Drought Distribution Dynamics In South-Western Nigeria: A Geospatial Approach To Climate Risk Evaluation

Drought is a natural occurrence which is a natural induce phenomenon and which cannot be, controlled by human being but it can be mitigated during and after its occurrence. It is a phenomenon which occurs after a prolong period of rainfall which brings about fast evapotranspiration as a result of high temperature. Indicator like SPI, SPEI, SMI and PCI are used to estimate the analysis of drought. These methods of analysis can give useful information about drought frequency and magnitude. Soil Moisture Index (SMI) shows that evenly distributed soil moisture was recorded from 1983 to 1992 but the pattern changed during 1993 to 2002 where there is no serious drought condition. The SMI indicated that there was no drought condition in the entire region of South Western Nigeria in the year 2003 – 2006 and year 2015 and 2021 showed that very serious drought occurs. The Plant Condition Index (PCI) indicator agreed with the same explanations given by SMI. The general objective of this paper is to examine the spatia distribution of drought in South Western Nigeria (SWN).