Central Asia is a drought-prone region that is sensitive to global climate change. The increased actual evapotranspiration intensifies the drought impacts in this area. However, little is known about the similarities and differences between various types of drought in Central Asia, as well as the relative importance of water income and consumption processes during drought events. Therefore, this study evaluates the trends and characteristics of meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological droughts in Central Asia using precipitation, soil moisture, and terrestrial water storage as indicators; explores the temporal correlation of and spatial similarity between various types of drought; and quantitatively assesses the contribution of water balance variables to drought intensity. The results indicate that drought has intensified in Central Asia, and the trends of precipitation, soil moisture, and terrestrial water storage in this region were −0.75 mm·yr⁻¹ (p = 0.36), −0.0003 m³·m⁻³ yr⁻¹ (p < 0.01), and −0.3742 cm·yr⁻¹ (p < 0.001), respectively. Severe droughts are typically short in duration and high in intensity. Three various types of drought have low temporal correlation and spatial similarity. Furthermore, agricultural and hydrological droughts were primarily driven by actual evapotranspiration, accounting for relative contributions of 64.38% and 51.04% to these drought types, respectively. Moreover, the extent of increased actual evapotranspiration expanded to cover 49.88% of the region, exacerbating agricultural and hydrological droughts in 23.88% and 35.14% of the total study area, respectively. The study findings demonstrate that actual evapotranspiration plays a critical role in causing droughts. This study establishes a theoretical foundation to carry out drought assessment, the construction of multivariate drought indices, and water resource management in Central Asia.

Under the combined influences of climate and vegetation change, land–atmosphere interactions have enhanced, and precipitation recycling is an important part of this. Previous studies of the precipitation recycling process have focused on calculating the precipitation recycling rate (PRR) and analyzing the influencing factors. However, the climate-driven and vegetation-induced precipitation recycling process variations were not quantified. This study has systematically examined the precipitation recycling process in a typical arid region using the Eltahir and Bras model, random forest algorithm, and partial least-squares structural equation modeling. During 1982–2018, the leaf area index (LAI) and evapotranspiration (ET) rate both increased significantly, with growth rates of 0.06 m²m⁻²/decade and 13.99 mm/decade, respectively. At the same time, the average PRR in Xinjiang was 13.92% and experienced significant growth at a rate of 1.28%/decade. The climate-driven and vegetation-induced PRR variations were quantified, which contributed 79.12% and 20.88%, respectively. In addition, the positive effects of both of these on PRR variations through ET did not increase with the increase in ET, but rather decreased sharply and then stabilized. This study can provide favorable theoretical support for mitigating the contradiction in water use and balancing economic development and ecological security by quantifying the regulation of precipitation by vegetation.