Drought in some regencies of Central Java Province in 2015had disrupted the role of Central Java as a national rice buffer. Theimplementation of reservoir construction program is often constrained onland status issues so that construction implementation takes precedenceover locations that are state land. As directed by WMO to apply the SPImethod in monitoring the drought level worldwide, this study conductdrought index analysis point in Bodri Kuto Watershed using 25 rainfallstations. Drought distribution and drought-vulnerability mapping locationsare implemented by spatial interpolation. The result shows that the peak ofdrought occurred in 2006-2007 and 2015 with an average SPI value of -1.04 to 0.4 (dry - normal). The wet years occurred in 2001 and 2010-2011with an average SPI range of -0.72 to 2.93 (slightly dry - very wet). Theresult of the suitability assessment of the location of the existing andplanned reservoir shows that out of 33 reservoirs there is 6 reservoir (18%)which is highly suitable, 6 reservoirs (18%) ‘suitable’ while 21 otherreservoirs (64%) less suitable. The planned reservoir-construction programneeds to adjust the priority sequence of handling by considering suitabilityto drought-vulnerability locations in addition to criteria.

Despite efforts to develop and conserve water resources, almost every year during the dry season, some areas in Central Java province in Indonesia still experience a lack of water, especially in rural villages. These areas require water supply via water trucks and/or portable pumps to obtain water from rivers and groundwater. The Central Java government committed to implementing a program involving the construction of 1000 small reservoirs by 2020 to overcome water shortages. However, the technically ideal sites are mostly privately owned, which requires lengthy and costly land acquisition. To avoid the uncertainty of land acquisition, some small reservoirs were placed on state-owned land, which did not require land acquisition. The consideration of putting more emphasis on state-owned land rather than technically ideal sites for the construction of small reservoirs raise the issue on the location suitability of those reservoirs. In this study, we evaluated the suitability of the location of small reservoirs in the Bodri-Kuto river basin using the monthly standardized precipitation index (SPI). We used rainfall records of 25 stations in the river basin from 2000 to 2016 and analyzed yearly and monthly rainfall data. The yearly analysis shows that the dry conditions (SPI < −0.5) from 2005 to 2009 affected more than half of the rainfall stations (>50%), whereas the rainfall stations that experienced more dry years included Kedung Wungu, Babadan, Bojong, Ketapang, Sekopek, and Podowaras (more than 9 out of 17 years). The monthly SPI shows that during July, August, and September, all the rainfall stations experience moderately dry or worse conditions (SPI < −0.50). Using 25 rainfall stations, we determined the spatial spread of dry conditions using monthly SPI values from July, August, and September. Overlay of the spatial spread of dry conditions with the location of small reservoirs can be used to evaluate the suitability of small reservoir locations. We found that 1 (3%) location is very suitable, 7 (21%) locations are suitable, 24 (73%) locations are moderately suitable, and 1 (3%) location is less suitable. The findings indicate that the spatial distribution of SPI can be used as an additional criterion for evaluating the suitability of small reservoirs’ locations should technically ideal locations be unavailable.