Hydrologic drought characteristics of selected basins in various climate zones of Lebanon

River basins in Lebanon recently have experienced increasing droughts, which has prompted this study to characterize drought temporally and spatially. The study describes and analyzes hydrologic and precipitation conditions in seven river basins, representing most flow directions in various climatic zones. The characteristics of hydrologic and rainfall drought were discussed and analyzed, depending on available data from five climatic zones and fourteen hydrometric stations distributed in the river, allowing for a detailed analysis of drought. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) were calculated at 6-month intervals (first and second 6-months) using the DRINC program. The hydrologic and rainfall drought characteristics maps generated in the GIS platform may help to identify the degree of drought in the study areas. The investigation was carried out by examining the strength of relationships between SDI and SPI using bivariate correlation analysis. The significance of the correlation coefficient is used in this study to decide whether linear relationships between the SPI and SDI occurred in the first and second six months. Calculating the correlation coefficient for these variables based on hydrologic and rainfall data reveals an inconsistent correlation over different periods.