SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF STANDARDIZED PRECIPITATION INDEX OVER INDOCHINA PENINSULA

Indochina Peninsula has abundant water resources; however, most of the rain falls during the wet season. An arid condition is quite pronounced throughout the dry season. The majority of population depends on the agriculture as the main source of livelihood income. It is, therefore, important to study the drought and wetness over the region because crops are vulnerable to extreme climatic conditions. We used gridded precipitation APHRODITE and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of drought and wetness over Indochina peninsula. Nonparametric Modified Mann-Kendall (MMK) trend test was applied to determine the SPI trends over this region. There is a decrease in precipitation over a large part of Indochina during winter (dry season) and an increasing pattern during summer (rainy season). The increasing trend of SPI indicates an increase in wet condition over most parts of Indochina Peninsula except for Red River Delta in Vietnam, central parts of Vietnam/Laos and western parts of Cambodia.