Meteorological droughts in part of southeastern Brazil: Understanding the last 100 years

Droughts have negatively infl uenced tropical regions on the planet with southeastern Brazil standing out. The objective of this study was to analyze droughts with different magnitudes since the ending of 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries based on the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and St...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Silva, Vinícius O., Mello, Carlos R.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFLA
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufla.br:1/50653
Acceso en línea:https://repositorio.ufla.br/handle/1/50653
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Climate variability
Droughts occurrences
Water resources
Drought indexes
Descripción
Sumario:Droughts have negatively infl uenced tropical regions on the planet with southeastern Brazil standing out. The objective of this study was to analyze droughts with different magnitudes since the ending of 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries based on the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standard Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), in the locations of São Paulo city (SP - city), metropolitan regions of Belo Horizonte (MR-BH) and Campinas (MR-Campinas), Lavras (South-MG), and Piracicaba (ME-SP). Two different periods were considered: i) wet period (SPI6 and SPEI6) and; ii) summer period (SPI4 and SPEI4). Considering the SPI indexes, the hydrological year of 2013/2014 was the driest observed for South-MG, ME-SP and MR-Campinas, while for MR-BH and SP-city, 1970/1971 and 1962/1963 were the driest, respectively. MR-BH and SP city showed different variability of 1970/1971 and 1962/1963, respectively. We could detect three periods with several consecutive droughts: 1908/1918; 1968/1981 and 2013/2019. Based on SPEI, the 2013/2014 hydrological year was the driest for all the regions, except for SP city, for which 1998/1999 and 1962/1963 were the driest, and MR-BH for which 1970/1971 and 2000/2001 were the driest. Precipitation might be the main factor to evaluate the occurrence of droughts in the studied locations, which indicates SPI is a satisfactory drought indicator for the region.