The standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index based on cumulative effect attenuation

The drought index is an important indicator that reflects the degree of regional drought and plays an important role in drought disaster monitoring, prediction and evaluation. According to the process definition of the standard precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI), the influence of cumulative effect attenuation was considered and aggregated at different time scales k, the linear attenuation coefficient was defined, and attenuation parameters were used to adjust the degree of attenuation. A value closer to the current month was assigned a larger weight, and a value closer to the current month was assigned a smaller weight. Thus, the cumulative water surplus or deficit was recalculated, and the standard precipitation evapotranspiration index based on the cumulative effect attenuation (CASPEI) was defined and applied to the drought analysis of Heilongjiang Province, which has the highest grain output in China. The comparative analysis showed that the CASPEI dataset was more consistent with the log-logistic distribution, and its sensitivity in identifying regional drought events was greater than that of the SPEI, which effectively corrected the original index's errors in identifying the drought levels of some stations and was more consistent with regional historical drought events. The temporal and spatial variation analysis revealed that drought occurrence is seasonal: summer is the season with the highest frequency of severe drought and extreme drought, and the area experiencing extreme drought is greater than that during other seasons. The areas with moderate drought in spring and autumn were relatively large. With the increase in time scale, the area of extreme drought decreased, and the area of severe drought increased. The area of moderate drought increased, while the area of light drought decreased. The CASPEI can accurately judge the extent to which drought occurs to respond to drought and effectively reduce or prevent large losses in people and the economy caused by drought.