Spatial and temporal variation of drought index in a typical steep alpine terrain in Hengduan Mountains

This study describes the spatial and temporal variation of a drought index and makes inferences regarding the environmental factors that influence this variability in the Hengduan Mountains. A drought index is typically used to determine the moisture conditions and the magnitude of water deficiency in a given area. Based on data from 26 meteorological stations over the period 1960-2012, the spatial and temporal variations of the drought index were analyzed using a thin plate smoothing splines method that considered elevation as a covariate. The drought index was estimated based on the potential evapotranspiration (E₀) as defined by the Penman Monteith model modified by FAO (1998). The results of the reported analysis showed that the drought index in the Hengduan Mountains has been decreasing since 1960 at a rate of -0.008/a. This represented a progressive shift from the "sub-humid" class, which typified the wider area in the Hengduan Mountains, toward the "humid" class, which appeared in the Hengduan Mountains areas. The drought index was relatively high in the north and low in the south and the variation of the drought index varied with seasons. The drought index showed increasing trends in summer and autumn and it is greater in autumn than in summer, while it showed a decreasing trend in spring and winter. Drought index is inversely proportional to the soil relative humidity and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).