Drought Central, Drought Observatory by CNR IBE

Drought Situation

Some content are available only in Italian

Secondo i dati Copernicus, Settembre 2026 è stato il secondo più caldo a livello globale dal 1979, con un’anomalia di +1,63°C rispetto al periodo pre-industriale (1850-1900). In Europa ha mantenuto temperature sopra la media sulla scia dell’estate, risultando sul settore occidentale il più caldo (vedi mappa).

Dal punto di vista delle piogge il mese è stato più secco della norma su gran parte dell’Europa occidentale e centrale e in alcune zone dell’Europa orientale. Questa siccità prolungata ha continuato ad influire sulle portate dei grandi fiumi. In alcuni tratti di Reno e Danubio, ad esempio, si sono registrati i minimi storici del mese, con ripercussioni sulla navigazione, l’approvvigionamento idrico e l’agricoltura di diversi paesi.

  • Grandi laghi del Nord: le piogge di fine Agosto hanno in generale fatto risalire i livelli, che però nel corso delle settimane sono tornati a calare. Solo il lago di Iseo chiude il mese sopra la media, mentre il Maggiore continua ad essere il lago con le maggiori criticità.
  • Portata del Po: nonostante alcuni eventi precipitativi intorno alla metà di settembre abbiano fatto risalire temporaneamente le portate registrate lungo le principali stazioni di misura del fiume, il mese chiude con valori simili a quelli di fine Agosto e un’anomalia negativa intorno a -60% (AdB Po).
  • Invasi del sud: calano ovunque le percentuali di riempimento rispetto a fine Agosto. I valori più bassi continuano ad essere quelli degli invasi di Capitanata e Basilicata, mentre in Sicilia e Sardegna la media si aggira sul 60-65%.
Previsioni per i prossimi mesi
Le previsioni stagionali dei maggiori centri europei indicano, per il trimestre Novembre-Gennaio, temperature superiori alla norma su tutta Europa con una probabilità più alta (70-100%) sul settore centro-occidentale e Mediterraneo. Anche le temperature superficiali del mar Mediterraneo continueranno ad essere superiori alla media. Per quanto riguarda le precipitazioni, il trimestre indica due zone latidudinali distinte: da una parte il settore mediterraneo meridionale che ha segnali di deficit di pioggia (con una probabilità del 40-60%), dall’altra buona parte dell’Europa, inclusa l’Italia settentrionale, che presenta surplus con probabilità dal 40 al 100% (vedi mappa).

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.