Meteorological and hydrological drought monitoring using several drought indices

Abstract

With respect to the necessity of comprehensive studies on drought and also high damages that caused by drought, this research studied the meteorological and hydrological droughts. In this study, Lighvan, Navroud and Seqez basins with different climates were selected. We used monthly data of stream flow, precipitation and evaporation from 1992 to 2016 for the study of drought phenomena. The aim at this study is to analyze the SPI and SPEI for determination of dry and wet meteorological periods and use of the SSI for the exploration of hydrological drought. The analysis of drought characteristics such as intensity and duration in three areas with different climates shows that the climate change has a major impact on the characteristics of the droughts. The relations between the duration and severity of drought have been more accurate in the period of 9 months in the Navroud watershed basin. The most significant events are SPI-9 with the duration of 57 months and the severity of 34.7, SPEI-9 with the duration of 34 months and the severity of 28.09 and SSI-9 with the duration of 41 months and the severity of 30.2. According to the obtained equations in different time periods, it was resulted that the highest accuracy was observed in the relationship between the meteorological and hydrological drought characteristics in the watershed basin of Seqez for a period of 6 months. The results show that in all three basins, the correlation between the meteorological and hydrological drought is significant at the level of 99%. Results show that hydrological and meteorological droughts in Navroud and Lighvan basins have a significant correlation with 48-month periods and in the Seqez basin with 12- and 24-month periods, and the relations between hydrological droughts and meteorological droughts were obtained using the nonlinear linear models (polynomial, exponential and logarithmic). The good R2 between the duration and severity of SPI-9 and SSI-9 is 0.8 and 0.92, respectively, for polynomial equations. The maximum determination coefficient of duration and severity of SPEI-9 and SSI-9 is 0.72 and 0.82, respectively, using polynomial equation. The application of several indices indicating different components of the hydrological cycle integrates many factors that affect and trigger droughts, and thus can help in providing a wider realization of the characteristics of droughts on various water sections.

Identification of Extreme Weather Events Using Meteorological and Hydrological Indicators in the Laborec River Catchment, Slovakia

“…Strong correlations between meteorological and hydrological droughts were confirmed in short accumulation periods of 1-2 months by Vicente-Serrano and López-Moreno [51] for small rivers in the Mediterranean region, as well as selected regions of China [52]. In the catchments of rivers located in semi-arid and arid zones, the highest correlations between droughts were obtained with a delay of 3-4 months [53]. The greatest correlation strength was most common in small mountain catchments.…”

Simulation of the impact of climate change on runoff and drought in an arid and semiarid basin (the Hablehroud, Iran)

“…Babaeian et al (2021) introduced a combination of adaptation pathway (AP) approaches that were used in conjunction with the SWAT model to evaluate the resilience of adaptation measures and design robust adaptation pathways taking into account the future climate uncertainty in the Hablehroud River Basin. Salimi et al (2021) studied about effects of CC on hydrological and meteorological droughts. They used Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), SPEI and Standard Stream flow Index (SSI) in the Navrood and Lighvan watersheds in north of Iran and observed high correlation between hydrological and meteorological droughts.…”

A review of drought indices: predominance of drivers over impacts and the importance of local context

“…In that sense, the occurrence of a drought is only statistically-based and not reflecting a true water deficit for the demand, only a below average situation (which is, however, in line with formal definitions of drought). In arid and semi-arid climates with lower levels of precipitation, it is recommended to use SPI cautiously because it can fail to indicate drought occurrence (Wu et al, 2007) and opt instead for indices that include evapotranspiration like the SPEI (Salimi et al, 2021). In such areas where evapotranspiration plays a larger role with regard to evaporative demand, water shortage is more common.…”