Changes in the frequency and severity of hydrological droughts over Ethiopia from 1960 to 2013

Kenawy, Ahmed El; McCabe, Matthew F.; Vicente‐Serrano, Sergio M.; López‐Moreno, Juan I.; Robaa, S. M.

doi:10.18172/cig.2931

Cited by 39 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…This was also true all over Ethiopia. This finding agrees with previous research findings of (El Kenawy et al, 2016;Mosaad, 2015;Bayissa et al, 2015;Degefu and Bewket, 2013;Viste et al, 2012;Tagel et al, 2011;Edossa et al, 2010;Bewket and Conway, 2007) who reported extreme drought in different parts of the country in the same period. Segele and Lamb (2005) also extensively demonstrated the severity of the 1984 drought over Ethiopia, particularly during the summer season.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…The analysis implies that drought magnitude can vary largely over space and this exceptional extreme drought shows a local character, where small area was affected, while others had less severe drought magnitude or even no drought. This finding is supported by the study of El Kenawy et al (2016) who found similar drought occurrences in studying the changes in the frequency and severity of hydrological droughts over Ethiopia from 1960 to 2013.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

“…The robustness of SPI over the other drought indices has been reported in many studies (Vicente-Serrano et al, 2015;Viste et al, 2012;WMO, 2012;Hirschi et al, 2011;Hayes et al, 1999;Guttman, 1998;Mpelasoka et al, 2008). In addition to its simplicity and ease of calculation, in regions like Ethiopia, where the access to data is limited, there are good reasons for choosing a rainfallbased drought measure (SPI) (El Kenawy et al, 2016;Degefu and Bewket, 2013;Viste et al, 2012). Details of SPI computation can be accessed in the user guides of SPI (WMO 2012).…”

Section: Meteorological Drought Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Meteorological drought assessment in north east highlands of Ethiopia

Yimer

Tadesse

et al. 2018

IJCCSM

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the patterns and trends of drought incidence in north east highlands of Ethiopia using monthly rainfall record for the period 1984-2014. Design/methodology/approach Standard precipitation index and Mann – Kendal test were used to analyze drought incident and trends of drought occurrences, respectively. The spatial extent of droughts in the study area has been interpolated by inverse distance weighted method using the spatial analyst tool of ArcGIS. Findings Most of the studied stations experienced drought episodes in 1984, 1987/1988, 1992/1993, 1999, 2003/2004 and 2007/2008 which were among the worst drought years in the history of Ethiopia. The year 1984 was the most drastic and distinct-wide extreme drought episode in all studied stations. The Mann–Kendal test shows an increasing tendencies of drought at three-month (spring) timescale at all stations though significant (p < 0.05) only at Mekaneselam and decreasing tendencies at three-month (summer) and 12-month timescales at all stations. The frequency of total drought was the highest in central and north parts of the region in all study seasons. Originality/value This detail drought characterization can be used as bench mark to take comprehensive drought management measures such as early warning system, preparation and contingency planning, climate change adaptation programs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Meteorological Drought Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Meteorological drought assessment in north east highlands of Ethiopia

Yimer

Tadesse

et al. 2018

IJCCSM

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“…Erosion and sedimentation are challenging problems that are increasingly difficult to solve with the intensification of land use (Cerdà, Imeson, & Poesen, ; Erkossa, Wudneh, Desalegn, & Taye, ). In the Ethiopian highlands with rapid population growth, sediment concentrations have been increasing (Gebremicael, Mohamed, Betrie, van der Zaag, & Teferi, ; Mekonnen, Keesstra, Baartman, Ritsema, & Melesse, ; Steenhuis et al, ; Tesemma, Mohamed, & Steenhuis, ) without a significant precipitation increase in the past 40 years (Conway, ; El Kenawy et al, ; Kim & Kaluarachchi, ; Nyssen et al, ; Seleshi & Demaree, ; Tekleab, Mohamed, & Uhlenbrook, ; Tesemma et al, ). Measures are being taken to reduce erosion but only in a few cases have they been checked for their effectiveness (Dagnew et al, ; Mekonnen et al, ; Walling, ; Walter, Steenhuis, & Haith, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evaluating the effectiveness of landscape modifications is especially timely in the Ethiopian highlands where, in an attempt to increase prosperity and assure food security for the rapidly increasing population in the context of recurring drought (El Kenawy et al, ; Hurni, , ; Nyssen et al, ), the Ethiopian government is implementing management practices for increased rainwater productivity and increased life spans for hydroelectric power plants such as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile near Sudan (Chen & Swain, ; Dagnew et al, ; Humphreys et al, ; Mekonnen et al, ; MOA, ; MOFED, ). Defining the relationship between modifications in the landscape and resulting changes in hydrology (including runoff, sediment concentrations, and sediment load) has become possible in recent decades due to the efforts of various research programs in Ethiopia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling discharge and sediment concentrations after landscape interventions in a humid monsoon climate: The Anjeni watershed in the highlands of Ethiopia

