Identification of Meteorological Drought Characteristics and Drought Year Based on Rainfall Departure Analysis

Dholpur district is located in the semi-arid regions of Rajasthan. The region is affected due to unreliable rainfall pattern, which resulted in the development of a drought-like situation. The mean annual rainfall in the district is 596.76 mm. The present study has been conducted to identify drought-prone station, drought year and drought characteristics. Departure analysis of seasonal and annual rainfall helps to determine drought year and drought characteristics. The study shows that the region in under widespread drought condition in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2002, 2006, and 2007. The drought severity in the region was classified into four categories, namely extreme, severe, moderate and mild. Maximum extreme drought events occur in Baseri and Dholpur station. Urmilsagar station faced severe drought events 4 times followed by Rajakhera station with three times. Occurrences of moderate and mild drought events are frequent in the region. All the stations are drought-prone based on probability analysis of annual rainfall. Relative departure index (RDI) has been used to decide the relative drought proneness of the various station and based on which Dholpur station (RDI= 1.04) followed by Baseri station (RDI=1.0) are relatively higher drought-prone. The region faces natural water scarcity and droughts. Therefore effort is needed for drought preparedness, mitigation and management measures.