Drought planning and management: experience in the Seyhan River Basin, Turkey

Water Policy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (S2) ◽  
pp. 177-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Kaan Tuncok

The focus of this study was to integrate drought planning and management into local and regional decision-making processes in the Seyhan River Basin, which is the second-largest basin after the Nile in the Eastern Mediterranean and agriculturally one of the most productive regions in Turkey and Europe. The methodological approach consisted of two steps: Step 1 – review and analyse historical data sets to evaluate and characterize water resources and drought-driven elements; Step 2 – evaluate drought indices to characterize drought conditions through use of the Standardized Precipitation Index and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index. Historical and future expected drought periods were identified in the context of hydrologic, meteorologic and agricultural drought conditions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 901-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsin-Fu Yeh

Abstract Numerous drought index assessment methods have been developed to investigate droughts. This study proposes a more comprehensive assessment method integrating two drought indices. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) are employed to establish an integrated drought assessment method to study the trends and characteristics of droughts in southern Taiwan. The overall SPI and SDI values and the spatial and temporal distributions of droughts within a given year (November to October) revealed consistent general trends. Major droughts occurred in the periods of 1979–1980, 1992–1993, 1994–1995, and 2001–2003. According to the results of the Mann–Kendall trend test and the Theil–Sen estimator analysis, the streamflow data from the Sandimen gauging station in the Ailiao River Basin showed a 30% decrease, suggesting increasing aridity between 1964 and 2003. Hence, in terms of water resources management, special attention should be given to the Ailiao River Basin. The integrated analysis showed different types of droughts occurring in different seasons, and the results are in good agreement with the climatic characteristics of southern Taiwan. This study suggests that droughts cannot be explained fully by the application of a single drought index. Integrated analysis using multiple indices is required.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (S1) ◽  
pp. 115-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Jincy Rose ◽  
N. R. Chithra

Abstract Temperature is an indispensable parameter of climate that triggers evapotranspiration and has vital importance in aggravating drought severity. This paper analyses the existence and persistence of drought conditions which are said to prevail in a tropical river basin which was once perennial. Past observed data and future climate projections of precipitation and temperature were used for this purpose. The assessment and projection of this study employ the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) compared with that of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The results indicate the existence of drought in the past and the drought conditions that may persist in the future according to RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. The past drought years identified in the study were compared with the drought declared years in the state and were found to be matching. The evaluation of the future scenarios unveils the occurrence of drought in the basin ranging from mild to extreme conditions. It has been noted that the number of moderate and severe drought months has increased based on SPEI compared to SPI, indicating the importance of temperature in drought studies. The study can be considered as a plausible scientific remark helpful in risk management and application decisions.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2592 ◽  
Author(s):  
María del Pilar Jiménez-Donaire ◽  
Juan Vicente Giráldez ◽  
Tom Vanwalleghem

The early and accurate detection of drought episodes is crucial for managing agricultural yield losses and planning adequate policy responses. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of two novel indices, static and dynamic plant water stress, for drought detection and yield prediction. The study was conducted in SW Spain (Córdoba province), covering a 13-year period (2001–2014). The calculation of static and dynamic drought indices was derived from previous ecohydrological work but using a probabilistic simulation of soil moisture content, based on a bucket-type soil water balance, and measured climate data. The results show that both indices satisfactorily detected drought periods occurring in 2005, 2006 and 2012. Both their frequency and length correlated well with annual precipitation, declining exponentially and increasing linearly, respectively. Static and dynamic drought stresses were shown to be highly sensitive to soil depth and annual precipitation, with a complex response, as stress can either increase or decrease as a function of soil depth, depending on the annual precipitation. Finally, the results show that both static and dynamic drought stresses outperform traditional indicators such as the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI)-3 as predictors of crop yield, and the R2 values are around 0.70, compared to 0.40 for the latter. The results from this study highlight the potential of these new indicators for agricultural drought monitoring and management (e.g., as early warning systems, insurance schemes or water management tools).


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 2157-2175
Author(s):  
Shanshui Yuan ◽  
Steven M. Quiring ◽  
Chen Zhao

AbstractThere are a variety of metrics that are used to monitor drought conditions, including soil moisture and drought indices. This study examines the relationship between in situ soil moisture, NLDAS-2 soil moisture, and four drought indices: the standardized precipitation index, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index, the crop moisture index, and the Palmer Z index. We evaluate how well drought indices and the modeled soil moisture represent the intensity, variability, and persistence of the observed soil moisture in the southern Great Plains. We also apply the drought indices to evaluate land–atmosphere interactions and compare the results with soil moisture. The results show that the SPI, SPEI, and Z index have higher correlations with 0–10-cm soil moisture, while the CMI is more strongly correlated with 0–100-cm soil moisture. All the drought indices tend to overestimate the area affected by moderate to extreme drought conditions. Significant drying trends from 2003 to 2017 are evident in SPEI, Z index, and CMI, and they agree with those in the observed soil moisture. The CMI captures the intra- and interannual variability of 0–100-cm soil moisture better than the other drought indices. The persistence of CMI is longer than that of 0–10-cm soil moisture and shorter than that of 0–100-cm soil moisture. Model-derived soil moisture does not outperform the CMI in the 0–100-cm soil layer. The Z index and CMI are better drought indices to use as a proxy for soil moisture when examining land–atmosphere interactions while the SPI is not recommended. Soil type and climate affect the relationship between drought indices and observed soil moisture.


