Spatio-temporal variability and trends of drought indices over Lombardy plain (northern Italy) from meteorological station records (1951–2017)

Authors

  • Alice Crespi Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20122, Italy
  • Anna Borghi Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20122, Italy
  • Arianna Facchi Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20122, Italy
  • Claudio Gandolfi Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20122, Italy
  • Maurizio Maugeri Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, 20122, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13128/ijam-1101

Keywords:

SPI, SPEI, trend analysis, drought, Po plain

Abstract

A 30-arc second resolution gridded dataset of 1951–2017 monthly series of Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) for a portion of Po Plain in Lombardy region (northern Italy) is presented. The series were derived from an archive of homogenized and quality-checked meteorological station observations covering the study area and its surroundings, which were interpolated onto regular grid by means of an anomaly-based procedure. A significant negative trend in mean regional SPI series was depicted for summer (-0.14 decade-1) while stronger decreases were found for SPEI in spring, summer and year (-0.14, -0.22 and -0.17 decade-1, respectively). The greatest drying tendencies occur in the southern and western parts of domain where summer index trends reached -0.23 and -0.30 decade-1, respectively. The more negative trends of SPEI than SPI can be probably explained by the increasing role of evapotranspiration over recent decades triggered by arising temperature. The assessment of spatio-temporal variability of drought features (frequency, duration and severity) pointed out increasing tendencies in all cases, especially in the western portion of the region.

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Published

2021-01-25

How to Cite

Crespi, A., Borghi, A. ., Facchi, A., Gandolfi, C., & Maugeri, M. (2021). Spatio-temporal variability and trends of drought indices over Lombardy plain (northern Italy) from meteorological station records (1951–2017). Italian Journal of Agrometeorology, (2), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.13128/ijam-1101

Issue

No. 2 (2020)

Section

RESEARCH ARTICLES

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Copyright (c) 2021 Alice Crespi, Anna Borghi, Arianna Facchi, Claudio Gandolfi, Maurizio Maugeri

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