Use Of a New Agricultural Drought Index Within a Regional Drought Observatory.

Drought management at a regional level necessitates the use of suitable instruments for monitoring, analysis and decisions support. A new index of agricultural drought, DTx, based on the daily transpiration deficit calculated by a water balance model has been defined and tested in three Mediterranean areas giving good results. A new module for DTx calculation has been implemented in the CRITeRIA water balance model as well as new algorithms to simulate cereals yield with the WOFOST methodology. A comparison between DTx values and the local climatology has been introduced in order to quantify the anomaly revealed by the index statistically. Therefore DTx can be associate with pluviometric and hydrological indices to better describe drought effects in different fields. Information on drought are collected in a single database and diffused by a dedicated website to support the regional management program defined with local authorities and water supply consortia. The program goals are to define the reference areas, identify an adequate system of monitors and alerts to help decisions, indicate proactive measures and spread knowledge and awareness on drought [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]