Integrated Index for Drought Assessment in Isfahan Province

Drought is a continuous period of lack of rainfall that leads to damage to a variety of water consumers, especially in the agricultural sector and reduces their yield. Drought is considered one of the unpredictable disasters. Drought is different from other natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, storms, etc. Based on the type of meteorological, hydrological, or agricultural droughts, various indices are designed to assess droughts such as SPI, PDSI, and SWSI. The objective of this study is to evaluate an integrated index that includes the main causes of drought. The integrated index includes various drought factors such as meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socio-economic, and environmental. Isfahan province has been selected as a case study due to successive droughts in recent decades. A combination of static and dynamic layers has been used for designing the integrated index. Static layers include land use, slope, and soil type of the basin. Dynamic layers include precipitation, average temperature, available surface water, available groundwater, groundwater quality, and cultivated area. The results showed that the highest water stress occurred in the 1386 and 1391 years in the province and the lowest water stress and wet season in different parts of the province in 1387 and 1390 years.