DOU Xiaojun, LYU Juan, SUN Hongquan, SU Zhicheng, WANG Yaxu

Abstract: In this study, series of precipitation data of 597 meteorological stations from 1959 to 2014 were used to compute 3-months (seasonal) scale Standardized Precipitation Index. Then the Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function and the wavelet transform method were employed to analyze the characteristics of spatial distribution and time series of seasonal drought in China,respectively,zoning the drought divisions with respect to each season and identifying the major drought periods of China. The results show that:1) The spring drought is mainly distributed in the Huaihe basin,the Yangtze River and the Heilongjiang River Basin, etc.; the summer drought is mainly distributed in the northern part of North China, the Pearl River Basin, the Yangtze River and the northeast, etc.; the autumn drought is mainly distributed in the Yellow River River, southeast coastal area, Liaohe basin, etc.; the winter drought is mainly distributed in the southeast coast, northeast region, Taihu River Basin and middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, etc. 2) The main drought cycles in China are around 10~15 years.

Keywords: standardized precipitation index; rotated empirical orthogonal function; wavelet analysis; China; drought zones

(Journal of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2018)