Flood/drought event identification using an effective indicator based on the correlations between multiple time scales of the Standardized Precipitation Index and river discharge

In order to further investigate the capability of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) to identify flood/drought events, monthly precipitation data from 26 precipitation stations and monthly discharge data from four hydrological stations from 1960 to 2006 in the Minjiang River basin were used to analyze the correlations between multiple time scales of the SPI and river discharge. The SPI series that had a maximum correlation with discharge was chosen to detect flood/drought events in the basin, and the results were compared to historical flood/drought events. The results indicated the following. (1) High Pearson correlations between the SPI and discharge were identified at shorter time scales (1 to 3 months), and the maximum correlation was found on the time scale of 2 months. (2) Five floods among the six largest historical flood events in the Minjiang River basin were identified with the 2-month SPI, but the SPI does have shortcomings in identifying more general floods. The SPI also identified major drought events that were consistent with historical data. This demonstrates that the 2-month SPI is an effective indicator for the identification of major flood/drought events in the Minjiang River basin.