DROUGHT VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF MINNA USING STANDARDIZED PRECIPITATION INDEX METHOD

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drought is one of the most naturally occurring menace and threat to human existence and the environment through the ages and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has become a popular measure of drought across the globe. In this study, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used for observing and describing drought based on seventy (70) year precipitation data of Minna sub-station. This is evident from the obtained results as the driest and the wettest years were observed with the SPI at a 3- month, 6-month and 12-months scale. 1987 was observed as the driest year with the worst drought using SPI at a 12-month scale while 2019 was observed to be the wettest year. The data was also used to determine the rainfall anomaly of Minna with aid of rainfall anomaly index (RAI). SPI 12 was found to correlate with RAI which confirmed the accuracy and sensitivity of SPI 12. Therefore, the present study concludes that the 12- month SPI of June to November represents a good indicator of any drought vulnerability assessment for any drought-prone areas.