Assessment of Meteorological Drought in Anantapur District (Andhra Pradesh)

Abstract

Droughts are serious extreme events that have adverse effects on the physical environment and water resource systems in both developed and developing countries. In India, over 68% of the area is drought affected, Anantapur is one such district where drought condition is prevailing for several years and its effects are severely visible in all sectors. In this study, a non-parametric test (Mann Kendall test) was used to check monotonic trend in each grid level and magnitude was calculated by Sen’s slope test. The effect of meteorological parameters like precipitation and temperature assessed through a drought index called standardized precipitation- evapotranspiration index (SPEI) for a period of 1971-2003 and its spatial distribution also estimated. Studies show that the intensity and frequency of drought has increased during the same period.