DrinC: a software for drought analysis based on drought indices

Drought is a complex phenomenon which can be characterised mainly by its severity, duration and areal extent. Among these three dimensions, drought severity is the key factor which can be used for drought analysis. Drought indices are typically used to assess drought severity in a meaningful way. DrinC (Drought Indices Calculator) is a software package which was developed for providing a simple, though adaptable interface for the calculation of drought indices. The paper aims at presenting the overall design and the implementation of the software along with the utilisation of various approaches for drought analysis. DrinC can be used for the calculation of two recently developed indices, the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI), as well as two widely known indices, the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Precipitation Deciles (PD). Moreover, the software includes a module for the estimation of potential evapotranspiration (PET) through temperature based methods, useful for the calculation of RDI. The software may be used in a variety of applications, such as drought monitoring, assessment of the spatial distribution of drought, investigation of climatic and drought scenarios, etc. The applications of DrinC in several locations, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, show that it is gaining ground as a useful research and operational tool for drought analysis.