Classification of Agricultural Meteorological Disasters using Fuzzy Cluster Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, we use fussy cluster analysis to explain the types of dry summer in the Fukuoka area and the characteristics of the areal distribution of the agricultural meteorological disasters in the Chugoku and Shikoku districts.
For dry summers in the Fukuoka area, we take six climatic indexes as the standard classification, including the ratio to the normal of the sum of monthly amounts of precipitation for June, July and August. Three types of dry summer are classified and the magnitude differences of the levels of dry summer are explained from the view point of the moisture and temperature. In regard to agricultural meteorological disasters in the Chugoku and Shikoku regions, we take the occurence times of seven types of meteorological disasters as the standard classification, such as damage by wind, flood damage, drought injury, snow damage, freezing damage, cool summer damage, hail damage and frost damage, from 1971 to 1984. Five disaster areas are classified and the characteristics of the areal distribution of agricultural meteorological disasters are identified. The analytical results show us that the Fussy Cluster Analysis is usefull for explaining characteristics in the field of agricultural meteorological disasters.