Spatiotemporal variations in the severity of widespread and short-lived droughts in West Asia

Drought is one of the most catastrophic environmental hazards in West Asia, and severe droughts throughout history have destroyed many ancient civilizations. The persistence and severity of damaging droughts has made drought an important research topic in the West Asian region, which is very important due to the arid climate, the importance of rainfall and water. In this study, using SPEI method and accurate networked data, critical areas caused by extensive and severe droughts of 1 to 12 months in West Asia in the long-term 118 years of 1901 2018 have been studied. The results of spatial analysis of accumulation index or ASPEI showed that in different time periods, the most affected areas of severe drought or the critical drought centers of the West Asian region are located in Yemen, southern Iran and western Saudi Arabia. The southern and western regions of Turkey, northwestern Turkmenistan, western Pakistan and Afghanistan, western Oman and Azerbaijan were also less important areas of severe and widespread droughts in West Asia. The lowest incidence of severe drought was observed in Armenia. The trend of temporal changes in the critical points extracted from the intensity and extent of droughts of 1 to 12 months indicates a significant downward trend in the critical centers of droughts in West Asia, and therefore severe and widespread droughts of 1 to 12 months will continue in the future and possibly Their intensity will increase. In other words, in the future we will see wider and more severe droughts in the West Asian region, especially in Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.