droughts) are increasing every year, and these extreme weather-related events are potent threats worldwide, particularly in developing countries, such as India. Thus, this paper aims to evaluate the drought behavior in the Odisha region of India (1983-2018) by using the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the newdrought severity classification (DS). PERSIANN-CDR-estimated rainfall data were used to provide 271 time series, which were equally spaced at intervals of 0.25 degrees, over Odisha state. The accuracy of these time serieswas evaluatedwith rain gauge-measured data atmultiple time scales, and itwas observed that the PERSIANN-CDR-estimated rainfall data effectively captured the pattern of rainfall over Odisha state. Itwas noted that almost half of themean annual rainfall was concentrated in July and August. On addition, northeastern Odisha and areas near the coast were the rainiest regions. Furthermore, the drought pattern was evaluated based on nine distinct four-year periods (SPI48), and the results indicated that there was high spatiotemporal variability in drought occurrence among those periods; e.g., in the last four years, extremedrought events occurred throughout the state. For the DS severity index analysis, itwas noted that the values tended to bemore significantwith the increase in the drought time scale. For short-term droughts, DS values were less significant throughout the region, whereas for the mediumterm droughts, there was an increase in the DS values in all regions of Odisha, especially in the north-central region. For long-termdroughts, the valuesweremore significant throughout the region, especially in the areaswith the highest rainfall levels. Finally, the PERSIANN-CDR data should also be analyzed in other regions of India, and the obtained results are useful for the identification of droughts throughout the region and for the management of water resources and can be replicated in any part of the world. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Analyzing the drought behavior and severity in the Odisha region of India revealed high spatiotemporal variability, with short-term droughts having less impact, and long-term droughts affecting areas with higher rainfall levels significantly.