• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.124-124
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• 2020

This study proposes a framework to evaluate extreme drought using the natural drought index and hot spot analysis. The study area was South Korea. Data were used from 59 automatic synoptic observing system stations. The variable infiltration capacity model was used for the period from 1981 to 2016. The natural drought index was constructed from precipitation, runoff and soil moisture data, which reflect the water cycle. The average interval, duration and severity of extreme drought events were determined following Run theory. The most extreme drought period occurred in 2014-2016, with 46 of 59 weather stations exhibition drought conditions and 78% exhibition extreme drought conditions. The Inje and Seosan station exhibited the longest drought duration of 6 months, and the most severe drought was 5 times higher than the extreme drought severity threshold. The hot spot analysis was used to explore the extreme drought conditions and showed an increasing trend in the middle and northeastern parts of South Korea. Overall, this study provides water resource managers with essential information about locations and significant trends of extreme drought.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.175-185
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• 2023

As drought risk increases due to climate change, various research works are underway around the world to respond to drought so as to minimize drought damage. In particular, in recent years, many studies are focused on analyzing regional patterns of drought in a comprehensive manner, however there is still insufficient to quantitatively identify drought-risk areas in a large river basin considering climate change in Korea. In this study, we calculated the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Modified Standardized Precipitation Index (M_SPI) as representative meteorological drought index, and performed spatial autocorrelation analysis to identify the drought hotspot region under climate change scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5. The SPI was calculated by estimating parameters for each observation station within the study area, whereas the M_SPI was calculated by estimating parameters for the entire study area. It is more reasonable to use the M_SPI for assessing meteorological drought from an overall perspective within the study area. When the M_SPI was used, long-term droughts showed drought hotspot areas clearly larger than short-term droughts. In addition, the drought hotspot area moved from the center of the Nakdong River basin to the Seomjin River basin over time. Especially, the moving patterns of the short-term/long-term drought were apparent under the RCP 4.5, whereas the moving patterns of the long-term drought were distinct under the RCP 8.5 scenarios.