Standardized evapotranspiration as an agricultural drought index

✍ Scribed by Leszek Łabędzki; Ewa Kanecka-Geszke

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 149 KB
• Volume: 58
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1531-0353
• DOI: 10.1002/ird.421

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Drought risk for sugar beet was estimated based on standardized evapotranspiration index ET~s~ and the frequency of drought occurrence. Standardized evapotranspiration index ET~s~ was calculated for four soil types of different useful soil water reserves using the series of actual evapotranspiration ET for sugar beet growing seasons in 1970–2004, taken from 40 meteorological stations located in various agroclimatic regions of Poland. A great spatial differentiation of the frequency of droughts depending on drought category and soils were determined. Differences between the stations were observed, whereas differences between soils were less. The minimum frequency was observed on soil with the greatest total available soil water. Frequency of all drought categories ranged from 20% to 40% on soil with low water retention and to 35% on soil with high water retention. Generally most drought periods according to the ET~s~ were recorded in central Poland from west to east. Taking into account the frequency of droughts in all categories, the central‐west and central‐east parts of Poland are most threatened by agricultural droughts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.