Temporal and Spatial Evaluation of Drought in Agricultural Stability
Zones in Syria between 1992 and 2018 by Using SPI Index
Abstract
This study used data of 165 rain stations for mapping SPI index for
winter season at the base of 7 months period (from November to next
April). For compensating the lost measurements in stations, we used the
Kriging method in ArcGIS10.1 for producing precipitation maps for each
period of the year. We used a simple equation for calculating SPI 7 ,
and modeled the process by using Model Maker tool within the ERDAS 2014.
The application of this model over the period from 1992 to 2018 produced
twenty-seven annual maps of the SPI 7 in Syria. By plotting the general
trend of precipitation changes according to this index, we observed that
the entire study area is stable on a normal climatic state close to the
annual average during the most of years. By analyzing precipitation and
SPI maps using statistical zonal methods, based on agricultural
stabilization zones, we found different behaviors of drought in every
zone and between these zones.