Drought assessment in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China in recent ten years

Drought is widely distributed in the world, resulting in the shortage of water resources, decreasing groundwater storage, reducing yields of crops, and sustained severe drought even cause serious social and economic problems that affect people's life. Based on the drought monitoring theory and remote sensing data, the drought assessment in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(JJJ) region from 2005 to 2014 have been studied in the paper. Firstly, we calculated four drought indices including Precipitation Anomaly Index(PAI), Temperature Anomaly Index(TAI), Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) to evaluate drought conditions in the region during the past ten years. Secondly, we identified the duration and severity of drought. Thirdly, the temporal trend and spatial distribution of drought severity will be analyzed. Finally, the correlation of the different index will be compared. The results showed that the overall trend of drought in the study area was alleviated, and drought condition alternated obviously. SMDI index agreed with PAI-6 index significantly, indicating that soil moisture is related with precipitation well. The most serious drought mainly concentrated in 2006 and 2007. The degree of VCI index response to drought is different in different areas, it can be affected by the surface land cover types and vegetation coverage.