Analysis of the trend of meteorological and hydrological droughts in semi-arid regions of Iran (Case study: Doroodzan Dam basin)

The study of desertification due to drought in arid and semi-arid areas which have been seriously affected by the challenge of insufficient water resources is very important. The Doroodzan dam basin, located at north of Fars province, is one of the main strategic regions in Iran which plays an important role in agricultural productions and have been faced with overexploitation of water resources, land degradation and desertification. So, the current study was conducted to investigate the trend of drought changes in this area during the last four decades. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) as meteorological and hydrological drought indices, and also the modified Mann-Kendall test were applied to investigate the drought trend. The results indicated the increasing trend of droughts for both indices. The SDI showed increasing trend for all-time series, while SPI showed this increasing trend for long term droughts (i.e. 9, 12 and 18 months) in significant level of 5%. Also, the comparison of averages of Mann-Kendall Z indicated that SDI was more than three times higher than the SPI which illustrates more hydrological drought intensity than the meteorological one. Also, the increasing trend of the SDI in the middle zones of the basin, which have been affected by intensive human activities and land use changes, is far more, almost 4 times, from the those areas in the upland or outlet of the basin. Therefore, the optimized water allocation in middle areas of basin is recommended to manage and reduce desertification severity.