Coastal Salinity Index for Monitoring Drought

To address the data and information gap for characterizing coastal drought, a coastal salinity index (CSI) was developed using salinity data (Conrads 2016; Conrads and Darby, 2017). The CSI uses an approach similar to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), a readily available drought index that is widely used for monitoring meteorological droughts (McKee and others, 1993). The CSI substitutes total monthly precipitation with monthly mean salinity data to determine the probability of recording a given salinity value in a particular month. The initial investigation demonstrated that the index could be used to delineate short- and long-term drought (saline) and wet (high freshwater inflow) conditions; however, to advance the use [...]