ARCHIVED - Real-time drought monitoring system launched in Spain

The threat of desertification is severe in large parts of southern Spain

Large areas of Spain are currently at risk of desertification, according to data compiled by the national government, and with insufficient rainfall being one of the major causes three scientific organizations have launched a new system to monitor the drought situation across the country in real time.

The Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the Aragón Research Institute and the State meteorological agency Aemet have designed the “Meteorological Drought Monitor” system with a view to making prompt action possible when episodes of severe drought are a threat.

Highly detailed information is provided each week as a result of data being compiled from the network of Aemet weather stations and the SIAR system of Agro-climatic data: these data are used to calculate two important drought indicators, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evaporation Index (SPEI), Any anomalies in these two indices is then incorporated into a high-resolution map and the monitor then measures the duration of drought conditions and the accumulated intensity of each episode.

Drought is a common phenomenon all over Spain due to the relative unpredictability of rainfall and to the wide range of humidity or lack of humidity in the atmosphere. This second factor concerns the extent to which the air dries the land out, draining it of moisture, and has been affected by the on-going change in the planet’s climate.

As for the effects of drought, apart from the obvious shortage of water for domestic and industrial consumption and for irrigation, one of the most important in the long term is the acceleration of soil erosion. 30 per cent of Spain is currently suffering severe soil erosion, much of it in the south-east of the country, and it has been calculated that 3,000 tons of soil are being lost every minute: it takes a thousand years for natural process to result in the formation of a 2-centimetre layer of soil but Spain is losing that much every 20 years, and in the provinces of Almería and Alicante it is calculated that the proportions of fertile soil lost in the last two decades are 70 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.

Image 3: Ministry of Agriculture map of the risk of desertification in Spain