DROUGHTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE ALBANIAN TERRITORY.

Rainfall anomaly and the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) are the most common meteorological drought indices. The most used and simplest index in the meteorological literature is the SPI. Agriculture is usually the first economic sector to be affected by drought. Agricultural drought can be monitored by focusing on precipitation shortages, differences between ETa and ET0, soil water deficits and reduced ground water and/or reservoir levels. Hydrological drought is associated with the effect of periods of precipitation shortfalls on surface or subsurface water supply. The frequency and severity of hydrological drought is often defined on a watershed basin scale. Although climate is a primary contributor to hydrological drought, other factors such as changes in land use, land degradation, and the construction of dams all affect the hydrological characteristics of a basin. The climate change scenario for Albania indicates a decrease in the amount of precipitation by about 12.5% up to the year 2100. Consequently, severe and extremely dry conditions will have a tendency to increase. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the agricultural drought indices in current use in Albania, considering the meteorological, climatological, hydrological and agrometeorological elements provided by the IGEWE (a partner in the regional project DMCSEE). Drought is a frequent and common climate phenomenon that happens in almost all climate zones, with impacts in socio-economical areas such as agriculture, energy, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]