Study of Drought Spatio- Temporal Characteristics in Syrian Coastal Region during the Period 1966-2008

Drought is one of the most important challenges facing sustainable development in eastern Mediterranean regions, where water resources are already limited and ecosystems are fragile. Sums of weighted standardized monthly precipitation anomalies were used to assess annual drought intensity, frequency and spatial extent in five climatic stations located in Syrian coastal region during the period 1966-2008.Changes in drought intensity were detected using trends with Mann – Kendall test. Results show that drought occurs with high frequency over all parts of the coastal region(up to 35% in some parts),but with different intensities.Extreme drought can hit all regions in some years as happened in 1972-1973. Moreover drought may strike the same region for three consecutive years (1988-1991). Also the results show an increasing tendency in drought intensityrelated to the decreasein drought index values (between 0.29-0.96). This can have serious ecological and economic consequences and will pose an increasing challenge to agriculture and the management of water resources in this region.