Geospatial analysis of drought tendencies in the Carpathians as reflected in a 50-year time series

  • Szilárd Szabó Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Technology and Sciences, University of Debrecen, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2670-7384
  • Noémi Mária Szopos Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Technology and Sciences, University of Debrecen, Hungary
  • Boglárka Bertalan-Balázs Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Technology and Sciences, University of Debrecen, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0605-2891
  • Elemér László Isotope Climatology and Environmental Research Centre, Institute for Nuclear Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Debrecen, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7276-7241
  • Dragan D. Milošević Climatology and Hydrology Research Centre, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, Novi Sad, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5050-0052
  • Christian Conoscenti Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DISTEM), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7974-7961
  • István Lázár Department of Meteorology, Faculty of Technology and Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
Keywords: CarpatClim, climatic change, trend, robust comparisons, sensitivity

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most important issues of anthropogenic activities. The increasing drought conditions can cause water shortage and heat waves and can influence the agricultural production or the water supply of cities. The Carpathian region is also affected by this phenomenon; thus, we aimed at identifying the tendencies between 1960 and 2010 applying the CarpatClim (CC) database. We calculated the trends for each grid point of CC, plotted the results on maps, and applied statistical analysis on annual and seasonal level. We revealed that monthly average temperature, maximum temperature and evapotranspiration had similar patterns and had positive trends in all seasons except autumn. Precipitation also had a positive trend, but it had negative values in winter. The geospatial analysis disclosed an increasing trend from West to East and from north to west. A simple binary approach (value of 1 above the upper quartile in case of temperature and evapotranspiration, value of 1 below the lower quartile; 0 for the rest of the data) helped to identify the most sensitive areas where all the involved climatic variables exceeded the threshold: Western Hungary and Eastern Croatia. Results can help to prepare possible mitigation strategies to climate change and both landowners and planners can draw the conclusions.

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Published
2019-10-03
How to Cite
SzabóS., SzoposN. M., Bertalan-BalázsB., LászlóE., MiloševićD. D., ConoscentiC., & LázárI. (2019). Geospatial analysis of drought tendencies in the Carpathians as reflected in a 50-year time series. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, 68(3), 269-282. https://doi.org/10.15201/hungeobull.68.3.5
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Articles