Monitoring and Spatial Analysis of Meteorological Drought in Golestan Province using Geostatistical Methods

Region drought monitoring is one of the important subjects in drought risk management. For this reason, relevant rain gauge stations in Golestan province in which data had been recorded until the end of water year 2006-2007, after sufficient statistical test, were selected. Drought conditions for each station was investigated in nine different periods (including eight monthly and one annual periods) using Standardized Prediction Index (SPI) in order to determine the best interpolation method for drought monitoring in the region. Some deterministic interpolation methods such as RBF, GPI, IDW and a geostatistical method were considered. After determining the best interpolation method, according to the error factors and extending point drought information to regional one, the severity maps of this phenomena over 25 years, was plotted. Then, spatial distribution of drought conditions over the statistical period in Golestan province was plotted using ArcGIS ver9.2. According to the results, kriging and RBF methods have shown the best response as interpolation methods in monitoring of drought severity at different time periods.