Identification, measurement and spatiotemporal evolution of drought and pluvial events in China based on a three-dimensional perspective

Study region

China

Study focus

China is a country with frequent drought and pluvial disasters. It is of great significance to accurately identify and measure such events and study their spatiotemporal evolution rules for dealing with future events. This study comprehensively investigates large-scale and long-term drought and pluvial events in China based on a spatiotemporal three-dimensional perspective at daily scale. This study analyzed the overall change trend of drought and pluvial in China in the past 58 years, carried out time series and frequency analysis on the intensity of 266 pluvial events and 1078 drought events in humid and semihumid areas of China and studied the geographical spatial pattern.

New hydrological insights for the region

Unlike the monthly distribution characteristics, the morphological parameters of drought and pluvial events exhibit similar patterns. From 1961–2018, the Northwestern regions, Southwestern regions and Northeastern regions tended to become drier, while the Central regions and Southern regions tended to become wetter. Around 2011, most parts of China significantly shifted from drought to wet conditions. Drought and pluvial events show significant quasi-periodicity, with periods of 2–3 years and 11 years, respectively. The centers of drought events exhibit significant spatial variability, whereas the centers of pluvial events have a relatively balanced geographical distribution.