Adaptablity of Six Global Drought Indices Over China

This study quantitatively evaluated the performance of six global drought indices (the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index -scPDSI, the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index - SPEI, the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre Drought Index - GPCC_DI, the Multivariate Standardized Drought Index – MSDI, the Standardized Soil Moisture Index - SSI, and the Standardized Precipitation Index – SPI) over China using the drought records from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) by developing two indicators of the monitored drought area percentage (MDAP) and the monitored drought period percentage (MDPP). The results showed that scPDSI, SPEI, GPCC_DI, and MSDI can capture drought events in China from 1980 to 2015 better than SPI and SSI, with MDAP of ~80% and MDPP of ~70% at optimal timescales, among which SPEI and MSDI is slightly better than scPDSI and GPCC_DI.