Characterization of Drought in Kaduna River Basin, Kaduna, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the characteristics of meteorological, agricultural and hydrological droughts, and their implications on agricultural planning and water resources management in Kaduna River Basin. To establish the extent of climate variability and drought, archival temperature, rainfall and streamflow data between 1990 and 2018 were sourced from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), Kaduna State Water Board and Shiroro Hydro-Electric Power Station for ten hydrometeorological stations. Three drought indices (RDI, ASPI and SDI) were employed for the study and GIS technique was used to examine the spatial dimension of the droughts. Pearson Correlation Coefficient Analysis was used to examine the relationship among the three indices. The results of the study reveals the base year of 1998/1999 as common year of drought onset for the three drought types. The result also shows that moderate and mild droughts have the highest occurrence accounting for about 80% across the three indices. The result of the base year of 2006/2007 shows severity of meteorological, agricultural and hydrological droughts having -1.63, -1.76 and -1.5 drought intensities respectively. In conclusion, this study showed there exists strong relationship among the drought types examined and also recommends adoption of improved crop varieties such as drought-resistant crops, early maturing crops enables farmers cope with rainfall variability, particularly drought occurrences.