The Beijing-Tianjin region

economically developed and densely populated

is highly vulnerable to drought events

which poses a challenge to its socio-economic development and water security. This paper presents a method for identifying droughts using a three-dimensional approach that considers longitude

latitude

and time

and an application of the Standardized Vegetation Index (SVCI) to detection of the drought events in this region. We quantify the events based on duration

area share

and intensity

and examine their frequencies and return periods using the Copula function. The results show the drought events identified using SVCI align with those recorded in literature

indicating the results of this study are reliable. In the study region

totally 48 drought events occurred from 1982 to 2020

with 34 lasting three months or longer. Compared to its two-dimensional version

the three-dimensional Copula function is more effective in fitting the joint distributions of drought variables in the region

considering more factors for better fitting.