Climatic comfort and agricultural drought indices application in determination of agritourism destinations in Kerman province

The drought has direct and indirect impacts on agritourism in all seasons. The purpose of this study is determination of agricultural tourism destinations affected by drought. To this end, existing data of fourteen meteorological stations in Kerman province from their establishment till 2017 were collected. Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Reconnaissance Drought Indices (RDI) were used to investigate climatic comfort and drought condition using DrinC Ver. 1.5.73 and RayMan, respectively. In order to prepare the drought and climatic comfort maps, the elevation gradient between two indices were investigated. The spatial distribution of two indices was prepared using digital elevation model (DEM) in ArcGIS v 10.5 for the month in which the gradient was significant. The results showed that all of the study stations had a normal condition from the viewpoint of agricultural drought in the cold seasons. The eastern and southern part of the province experienced severe drought in the warm seasons. Moreover, the results of PMV index showed that the eastern and southern part of the province had a suitable condition for agritourism activities in the cold seasons, while the central, northern and western parts are suitable in the warm seasons.