COMPARISON OF METEOROLOGICAL INDICES FOR SPATIO-TEM- PORAL ANALYSIS OF DROUGHT IN CHAHRMAHAL-BAKHTIYARI PROVINCE IN IRAN

Sa？etak Drought monitoring is important for risk assessment and management, as well as for effective action to prevent and reduce the effects of drought. Drought characteristics such as intensity, duration and extent can be analyzed by 14 different drought indices. Choosing drought indices should be based on available data and its quality and ability of the index to de- termine spatial and temporal characteristics of drought. The objective of the present study is drought monitoring by different indices, including China-Z index (CZI), Z-score, Standard- ized precipitation index (SPI) and Effective drought index (EDI) indices, and comparing the performance of drought indices in the Chaharmahal-Bakhtiyari province, duration 1980- 2013.Results showed that SPI and CZI, Z-score have the strong relationships, particularly dur- ing normal years. Furthermore, the results of frequency analysis showed that the drought oc- currence of during 1998- 2012 have been increased compared to 1983- 1998 period. CZI showed a similar behavior to the SPI, especially in normal and dry condition and EDI and Z- score showed similar results. Finally, the results of the present study showed that EDI index is more sensitive to detect the onset of drought, compared to other indices