Making drought analysis with various drought indices using long-year climate data of Batman and Diyarbakir provinces and comparing with the literature

In recent years, the decrease in precipitation due to climate change, the increase in the amount of evaporation and the decrease in water resources have revealed the problem of drought. The biggest negative impact of the drought is on the agriculture sector, which is the biggest consumer of fresh water. However, drought negatively affects many sectors other than agriculture. For this reason, many researchers have started to work on drought and have identified the regions affected by drought with these studies, and even tried to determine the places where drought will increase in the coming years by making modelling. In this study, drought analysis was carried out with 4 methods for the provinces of Batman and Diyarbakir, which are among the provinces of the Southeast Anatolian Region affected by drought. These methods are Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), Deciles Drought Index (DDI), Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) and Streamflow Drought Index(SDI). The monthly total precipitation data of the 31-years between 1990-2020 data used in these methods and the monthly maximum and minimum temperature data used in the RDI method for the same period were obtained from the Meteorology Regional Directorate. Streamflow data between 1990-2019 used in the SDI method were obtained from the State Hydraulic Works Regional Directorate. According to the analysis results; It has been determined that there is a drought effect for the province of Batman in 17 years according to the SPI method, 12 years according to the DDI method, 16 years according to the RDI method and 13 years according to the SDI method. For Diyarbakir, the existence of a drought impact was discovered in 17 years according to the SPI method, 12 years according to the DDI method, and 18 years according to the RDI method. The analysis’ findings revealed that both provinces were affected by drought and precautions should be taken. In addition, the findings were compared to previous research. This research is expected to add to the literature due to the use of new methods for the study area.