Assessment the relation of meteorological and hydrological drought in Khorasan Razavi province

Meteorological drought affects the water resources of the basin with a time delay, which leads to the occurrence of hydrological drought. Assessment of rainfall variability and drought is necessary to determine the existing water crisis and water resources management. This study was done in 42 watersheds of Khorasan Razavi province during 1975 to 2015 years to determine the temporal relationship between meteorological and hydrological drought. The hydrological drought severity was calculated with SDI index and meteorological drought was calculated with SPI index. The trend of precipitation and discharge was investigated with Mann-Kendall test. The temporal relationship between the mentioned indices was studied with Pearson correlation coefficient as simultaneously and with a time delay from one to 12 months. The results of Mann- Kendall test were indicative the negative trend of discharge in all watersheds and the most negative slop (-0.052) occurs in PolKhaton watershed. A combination of positive and negative trends in precipitation changes was observed in the study areas. However, the calculated positive trends were not significant at the 95% level in any of the watersheds. In 36.5% of the studied watersheds, no significant correlation coefficients were obtained at 95% level between SDI and SPI. In 60% of the studied watersheds, the highest correlation coefficient between precipitation and discharge with one-month delay, in 25% of watersheds without time delay, in 12.5% of watersheds with 2 months’ time delay and in 2.5% of watersheds with a time delay of 12 months were obtained.