Author, as appears in the article.: Coll, J. R. Aguilar, E. Prohom, M. Sigro, J.

Department: Geografia

URV's Author/s: Aguilar Anfrons, Enrique Modesto / COLL BENAGES, JOAN RAMON / Sigró Rodríguez, Francisco Javier

Keywords: Spi Spei Drought Climate change Barcelona

Abstract: Long-term drought variability and trends were assessed in Barcelona at annual and seasonal scale for the period 1787-2014 and sub-periods 1851-2014, 1901-2014 and 1951-2014 to identify changes in drought patterns across time. High quality and adjusted monthly temperature and precipitation series were required for this purpose. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), based on precipitation, and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), based on the difference between precipitation and reference evapotranspiration (ET0), were calculated to describe temporal drought fluctuations. Therefore, major droughts and wet events were identified and an accurate analysis of drought severity, magnitude and duration were also carried out. Both drought indices provided similar results related to drought variability and trends in Barcelona across time, although the SPEI showed larger drought severity than SPI especially during the second half of the 20th century. Trends analysis revealed a significant drying trend at annual scale according to the SPEI since mid-19th century while the SPI did not show changes in drought patterns. At seasonal scale, both the SPI and SPEI found a clear drying trend only for summer (JJA) during the current period (1951-2014), although the SPEI was indicating the trend towards drier conditions for the whole period (1787-2014). Drought severity in SPEI series increased 13% during the second half of the 20th century compared with the whole period under study while drought magnitude and duration did not present significant changes in both the SPI and SPEI series. The increasing atmospheric evaporative demand associated to the large temperature rising experienced in Barcelona during the last decades could have played a substantial role in explaining the increase of drought severity and trends found in the SPEI series.

Research group: Centre en Canvi Climàtic (C3)

Thematic Areas: Revistas de historia y filosofía Human geography and urban studies Geography, planning and development Geography, physical Geografia i urbanisme Geografía Environmental studies Environmental science (miscellaneous) Earth and planetary sciences (miscellaneous) Ciencias sociales

licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/

ISSN: 02116820

Author's mail: enric.aguilar@urv.cat javier.sigro@urv.cat

Author identifier: 0000-0002-8384-377X 0000-0003-0969-0338

Record's date: 2023-04-01

Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Link to the original source: https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/cig/article/view/2927

Licence document URL: http://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/

Papper original source: Cuadernos De Investigacion Geografica. 42 (1): 29-48

APA: Coll, J. R. Aguilar, E. Prohom, M. Sigro, J. (2016). Long-term drought variability and trends in Barcelona (1787-2014). Cuadernos De Investigacion Geografica, 42(1), 29-48. DOI: 10.18172/cig.2927

Article's DOI: 10.18172/cig.2927

Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Journal publication year: 2016

Publication Type: Journal Publications