This work has been supported by the research projects CGL2008-01189/BTE and CGL2006-11619/HID, funded by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER; EUROGEOSS (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226487) and ACQWA (FP7-ENV-2007-1- 212250), funded by the VII Framework Programme of the European Commission; and “Las sequías climáticas en la cuenca del Ebro y su respuesta hidrológica” and “La nieve en el Pirineo aragonés: Distribución espacial y su respuesta a las condiciones climática,” funded by “Obra Social La Caixa” and the Aragón Government.

A new multiscalar drought dataset, the SPEIbase, made available to the scientific and management community is presented. The multiscalar character of the dataset allows finding the most appropriate time scale of interest for a specific application, so potential uses of the dataset range over a wide variety of disciplines. The dataset (in three file formats) is distributed under an open license. Further work includes updating the dataset past December 2006, depending on the data availability.

Peer reviewed