Summary: | Development and human activities have contributed to global warming and climate change, thus affecting water scarcity around the world. Due to this pattern, the establishment of knowledge on the drought index and drought event needs to be strengthened and enhanced, especially in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to assess the drought indices due to climate change impact on urban and sub-urban areas in Malaysia located at Langat River Basin and Pahang River Basin. The drought analysis using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) has been established for 3 months, 6 months and 12 months using the evaporation and rainfall data according to the identified station for 30 years that started from year 1988 until 2018 depending on the completeness of the data. The findings for urban areas indicated the significant values of the drought events compared to the sub-urban area which indicated the fluctuated values due to the land use and pattern of rainfall. Moreover, there were 2 and 1 severe drought event recorded by SPEI 3 and SPEI 12, respectively, for Langat River Basin whilst Pahang River Basin a total of 2 severe drought months by SPEI 3 were recorded, 1 severe drought by SPEI 6, and 6 severe drought events by SPEI12. Thus, findings from this study are very important to evaluate the condition of drought performance and deliver valuable information which is beneficial for the government and private agencies to plan mitigation strategies in the future. © 2024 by authors, all rights reserved.
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