Abstract:

Northeast China is not only a significant cultural and economic region but also an important agricultural production area in China.With the continuous climate changes of recent years,the frequency and scope of droughts in northeast China have been increasing.It is important to better monitor and provide warnings of drought development in northeast China and to provide a basis for drought risk assessments in this region.This study used the daily meteorological data from 207 weather stations in northeast China,including data from three northeastern provinces and eastern Inner Mongolia,from 1961 to 2014 for the drought risk assessment.According to the National Classification for meteorological drought standards,the applicability of four drought indices,namely MCI,MI,SPI, and SPIW,in northeast China was evaluated.The results showed that the temporal evolution of the number of drought days and the intensity of drought processes obtained by four meteorological drought indices are generally consistent in northeast China.SPI and SPIW show poor performance for droughtaffected areas for longer drought processes.Compared with those two indices,MCI can reflect the range of drought impacts for various time periods.In their spatial distributions,SPI and SPIW show no clear spatial meridional variations.MCI and MI are spatially consistent in that they show meridional distribution and decline from west to east.From the droughtaffected areas at different time scales,the spatial distribution of the drought intensities,drought duration,and the various index calculation methods,MCI most closely represents the actual drought disasters.

Key words: northeast China')">

northeast China, drought index, drought process, applicability