et al. 2017

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Increasing population and intensification of agriculture increase erosion rates and often result in severe land degradation and sedimentation of reservoirs. Finding effective management practices to counteract the increasing sediment load is becoming increasingly urgent especially in the Ethiopian highlands where the construction of the hydroelectric Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile is underway. In this paper, we examine the results of 9 years of a watershed experiment in which discharge and sediment losses were observed in the 113 ha Anjeni watershed of the Blue Nile Basin. The study period encompasses conditions before, during, and after the installation of graded Fanya‐Juu (“throw uphill” bunds) soil and water conservation practices (SWCP), which had the ultimate goal of creating terraces. We use a saturation‐excess runoff model named the parameter‐efficient distributed model as a mathematical construct to relate rainfall with discharge and sediment losses at the outlet. The parameter‐efficient distributed model is based on landscape units in which the excess rainfall becomes direct runoff or infiltrates based on topographic position or hardpan characteristics. Deviations in this rainfall–discharge–sediment loss relationship are ascribed to the changes in infiltration characteristics caused by SWCPs on the hillslopes. With this technique, we found that in the Anjeni basin, the Fanya‐Juu SWCPs are only effective in increasing the infiltration and thereby reducing the direct runoff and sediment concentrations in the first 5 years. At the end of the 9‐year observation period, the direct runoff and sediment concentrations were barely reduced compared to the levels before SWCP were installed. In addition, we found that the model structure based on landscape units was able to represent the varying runoff and erosion processes during the 9 years well by varying mainly the portion of degraded land (and thereby representing the effectiveness of the Fanya‐Juu to reduce runoff by increasing infiltration).

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Spatial assessment of meteorological drought features over different climate regions in Iran

Sharafati

Nabaei

Shahid

2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Iran has a predominantly arid and semi‐arid climate where the drought hazards and their variability are the crucial concerns for water resources management. This study assesses the characteristics and trends of meteorological droughts features in different climate regions of Iran. Monthly rainfall data are analysed using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) to reconstruct meteorological droughts for different time steps (1, 3, 6, 9 and 12). The drought events are decomposed into three features, namely Severity (S), Duration (D) and Peak (P) to assess their spatial variations in different climate regions. The Mann–Kendall (MK) test is used to detect the trends in drought features in different climate regions. The percentage area (PA) of increasing/decreasing trend in drought features is computed to assess the spatial variations of trends in each region. Besides, SPI is compared with Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) to understand the importance of evapotranspiration on meteorological droughts. The high correlations between SPI and SPEI indicate that the results obtained using SPI would not vary if a similar analysis is conducted using SPEI. The results obtained using SPI reveal that short‐duration droughts (6 months or less) are more frequent and severe in the northwest and the north along the Caspian plains while the longer‐duration droughts (more than 6 months) are more frequent and severe in the south, southeast and southwest. Overall, the northwest region of Iran is found most susceptible to droughts in terms of S, P and D. Moderate (40% < PA < 60%) or significant (PA > 60%) increase in the drought features are observed in all climate regions for shorter SPI (3 months or less) except northwest, while no drought feature is found to increase significantly for SPI‐12. Overall, the higher increase in drought S, P and D are found in the central arid region and at higher altitudes.

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Changes in the frequency and severity of hydrological droughts over Ethiopia from 1960 to 2013

Abstract: ABSTRACT. Here we present an analysis of drought occurrence and variability in Ethiopia, based on the monthly precipitation data from the Climate Research Unit

Cited by 39 publications

References 65 publications

Meteorological drought assessment in north east highlands of Ethiopia

Meteorological drought assessment in north east highlands of Ethiopia

Modeling discharge and sediment concentrations after landscape interventions in a humid monsoon climate: The Anjeni watershed in the highlands of Ethiopia

Spatial assessment of meteorological drought features over different climate regions in Iran

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