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Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2018.

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Other Authors: Botai, J.O. (Joel Ongego)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2018
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Botai, J.O. (Joel Ongego)
author_browse Botai, J.O. (Joel Ongego)
author_facet Botai, J.O. (Joel Ongego)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2018.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:51.914Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
publishDateSort 2018
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/67867 Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate Botai, J.O. (Joel Ongego) elelwani.phaduli@weathersa.co.za Djolov, George D. Phaduli, Elelwani Unrestricted UCTD Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2018. The outputs from the Global Climate Models (GCMs) and Regional Climate Models (RCMs) have been used worldwide to predict the evolution of extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. In this study the spatial and temporal characteristics of historical, current as well as future meteorological drought trends are computed using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Statistical and trend analysis done using SPI time series derived from rainfall observations have shown that most parts of South Africa experienced moderate to severe droughts between 1981 and 2015. Gridded monthly precipitation data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was used to compute the SPI at each grid point of the domain. The computed SPI was used to obtain drought monitoring indicators such as drought intensity (DI), drought severity (DS), drought duration (DD) and drought frequency (DF) for the period 1998-2015. Results have shown decreasing (negative) trends in drought intensity and duration over most parts of South Africa mainly in provinces such as Gauteng, Limpopo, Free State and North West province. Furthermore results shows that SPI/SPEI computed using data from in-situ observations as well as the SPI computed using data from TRMM reproduced most of the major drought episodes that occurred in South Africa during 1981-2015. Additionally, the ensemble mean of climate simulations obtained when the Rossby Centre for regional climate model (RCA4) is forced by nine GCM models was used to compute the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) during the reference period (1971-2000) and future projections (2011-2040 and 2041-2070) under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 8.5). Statistical and trend analysis were done using drought intensity, severity, duration and frequency. Moreover, results show an overall increase in drought intensity, duration, severity and frequency during the two future periods 2011-2040 and 2041-2070 under RCP 8.5. Future studies will focus on the impact based assessment in order to complete the drought preparedness and mitigation plan. Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology MSc Unrestricted 2018-12-05T08:05:40Z 2018-12-05T08:05:40Z 2009/05/18 2018 Dissertation Phaduli, E 2018, Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate, MSc Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67867> S2018 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67867 en © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Unrestricted
UCTD
Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title_full Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title_fullStr Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title_full_unstemmed Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title_short Drought characterization in South Africa under changing climate
title_sort drought characterization in south africa under changing climate
topic Unrestricted
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/67867