Drought Central, Drought Observatory by CNR IBE

Drought Situation

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Secondo i dati Copernicus, Giugno 2026 è stato il secondo più caldo sia a livello globale che europeo dal 1979 rispetto al periodo di riferimento 1991-2020.

Dal punto di vista delle piogge il mese è stato caratterizzato da condizioni più secche della norma su gran parte dell’Europa occidentale e centrale, comprese l’Italia e vaste aree dell’Europa orientale. La persistenza di condizioni di alta pressione ha limitato le precipitazioni, mentre le temperature eccezionalmente elevate registrate nella parte finale del mese hanno aggravato il deficit di umidità del suolo. Le condizioni più critiche hanno interessato la Penisola Iberica, la Francia, gran parte dell’Italia e diversi Paesi dell’Europa centro-orientale, favorendo anche lo sviluppo e la propagazione di incendi boschivi, in particolare in Spagna e Francia.

Le portate fluviali sono risultate inferiori alla media su gran parte dell’Europa occidentale, centrale e orientale. In Italia il quadro è più eterogeneo, con valori generalmente prossimi alla media e anomalie negative solo localizzate.

Sul lungo periodo (vedi mappa interattiva) l’indice SPI a 24 mesi evidenzia la persistenza di condizioni siccitose soprattutto sull’Europa centrale e orientale, con le criticità più marcate tra Ucraina, Slovacchia, Ungheria e Paesi limitrofi.
  • Invasi: il quadro rimane complessivamente positivo in Sardegna e Sicilia, dove la maggior parte dei bacini presenta livelli di riempimento elevati. In Puglia e Basilicata la situazione è più eterogenea dove invasi con condizioni soddisfacenti si affiancano ad alcuni bacini che mostrano ancora deficit.
  • Grandi laghi del Nord: prosegue la diminuzione dei livelli di riempimento dei principali laghi del Nord. Le criticità maggiori interessano Maggiore, Como e Iseo, mentre il Garda mantiene condizioni relativamente più favorevoli, seppur in calo rispetto alle settimane precedenti.
  • Portata del Po: alla stazione di Pontelagoscuro, nella prima settimana di Luglio, i valori risultano inferiori a quelli tipici del periodo e soprattutto più bassi rispetto alla soglia critica relativa al fenomeno dell’intrusione salina.
Previsioni per i prossimi mesi
Le previsioni stagionali dei maggiori centri europei indicano, per il trimestre Agosto-Ottobre un’elevata probabilità di temperature superiori alla norma su tutta Europa e Mediterraneo. Per le precipitazioni emerge invece un quadro più articolato: condizioni più secche potrebbero interessare parte dell’Europa centrale (40-50% di probabilità), mentre sul Mediterraneo e penisola Iberica il segnale mostra precipitazioni superiori alla media(40-60%). Anomalie positive anche per le temperature superficiali del mare Mediterraneo.

Drought WebGIS

A WebGIS application based on open source solutions customized to integrate different datasets and share maps and graphs of drought indices with researchers, decision-makers and other stakeholders.

Different functions allow to select sections of territory or visualize the trend of the indices in a specific pixel.

Maps and graphs can also be downloaded in png format.

Please Note: Due to the size of the images, it is possible to download sections of the vegetation indices smaller than the whole geographic window.

Please Note: due to problems concerning the Terra MODIS satellite, the TCI and VHI indices are available until the 9th of November 2022. They will be replaced soon with new products.

Drought Scan

The Drought Scan (DS) is an operational climate service for users with different profiles — technicians, researchers, irrigation consortia, and water authorities — who need a clear, consistent, and scalable assessment of drought conditions at the river-basin scale, using tools that are easy to use yet scientifically robust.

For further information, visit the dedicated page.

Drought
is a complex phenomenon

The complexity of the drought phenomenon requires the availability of a system as comprehensive and integrated as possible to respond to the different users requests.

The challenge
Increasing environmental resilience

Heat waves and droughts have significant and growing repercussions on physical, chemical, and biological systems, as well as on socio-economic sectors such as health, agriculture, natural ecosystems, and tourism. One of the main challenges in coping with drought is to reduce the temporal gap between the onset and development of a dry period and the response in managing drought-related emergencies. This requires not only robust monitoring systems, but also institutional readiness and coordination across sectors.

A Scientific Proactive approach
Technical support and timely information

Although coping with these extreme events requires effective actions, policymakers and water users often show low levels of preparedness. This may be due to the lack of a proactive approach involving monitoring and forecasting activities, mitigation measures, and public education. As a result, responses are frequently reactive rather than anticipatory. Sharing a scientific and proactive approach — combined with access to both technical support and timely information — can foster more anticipatory responses to extreme events.

A frequent phonomenon

After flooding, it is the second natural disaster that affects the population.

Long term impact

The impact on the environment and human activities can show up late and persist even after the end of the drought event.

High variability

Its intensity and spatial extent are extremely variable.

A creeping phenomenon

With respect to other natural extreme events, drought is characterised by a slow and often difficult to define onset and a long-lasting evolution.

Drought Observatory: the reason why

Drought monitoring supports a better resilience to reduce the impacts of drought events
L'immagine è di supporto alla descrizione fornita nel bollettino

Drought monitoring and forecasting system

The Institute of BioEconomy of the National Research Council (IBE-CNR) created a system to provide a semi-automatic, detailed, timely and comprehensive operational service. This service, initially developed for Tuscany Region, supports decision makers, water authorities, researchers and general stakeholders.

Integration of ground-based and satellite data

Meteorological stations network, satellite images and models are integrated through an open source and interoperable SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) based on PostgreSQL/PostGIS to produce vegetation and precipitation indices to follow the occurrence and evolution of a drought event.

The Indices: Drought occurrences and trends

The system is based on a monitoring component and on a forecasting ones. It uses two type of indices:
  • direct climate-based indices.
  • indirect vegetation-based indices
A continuous Work-in-Progress

Spatial Data Infrastructure

New technical improvements in the ICT infrastructure, coupled with scientific advances, allow a timely, ready-to-use and users-specific upgrading of the early warning communication.

SOA | OGC | PostgreSQL

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Database-centred architecture, with PostgreSQL DataBase Management System.

Innovative Approach

The geographic data flows (from the download of remote sensing and climatic data to the storage of final indices) and all the related geoprocessing functions are integrated in a single environment.

Advanced Statistical Procedures

The integration of the PL/R (R Procedural Language) wrapper into the procedural language of PostgreSQL (PL/pgSQL) allowed the creation of advanced statistical procedures using R engine.