CARiDRO The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught Tool

The CARiDRO tool enables the assessment of meteorological and hydrological droughts at regional and grid-point levels. It utilizes the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation-Evaporation Index (SPEI), the latter of which incorporates water balance to evaluate the impact of warming. The system processes data from seven PRECIS regional climate model experiments (1961-2070) and two observed datasets (1901-2009). While designed to support policy and planning in agriculture and water resources, the tool currently requires users with a technical background in climatology.

• The CARiDRO tool was successfully developed to facilitate drought assessment in the Caribbean and Central America regions, offering a flexible system that allows users to generate statistics and graphical outputs for spatial scales ranging from local to regional.
• The tool employs two primary indices: the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for general monitoring and the Standardized Precipitation-Evaporation Index (SPEI), which uses the Thornwaite formulation for evapo-transpiration to specifically evaluate the impact of climate change warming on drought.
• CARiDRO integrates data from seven PRECIS regional climate model (RCM) experiments with a 25km resolution covering 1961 to 2070, alongside two observed gridded datasets from the Climatic Research Unit and University of Delaware with a 50km resolution covering 1901 to 2009.
• While the tool can produce data for Geographical Information Systems to aid the agriculture and water resources sectors, it is currently not suitable for stakeholders without a technical background in climatology and requires expert advisory.

APA

Centella, A., Bezanilla, A., Vichot, A., & Silva, M. (n.d.). CARiDRO The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught Tool. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cariwig-case-study-final-report-caridro-drought.pdf

Chicago

Centella, Abel, Arnoldo Bezanilla, Alejandro Vichot, and Malena Silva. CARiDRO The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught Tool. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cariwig-case-study-final-report-caridro-drought.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Centella |first1=Abel |last2=Bezanilla |first2=Arnoldo |last3=Vichot |first3=Alejandro |last4=Silva |first4=Malena |title=CARiDRO The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught Tool |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cariwig-case-study-final-report-caridro-drought.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centellandcaridro, author = {Centella, Abel and Bezanilla, Arnoldo and Vichot, Alejandro and Silva, Malena}, title = {{CARiDRO The Caribbean Assessment Regional DROught Tool}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cariwig-case-study-final-report-caridro-drought.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }