Comparison of Drought Indices in the Case of the Ceyhan Basin

Abstract

The issue of mitigating the expected effects of drought has become quite prominent within the scope of planning, development, andmanagement of water resources affected negatively by climate change. An integrated management approach must be plannedprimarily for sustainable water management. To conduct drought risk analyses, a sufficient amount of data must be available. Thehistorical process of the basin must be known, and there must be a plan that is assessed with several indices. In this study, we carriedout drought risk analyses on the Ceyhan Basin using meteorological, hydrogeological, and hydrological data to determine indices andindicators available in the literature. We compared indices, examined the correlations among them, and reached an outcome. All ofthe study’s indices showed that the drought was in the same periodicity in the basin, and a slow progressing drought occurred in thebasin. When the trend of the last 50 years of precipitation in the basin is analyzed, it is evident that there is a general decrease. It hasbeen calculated that there is an extreme drought threat for the basin in the 20-year return interval. In a general view, decision-makersshall provide drought management plans for the basin.