Monitoring Drought Using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) in Sarawak River Basin

Bong Hin Joo, Charles and Richard, J. (2018) Monitoring Drought Using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) in Sarawak River Basin. In: 4th International Conference on Water Resources (ICWR-2018), 27-28 November 2018, Bayview Hotel, Langkawi.

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Abstract

Drought is hard to be detected and monitored. Severe droughts in the year 1998 and 2014 in Sarawak due to strong El-Nino has impacted the water supply and irrigated agriculture, In this study, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used for drought identification and monitoring in Sarawak River Basin. Using monthly precipitation data between the year 1875 to 2016 for 15 rainfall stations in the basin, the drought index values were obtained for the time scale of 3, 6 and 9 months. The findings show that generally there were a decreasing trend for the SPI values for the there time scales, indicating a higher tendency of increased drought event throughout the basin. Findings from this study are valuable for the planning and formulating of drought strategies to reduce and mitigate the adverse effect of drought.

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