Author(s):  
M. M. Salvia ◽  
N. Sánchez ◽  
M. Piles ◽  
A. Gonzalez-Zamora ◽  
J. Martínez-Fernández

Abstract. Agricultural drought is one of the most critical hazards with regard to intensity, severity, frequency, spatial extension and impact on livelihoods. This is especially true for Argentina, where agricultural exports can represent up to 10% of gross domestic product (GDP), and where drought events for 2018 led to a decrease of nearly 0.5% of GDP. In this work, we investigate the applicability of the Soil Moisture Agricultural Drought Index (SMADI) for detection of droughts in Argentina, and compare its performance with the use of two well-known precipitation-based indices: the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation- Evaporation Index (SPEI). SMADI includes satellite-based information of soil moisture, surface temperature and vegetation greenness, and was designed to capture the hydric stress on the soil-vegetation ensemble. Results indicate that SMADI has greater capabilities for agricultural drought detection than SPI and SPEI: it was able to recognize more than 83% of the registered emergencies, correctly classifying 75% of them as extreme droughts, and outperforming SPI and SPEI in all the analyzed metrics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 5187-5217 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kamali ◽  
K. C. Abbaspour ◽  
A. Lehmann ◽  
B. Wehrli ◽  
H. Yang

Abstract. This study aims at identifying historical patterns of meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural (inclusively biophysical) droughts in the Karkheh River Basin (KRB), one of the nine benchmark watersheds of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food. Standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized runoff index (SRI), and soil moisture deficit index (SMDI) were used to represent the above three types of droughts, respectively. The three drought indices were compared across temporal and spatial dimensions. Variables required for calculating the indices were obtained from the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) constructed for the region. The model was calibrated based on monthly runoff and yearly wheat yield using the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm. Five meteorological drought events were identified in the studied period (1980–2004), of which four corresponded with the hydrological droughts with 1–3 month lag. The meteorological droughts corresponded well with the agricultural droughts during dry months (May–August), while the latter lasted for a longer period of time. Analysis of drought patterns showed that southern parts of the catchment were more prone to agricultural drought, while less influenced by hydrological drought. Our analyses highlighted the necessity for monitoring all three aspects of drought for a more effective watershed management. The analysis on different types of droughts in this study provides a framework for assessing their possible impacts under future climate change in semi-arid areas.


Author(s):  
Laima TAPARAUSKIENĖ ◽  
Veronika LUKŠEVIČIŪTĖ

This study provides the analysis of drought conditions of vegetation period in 1982-2014 year in two Lithuanian regions: Kaunas and Telšiai. To identify drought conditions the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was applied. SPI was calculated using the long-term precipitation record of 1982–2014 with in-situ meteorological data. Calculation step of SPI was taken 1 month considering only vegetation period (May, June, July, August, September). The purpose of investigation was to evaluate the humidity/aridity of vegetation period and find out the probability of droughts occurrence under Lithuanian climatic conditions. It was found out that according SPI results droughts occurred in 14.5 % of all months in Kaunas region and in 15.8 % in Telšiai region. Wet periods in Kaunas region occurred in 15.8 %, and in Telšiai region occurrence of wet periods was – 18.8 % from all evaluated months. According SPI evaluation near normal were 69.7 % of total months during period of investigation in Kaunas and respectively – 65.5 % in Telšiai. The probability for extremely dry period under Lithuania climatic conditions are pretty low – 3.0 % in middle Lithuania and 2.4 % in western part of Lithuania.


Author(s):  
Joaquin Andreu ◽  
Javier Ferrer-Polo ◽  
M. Angel Pérez ◽  
Abel Solera ◽  
Javier Paredes-Arquiola

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Vicente-Serrano ◽  
J. I. López-Moreno

Abstract. At present, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is the most widely used drought index to provide good estimations about the intensity, magnitude and spatial extent of droughts. The main advantage of the SPI in comparison with other indices is the fact that the SPI enables both determination of drought conditions at different time scales and monitoring of different drought types. It is widely accepted that SPI time scales affect different sub-systems in the hydrological cycle due to the fact that the response of the different water usable sources to precipitation shortages can be very different. The long time scales of SPI are related to hydrological droughts (river flows and reservoir storages). Nevertheless, few analyses empirically verify these statements or the usefulness of the SPI time scales to monitor drought. In this paper, the SPI at different time scales is compared with surface hydrological variables in a big closed basin located in the central Spanish Pyrenees. We provide evidence about the way in which the longer (>12 months) SPI time scales may not be useful for drought quantification in this area. In general, the surface flows respond to short SPI time scales whereas the reservoir storages respond to longer time scales (7–10 months). Nevertheless, important seasonal differences can be identified in the SPI-usable water sources relationships. This suggests that it is necessary to test the drought indices and time scales in relation to their usefulness for monitoring different drought types under different environmental conditions and water demand situations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Peña-Gallardo ◽  
S. R. Gámiz-Fortís ◽  
Y. Castro-Diez ◽  
M. J. Esteban-Parra

The aim of this paper is the analysis of the detection and evolution of droughts occurred in Andalusia for the period 1901-2012, by applying three different drought indices: the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Drought-Precipitation Index (IESP), computed for three time windows from the initial period 1901-2012. This analysis has been carried out after a preliminary study of precipitation trends with the intention of understanding the precipitation behaviour, because this climatic variable is one of the most important in the study of extreme events. The specific objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate and characterize the meteorological drought events, mainly the most important episodes in Andalusia; (2) to provide a global evaluation of the capacities of the three different considered indices in order to characterize the drought in a heterogeneous climatically territory; and (3) to describe the temporal behaviour of precipitation and drought indices series in order to establish the general characteristics of their evolution in Andalusia. The results have shown that not all the indices respond similarly identifying the intensity and duration of dry periods in this kind of region where geographical and climatic variability is one of the main elements to be considered.


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