Towards identifying areas at climatological risk of desertification using the Köppen-Geiger classification and FAO aridity index

作者：Jonathan Spinoni, J. Vogt, Gustavo Naumann, Hugo Carrão, Paulo Barbosa · 发表于：International Journal of Climatology · 年份：2014 · DOI：10.1002/joc.4124 · 被引用次数：217 · 研究领域：Climate variability and models、Hydrology and Drought Analysis、Tree-ring climate responses

Over the past decades, a continuous rise in global air temperatures resulted in significant changes in the global hydrological cycle. Regionally increased frequencies of extreme weather events and changes in the regional extent of drylands resulted in new areas at risk of desertification, a complex process driven by socio-economic and climate-related factors. Although desertification is not confined to drylands, they are the most vulnerable to land degradation processes. To investigate possible changes in climate patterns over the past 60 years, we couple the information obtained from the Köppen–Geiger (KG) climate classification and the FAO aridity index (AI), providing an overview of the most evident global changes in climate regimes from 1951–1980 to 1981–2010 and focussing on the modifications of the extent of drylands. KG and AI indicators have been computed on a 0.5° × 0.5° global grid using precipitation data from the Full Data Reanalysis (v6.0) of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre, and mean temperature and potential evapotranspiration data from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia (CRUTSv3.20). Both KG and AI show that the arid areas globally increased between 1951–1980 and 1981–2010, but decreased on average in the Americas. North-Eastern Brazil, Southern Argentina, the Sahel, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Mediterranean area, North-Eastern China and Sub-Himalayan India have been identified as areas with a significant increase of drylands ex...